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Moving to the Cloud

Moving to the Cloud. Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing Boole Centre for Research in Informatics. About the BCRI/CUC. 4 (small) clusters All open source & open to all in the research community Data management E-INIS datastore Research datastores H osting. Data Centre.

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Moving to the Cloud

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  1. Moving to the Cloud Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing Boole Centre for Research in Informatics Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  2. About the BCRI/CUC • 4 (small) clusters • All open source & open to all in the research community • Data management • E-INIS datastore • Research datastores • Hosting Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  3. Data Centre • Housed in Western Gateway building • State of the art • Uses chilled water from wells to cool servers • Heat exchange to WGB • Spare capacity • High speed links to UCC lan and HEAnet Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  4. Compute users • Researchers doing parallel programming (MPI) • High memory (SMP) • ‘long run’ computing (Mathematica) • Data storage (medical, long term, highly sensitive) • Grid users • Not HPC! Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  5. Compute users • Conference/paper based. High activity followed by periods of relative inactivity • Before deadlines major pressure on system • When conferences have the same deadlines … • Not always highly technical • Not always good at sharing resources Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  6. Datastore users • Non technical • ‘Z drive’ please – dropbox style • Don’t care how it works • Some data is highly sensitive • Long term storage, up to 15 years! • Data from instrumentation • Generally, low processing required Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  7. Hosting • Hosting servers for researchers • Take away need to retrofit cooling/networking across campus • Manage the servers properly • Reduce time to functionality • Keep servers live across projects • Keep researchers researching Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  8. Goals • Provide the best service to the UCC Research Community • Energy efficiency – Green Campus • Provide the best ROI to the University • Engage with the SME community • To be more dynamic to handle research needs Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  9. Why choose the cloud? • Good energy efficiency – consolidate automatically to few physical machines • Space and power efficiency • Industry standard (or soon will be) • Great fit for research usage patterns • Provides a highly dynamic platform • Perfect fit for hosting Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  10. Why choose the cloud? • Unified management interface • OS agnostic • Rapid deployment of images • Data or compute • Compatible with existing systems (MPI, OpenMP, monitoring etc.) Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  11. Why not a public cloud? • Security – can’t allow the data outside UCC, outside Ireland, outside EU • Ease of use concerns • Non technical users, is ssh the best interface? • How to offer support? • Networking implications Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  12. Steps to move to a private cloud • Identify users • Identify usage profiles (profile all servers) • Predict future needs • Engage with vendors early in process • Talk to peers • Plan the cloud – what services will be provided Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  13. Steps to move to a private cloud • Plan networking and storage • Procurement • Feedback through procurement • Final purchase • Implementation, continued support from vendors Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  14. But which cloud software? • Open Source? E.g. Open Stack • VMWare • Other commercial Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  15. Points to note at this stage • More data storage requirements • Is the 1GB interconnect enough? • Data throughput? • Users already looking for cloud • Software licensing • You need a lot of networking Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  16. Our private cloud Hardware: • 700 general purpose compute cores • 2 high memory nodes (48c, 512GB) • 26TB storage (iSCSI, vm and project storage) • Networking (layer 2 and 3) • VMware software • 50TB of additional storage Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  17. More on our Cloud • Dedicated management nodes • Dedicated persistent storage nodes • Scope for research nodes • Layer 3 networking allows us to operate safely in the production UCC lan • Have library of images available • Customised images for specific apps Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

  18. Our new capabilities • Huge increase in compute power • New projects possible as a result • State of the art technology • Cloud incubator • Energy savings • Dynamic provision of services • Response to user requirements (custom images and services) Brian Clayton Centre for Unified Computing

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