Research Computing Constituent Group (176610591)

7/27/2019 Research Computing Constituent Group (176610591)

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Massachusetts Green

High Performance Computing Center

Educause 2013

Research Computing CG

October 16, 2013

www.mghpcc.org



The MGHPCC: A Data Center and a Consortium2

A partnership between 5 universities….

The Commonwealth, and industrial

sponsors



Origins (circa 2008)

Recognition that…

Computing is fundamental to the research mission

Incremental on-campus expansion will not end well

Interest in working together Financial pressure

Opportunities that single institutions cannot address

State government interest in supporting research competitiveness

Getting out ahead of disruptive change in how computing gets done

Plan Outline to Ribbon Cutting in ~3 years

Project is on-time and under-budget

3



MGHPCC: Three Works in Progress

Regional Data Center for Research Computing

University/Industry/Government Research Collaboration

Regional economic development

4



Physical Infrastructure

8 Acres for expansion

~1 acre of computer room = ~20,000 servers = ~400PB data

15MW for compute and cooling

Green, Low Cost Power

5

LEED Platinumcertified



Network Access

Commercial Providers

Northern CrossroadsInternet 2

NEREN /NYSERNET

Research and Education Networks

NLR

Others

Others

PublicInternet

PrivateLinks

MIT Fiber Ring(10Gbps dedicated links)

25+Research

Institutions

Dark Fiber

MA Broadband Institute

GENI

6



Computer Room Total Capacity

Main Distribution AreaUniversity Fiber FeedsUniversity backbone switchesMeet me switch

Compute Pod24 Racks14kW per rack average~25KW per rack max

N x 10 GigE to the MDA

Space33,500 sq ft680 racks

Power and Cooling

10 MW for compute5 MW for cooling

Target PUE: 1.3

Network 10 Gb/s feeds toevery campus

UPS limitedto 20% of

the Podsin aphysically consolidated area.

7



How the MGHPCC is Organized

Structure

Non-profit service corporation owned by five universities

Owns the facility and employs facility operations staff

Oversight

Research mission and direction – Research Vice Presidents

Operational direction and goals – CIOs

Day to day issues and opportunities Research – Faculty working group

Operational – Business and IT working groups

8



Consortium Operational Collaboration

Dedicated MGHPCC Staff focuses on facility operation

User support comes from existing research computing groups

Evolving Collaboration

Staying out of each others’ way

Learning from each other

Unified networking plan

Coordinated vendor management Acquisition and operation of jointly owned resources

Larger scale solutions to common problems

9



10

Collaboration: R esearch, Education, Outreach

• Seed Grant Program (promising cross-university projects)• Jointly owned computing infrastructure• Cross-university research initiatives



For UMass, at the ground level….

Lower operating cost

Flexible access to larger resource pool

Greater funding leverage

Starting with a great diversity of readiness and capabilities

11

More of this...Less of this...

11



Computational Research5 UMass campuses, 5 examples

Analyzing urgent DNA samplesto help find treatmentstrategies. Big data. (UMass Amherst, MIT,

Harvard Medical School)

12

Predicting the propertiesof new materials(UMass Lowell)

Understanding thedynamics of the ocean floor(UMass Dartmouth, WHOI,MIT)

Algorithms analyzing thefunctional genome, geneexpression in response toenvironmental stimulus.

(UMass Med.)

Analyzing forestcover using satelliteand LIDAR imagery (UMass Boston)



UMass Governance

13



UMass Service Model

Shared Operations Staff leveraging campus “centers of excellence”

Goal of developing distributed application support

14

Shared ServicesFair Share Pool

5 CampusPurchase

Fair Share

PI Priority 1

PI Priority 2

Condo Pool

Fair Share

Shared Scheduler, Network and IdM

Co-Lo

Pool



Summary

HPC: long term strategic importance to research enterprise

computation: “third leg of science and engineering” along with theory and experimentation but there is also a growing need in social sciences,humanities, and others.

“data”: growing importance

15

MGHPCC:

many “modes of use”

many opportunities service-oriented

amortized cost,

inexpensive,

green energy

contributing

my clusters leverages

access to more

HPC as

an easy to use

service

research

collaboration

strategic

investment

place to put

my clusters!

a



Closing thoughts

What it means for the Commonwealth:

What it Means for UMass Research Infrastructure: timely, strategically important investment in the 21st century

research enterprise Vehicle for Collaboration: within the UMass system, with other universities, industry and

the state/region

A More Efficient and Effective IT Model: for developing high quality researchcomputing in an efficient, cost-effective manner

16

“This landmark project is a testament to what is possible whengovernment, academia and business work together, and it willserve as an economic development model for the state and the

nation for generations to come”remarks by Governor Deval Patrick



Discussion…

"If we knew what we

were doing, it wouldn't be called research would it ?“

Albert Einstein

17

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Research Computing Constituent Group (176610591)

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