HPCC Best Practices Exchange Report to CSAB April 13-14, 2010

1. HPCC Best Practices ExchangeReport to CSABApril 13-14, 2010 Allan DarlingDeputy Director, NCEP Central Operations NOAA NWS NCEPAllan.Darling@noaa.gov

2. HPCC Best Practices Exchange - Action Item Action Item 2010-1.3: Coordinate at least one face-to-face meeting between OPC high performance computing and communications (HPCC) system experts and senior staff to exchange best practices, tools, and processes related to HPCC management, software engineering, and software (model) implementation. COPC provided additional guidance in the 2010 Fall meeting: coordinate a meeting with system experts and senior staff from ALL OPCs. HPCC Best Practice Meeting - Brief to CSAB

3. HPCC Best Practices Exchange - Planning AFWA, NESDIS and NCEP expressed interest in participating in a March 14-15 meeting hosted by FNMOC Participants identified briefings they could provide and topics of interest Participants ranked offered briefings to develop the meeting agenda Best Practices briefings included the following: Intended capability –desired outcome of the practice How practice is accomplished – technical and/or process details Metrics – measuring the effectiveness of the practice Key aspects that set this apart from other implementations of the practice Lessons learned in developing the practice Sustaining and evolving the practice HPCC Best Practice Meeting - Brief to CSAB

4. HPCC Best Practices Exchange - Briefings Plan to Utilize Remote HPC Assets Operationally (Mark Swenson / Bob Burke, FNMOC) Migration from IBM AIX to Linux, Lessons Learned (Daniel Sedlacek, AFWA) NESDIS experience with Scheduling Software [Legacy and COTS Enterprise] (Joseph Mani, NESDIS) Linux HPC Strategy (Dave Huff, FNMOC) Planned Operational Use of VMWare (Kevin Whittier / Sky Paxton, FNMOC) HPC Capacity Management (Allan Darling, NCEP) On-Time Product Delivery (Allan Darling, NCEP) Dual System Management and Failover (Allan Darling, NCEP) HPCC Best Practice Meeting - Brief to CSAB

5. HPCC Best Practices Exchange – Findings Data center management practices FNMOC, AFWA, NESDIS own and manage data centers NCEP leases and manages one data center, contracts one data center System management practices FNMOC designs & manages system directly AFWA, NCEP have contractor designed & managed systems Efforts underway at multiple centers Transition to Linux (AFWA, FNMOC) Scheduler selection (NESDIS, NCEP) Utilization of remote HPC (FNMOC, NCEP) Unique efforts Use of virtual machines in HPC (FNMOC) HPCC Best Practice Meeting - Brief to CSAB

6. HPCC Best Practices Exchange – Recommendations Recommend Action Item 2010-1.3 for closure Consider future best practices exchanges annually or bi-annually All attendees endorsed the idea of future best practices exchange meetings Attendees recommended consideration of inviting other HPC practitioners: UCAR, NASA, DSRC Presentations available at http://www.ofcm.gov/hpcc/meetings.htm HPCC Best Practice Meeting - Brief to CSAB