Present: Rob Cameron, Ashley Deacon, Richard Dubois, Imre Kabai, Randy Melen, Brian Moritz, Len Moss, Amedeo Perazzo, Stuart Marshall, David MacFarlane, Marc Messerschmidt, Leonard Moss, Vineet Rawat, Norm Ringgold.
Via teleconference: Amber Boehnlein.
Minutes:
- Introduction to/from David MacFarlane
- Discussion of SCSC's role, its connection to the Executive Council
- Rob gave update on IT SubCouncil
- Revamped SLACspace home with improved organization
- Two (of four) meetings remain for cataloging IT services
- Better online documentation required (turning spreadsheet into documentation)
- Upcoming hardware acquisitions:
- PPA:
- Richard on Fermi:
- $800K of hardware (all storage, no compute)
- Lots of tape (1500 at least)
- Richard on BaBar:
- 24 more nodes (on top of existing 4)
- Len correctly said it is be 60 by end of fiscal year
- Richard on ATLAS:
- $400K, mostly storage, maybe 30 compute nodes
- Stuart on KIPAC:
- In need of storage
- Pending Lance's investigation
- 2-3 trays, 10-20U
- 10U of compute to go into Orange(?) cluster
- Richard on EXO and CDMS:
- small purchases, ~30TB each
- Richard on Fermi:
- Amedeo on LCLS:
- Looking for JBOD with SAS, a few different vendors being considered
- SSN, SanMina, AMAX
- No new compute nodes, upgrades to processors instead, compute nodes underused
- Brian on Photon Science:
- Depends on grants
- Tom: $100-$150K, about a rack
- Colfax solution, Kerry getting Dell pricing
- Jenz may want SunCap expansion of a rack
- Norm indicates the troubles of planning with respect to grant cycles
- Ashley on SSRL:
- None
- Vineet on AD:
- Yunhai Cai's cluster
- Len thinks Les Cotrell may want to add to that cluster (some code being tested on SUNCAT?)
- PPA:
- Richard on recharge
- Agreement with ALDs was for everything, power, racks, etc. but some things aren't budgeted for
- e.g., Fermi wants 10Gbps, 1Gbps is standard, how to charge them more?
- Small clusters
- 4-node cluster in SSRL, $20K/year cluster charge plus per-node charge seems excessive
- Crossover point?
- Len: need to create incentive to contribute to large clusters
- Norm's thoughts:
- Dispel the rumors about capacity
- removal of silos should give 1700-1800 additional sq. ft.
- 1 MW residual power
- Sufficient chilled water (without getting 10" pipes)
- Need to plan for delivery and distribution
- Needs lead time
- Without sufficient lead time, it might seem like a capacity issue to whoever's making the request
- Need Boris + 1 more, but getting only 50% of Boris (other 50% to building 50)
- Dispel the rumors about capacity
- Discussion between Richard, Norm, Stuart, David about how to encourage good behavior (e.g., keeping storage sufficiently dense)
- Economic incentives? Charge for low-density, as in the 10Gbps case?
- David: Sandy agreed to pay considerable amount, situation is not sustainable. Need to prepare for unforseen costs.
- Agreement with ALDs was for everything, power, racks, etc. but some things aren't budgeted for
- Richard on ALD retreat
- 1.5h session on sci. comp.
- Discussion of different "end-to-end" sci. comp. models in the various directorates
- Slide seems to fit HEP model
- Can Brian replicate the slide for simulation group
- David: any assistance for proposal writing (SciDAC, etc.)? Campus advertises such help
- Richard to check with Amber
- Discussion of two governance models:
- collaborative
- agreement that this is more appropriate for sci. comp.
- Richard needs to articulate convincing defense
- Imre: perhaps show how the SubCouncil approach would break down
- reporting to one
- collaborative
- Seminar series in need of name so that advertising can begin (posters to be printed)
Actions:
- Richard to clean up slides for ALD retreat
- Brian to provide simulation group's workflow for ALD retreat slide
- Imre to discuss ALD retreat slides further with Richard
- SCSC members to come up with potential seminar series names