Cyberinfrastructure UAB and beyond

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Cyberinfrastructure _at_UAB and beyond

• Office of Vice President for Information
  Technology

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NSF Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Visionhttp//www.nsf
.gov/od/oci/CI_Vision_March07.pdf

• Supports broad and open access to leadership
  computing data and information resources online
  instruments and observatories and visualization
  and collaboration services.
• Enables distributed knowledge communities that
  collaborate and communicate across disciplines,
  distance and cultures.
• Research and education communities become virtual
  organizations that transcend geographic and
  institutional boundaries.

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CI Complimentary Areashttp//www.nsf.gov/od/oci/C
I_Vision_March07.pdf

• HPC in support of modeling, simulations, and
  extraction of knowledge from huge data
  collections. NSF will invest in 0.5-10 petascale
  perform ranges where petascale is 1015 operations
  per second with comparable storage and networking
  capacity.
• Data, Data Analysis, and Visualization
• Virtual Organizations for Distributed Communities
• Learning and Workforce Development covering K-12,
  post-secondary, the workforce, and general public.

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UAB CyberInfrastructure

• UAB HPC Resources
• The Shared HPC Facility is located in BEC155 has
  4 clusters
• Computer Science HPC Facility has 2 clusters
• UAB overall HPC computing power has been tripling
  approximately on a 2 year cycle during the past 4
  years.
• Optical Networks campus regional
• UABgrid a campus computing and collaboration
  environment

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UAB HPC Resources

• IBM BlueGene/L System
• IBMs BlueGene/L is a uniquely designed massively
  parallel supercomputer. A single BlueGene/L rack
  contains 1024 nodes, each node having two
  processors and 512MB of main memory. The 2048
  processors in one BlueGene/L rack are tightly
  integrated in one form factor using five
  proprietary high-speed interconnection networks.
  This system has a theoretical 5.6-Teraflop
  computing capacity.
• DELL Xeon 64-bit Linux Cluster Coosa
• This cluster consists of 128 nodes of DELL PE1425
  computer with dual Xeon 3.6GHz processors with
  either 2GB or 6GB of memory per node. It uses
  Gigabit Ethernet inter-node network connection.
  There are 4 Terabytes of disk storage available
  to this cluster. This cluster is rated at more
  than 1.0 Teraflops computing capacity.
• DELL Xeon 64-bit Linux Cluster w/ Infiniband
  Olympus
• 2- Verari Opteron 64-bit Linux Clusters
  Cheaha Everest
• This cluster is a 64-node computing cluster
  consists of dual AMD Opteron 242 processors, with
  2GB of memory each node. Each node is
  interconnected with a Gigabit Ethernet network.
• IBM Xeon 32-bit Linux Cluster Cahaba
• This cluster is a 64-node computing cluster
  consists of IBM x335 Series computer with dual
  Xeon 2.4GHz processors, 2 or 4GB of memory each
  node) and a 1-Terabyte storage unit. Each node
  is interconnected with a Gigabit Ethernet network

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BlueGene Cluster
DELL Xeon 64-bit Linux Clusters Coosa
Cahaba
Verari Opteron 64-bit Linux Clusters Cheaha
Everest
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Computer Science DELL Xeon 64-bit Linux Cluster
w/ Infiniband Olympus
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UAB 10GigE Research Network

• Build high bandwidth network linking UAB compute
  clusters
• Leverage network for staging and managing
  Grid-based compute jobs
• Connect directly to High-bandwidth regional
  networks

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UABgrid

• Common interface for access to HPC infrastructure
• Leverage UAB identity management system for
  consistent identity across resources
• Provide access to regional, national, and
  international collaborators using Shibboleth
  identity framework
• Support research collaboration through autonomous
  virtual organizations
• Collaboration between computer science,
  engineering, and IT

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UABgrid Architecture

• Leverages IdM investments via InCommon
• Provides collaboration environment for autonomous
  virtual organizations
• Supports integration of local, shared, and
  regional resources

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Our Vision forAlabama Cyberinfrastructure

• 10 Giga-bit Ethernet optical network links major
  research areas in state
• High performance computational resources
  distributed across state
• Campus grids like UABgrid provide uniform access
  to computational resources
• Regional grids like SURAgrid provide access to
  aggregate computational power and unique
  computational resources
• Cyberinfrastructure enables new research
  paradigms throughout state

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Alabama Regional Optical Network (RON)

• Alabama RON is a very high bandwidth lambda
  network. Operated by SLR.
• Connects major research institutions across state
• Connects Alabama to National Lambda Rail and
  Internet2 projected for 2007
• In collaboration with UA System, UA, and UAH

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National LambdaRail (NLR)

• Consortium of research universities and leading
  edge technology companies
• Deploying national infrastructure for
• advanced network research
• next-generation, network-based applications
• Supporting multiple, independent high speed links
  to research universities and centers

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National LambdaRail Infrastructure
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SURAgrid

• Provides access to aggregate compute power across
  region

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SURAgrid HPC Resources
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Alabama Grid?

• Leverage Alabama's existing investments in
  Cyberinfrastructure
• Need for dynamic access to a regional
  infrastructure increasing
• Need to build a common trust infrastructure
• Benefit from shared and trusted identity
  management
• Enable development of advanced workflows specific
  to regional research expertise

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Future Directions

• Begin pilot of a State grid linking UAB, ASA, and
  UAH resources?

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Atlanta means Southern Light Rail take out

• Georgia Techs non-profit cooperative corporation
• Provides access to NLR for 1/5 the cost of an NLR
  membership
• Provides access to other network initiatives
• Commodity Internet
• Internet2
• NSFs ETF Atlanta Hub
• Georgia Techs International Connectivity
• Leverage Georgia Tech expertise and resources

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Where does UAS Connect?
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Mission Statement of HPC Services

• HPC Services is the division within the
  Infrastructure Services organization with a focus
  on HPC support for research and other
  HPC activities.
• HPC Services represents the Office of
  Vice-President of Information Technology to
  IT-related academic campus committees, regional /
  national technology research organizations and/or
  committees as requested.

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HPC Project Five Year Plan

• Scope Establish a UAB HPC data center, whose
  operations will be managed by IT Infrastructure
  and which will include additional machine room
  space designed for HPC and equipped with a new
  cluster.
• The UAB HPC Data Center and HPC resource will be
  used by researchers throughout UAB, the UA
  System, and other State of Alabama Universities
  and research entities in conjunction with the
  Alabama Supercomputer Authority.
• Oversight of the UAB HPC resources will be
  provided by a committee made up of UAB Deans,
  Department Heads, Faculty, and the VPIT.
• Daily administration of this shared resource will
  be provided by Infrastructure Services.

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Preliminary Timeline

• FY2007 Rename Academic Computing, HPCS, and
  merge HPCS with Network and Infrastructure, to
  leverage the HPC related talents, and resources
  of both organizations.
• FY2007 Connect existing HPC Clusters to each
  other and 10Gig backbone. .
• FY2007 Establish Pilot Grid Identity Management
  System GridShib (HPCS, Network/Services)
• FY2007 Enable Grid Meta Scheduling (HPCS, CIS,
  ETL)
• FY2007 Establish Grid connectivity with SURA,
  UAS, and, ASA.
• FY2008 Increase support staff as needed by
  reassigning legacy Mainframe technical resources
• FY2008 Develop requirements for expansion or
  replacement of older HPCs. xxxxTeraFlops.
• FY2008 Using HPC requirements1 (xxxx
  TeraFlops) for Data Center Design, begin design
  of
• HPC Data Center.
• FY2009 Secure Funding for new HPC Cluster
  xxxxTera Flops
• FY2010 Complete HPC Data Center Infrastructure.
• FY2010 Secure final funding for expansion or
  replacement of older HPCs.
• FY2011 Procure and deploy new HPC cluster.
  xxxxTeraFlops.