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Sun Ray Deployment in a Scientific Computing Environment

Sun Ray Deployment in a Scientific Computing Environment. Ronald L. Crotzer NLIT 2009 Monday June 2, 2009. LA-UR - 09-03381. Background. X-Division Environment About 400 users Scientist Managers Support staff Students. Unclassified “Yellow”

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Sun Ray Deployment in a Scientific Computing Environment

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  1. Sun Ray Deployment in a Scientific Computing Environment Ronald L. Crotzer NLIT 2009 Monday June 2, 2009 LA-UR -09-03381

  2. Background • X-Division Environment • About 400 users • Scientist • Managers • Support staff • Students

  3. Unclassified “Yellow” Connection to the Laboratories’ business and scientific computing resources Fire walled connection to the rest of the world Secure “Red” User’s connection to the rest of the Laboratories classified computing resources. User’s connection to the rest of Secure computing world Background Continued

  4. Background Continued • The User’s Office • Between two and four desktop computers • Open Network: standard desktops and laptops • Secure Network: diskless (Sun, Linux, Mac, Win)

  5. Background Continued • XCS Team • Contracted server and desktop support from DCS-2 • Team leader • Mac Team (4) • UNIX Team (5) • Windows Team (5) • Student (1)

  6. Sun Ray 2FS Advantages • Security • Network: fully encrypted connection to server • Stateless local unit: hard to attack • Limited I/O ports

  7. Sun Ray 2FS Continued Advantages • Redundancy built in with the notion of a FoG (Failover Group) • A Failover Group is a pool of Sun Fire X2200 servers configured to run the same OS • Red Hat Enterprise 4 • Solaris 10

  8. Sun Ray 2FS Continued Advantages One-to-Many relationship between servers and desktop units Disadvantages One-to-Many relationship between servers and desktop units

  9. Sun Ray 2FS Continued Advantages • Desktop Units • Low cost (~$450), low power draw (5-15 W), small footprint • One DTU model serves basic, intermediate, and advanced users

  10. Sun Ray 2FS Continued Disadvantages • Costs • Start up cost for the complete environment is not cheap • Yet another system to learn and support • Peripherals

  11. National Security Science Building NSSB Exclusion Area Security plan requires that systems be shut down at the end of the day Strategic Computing Complex SCC Vault Type Rooms Security plan allows computers to be left on and running A Tale of Two Buildings

  12. NSSB Users were quick to adopt the new Sun Ray systems on the secure network because of a new found level of productivity. The Sun Ray unit can be turned off and the user’s session is still active on the server. A Tale of Two BuildingsContinued

  13. A Tale of Two BuildingsContinued SCC Users were slow to adopt the new Sun Ray systems on the secure network because they did not have the after hours restrictions.

  14. Summer Students • 40+ Students are hosted over the summer each year • Most students, ~25, are located in the same room • Arriving May-June, Leaving August-September • Set up with OS-X, Red Hat, and Windows boxes

  15. Summer StudentsContinued • The way it was • Mentor would say, “I have this old machine. Could you build it for my student?” • Wasted effort for a system that is going to be salvaged at the end of the summer • Build process was about ½ day per system • Property items would get moved around, and the tracking system would not get updated • Room was hot because of CPUs and people

  16. Summer StudentsContinued • The way it is now • Entire room was configured with 25 Sun Rays in about 6 man-hours • Sun Rays do not have property numbers, so they are not inventoried • Heat load in the room was significantly reduced • IP addressing is no longer an issue

  17. Graphics Capabilities • The Sun Ray DTU is capable of driving two monitors with a native 1920X1200 resolution without sacrificing too much in performance. Streaming video is quite satisfactory for the average user • Plenty of real-estate for the average manager, support staff, or student

  18. Complications Citrix video and audio streaming are fine for the standard user; however, the business of our customer is high end graphics Graphics CapabilitiesContinued

  19. Graphics CapabilitiesContinued We have a solution for 30” monitors (2560X1600). However, implementation in our current environment requires an upgrade to the Sun Ray Server Software (SRSS). When upgraded, our users will be able to drive two 30” monitors within the same session.

  20. Graphics CapabilitiesContinued • Graphical throughput for the high end users is handled through Sun visualization servers • Visualization servers allow users to render large 3D and OpenGL graphics with very good performance to the Sun Ray • Performance is “almost” comparable to our current disk-less systems

  21. Secure Network Benefits Only encrypted gibberish on the wire . Secure “Red” connections are contained within a VTR (This is a goal and not quite reality yet). Complications Highly specialized network knowledge is needed to configure the networks properly. Three separate network interfaces, switch connections, and network configurations are needed for each server Networking

  22. Unclassified network The Sun Ray network is fully routable and can be delivered throughout the laboratory on the secure network. The unclassified network can be delivered anywhere with a 512Kbs or better connection. Networking Continued

  23. Computing Power • Our environment is using modestly configured Sun Fire X2200 servers with two duel core processors and 16-32 Gb of RAM. Memory can be expanded if needed. • Hardware scaling: Sun has recommended a 20-to-1 client to server ratio We are currently running about 8-to 1 • Servers are not intended to be computing power houses. However, CPU usage hovers around 5% to 10% throughout the day.

  24. Benefits This configuration allows the users to do some local computing without causing the other users on the server to suffer When needed, more memory can be added When needed, more servers can be added to the Failover group Complications Occasional user with run away processes Some commonly used quality of life Apps do use excessive CPU cycles (streaming audio) User has little control over the server and when it will need rebooting Citrix servers are rebooted twice weekly for maintenance reasons Computing PowerContinued

  25. Security Advantages • Network connection is a fully encrypted connection to server • No local data • Peripherals can be restricted to human interface devices only • Stateless local unit is hard to compromise

  26. Citrix Configured to be used in a full screen (Kiosk) mode, or as an application on demand for individual programs in the UNIX environments

  27. CitrixContinued • Complications • More complexity in the environment • Peripherals • Printing • One off applications • Benefits • Allows users to run Windows programs on a variety of operating systems • Application patching on just a few systems • Everyone is using the same applications

  28. Thanks • XCS Team • Ahmad R. Douglas • Tadeusz P. Raven

  29. Q&A Questions? crotzer@lanl.gov

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