University of East Anglia Case Study 2012-02.indd - Viglen

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIAA Viglen & Platform Success StoryDespite the increase in power, UEA has been able to remaintrue to the university’s mission of environmental sustainability.Although the Data Center is the university’s largest consumerof electricity, Platform HPC is helping to reduce their carbonfootprint and save money. This is in large part due to the abilityto automatically power systems on and off dependent on needand usage. Prior to implementing Platform HPC, UEA was notproperly utilising its power structure because the system was stillconsuming energy even if jobs weren’t being run. UEA can nowshut down power to nodes when they aren’t in use, signifi cantlyreducing wasted energy and costs.Also key, according to Viglen HPC Product Manager DavidPower, was Platform Computing’s ability to support Windowsenvironments and applications so use of the HPC resource couldbe extended beyond the traditional HPC scientifi c disciplines.Because users across all of the university’s academic disciplinesrun hundreds of different applications specifi c to their ownresearch, UEA also needed a solution that could be easilyintegrated with new software packages. To allow researchers touse both Windows and Linux operating systems simultaneously,UEA implemented Platform HPC which allows multiple operatingsystems to run on the same cluster at the same time, thusreaching users across the entire university.Such administration benefi ts have been extremely helpfulto Collins and his team, as well as the users throughout theuniversity.As the administration team and users continue to learn moreabout the solution, Collins is extremely positive about the optionsPlatform can provide UEA. UEA currently plans to add morePlatform licenses to the deployment and are interested in addingadditional GPUs for even more processing power and to doublethe size of the system once again within 12 months. With theentire university community set to engage in high performancecomputing, the University of East Anglia will be poised to maintainits world leading research status for years to come.University of East AngliaA Viglen & Platform Success StoryIt’s Not Easy Being GreenEstablished in 1963 in Norwich, England, the University of East Anglia (UEA) iswidely recognized as one of the world’s premier research universities. The university’sClimactic Research Unit (CRU) has been at the forefront of environmentalresearch on climate change since being founded in 1972, and the university communityprides itself on its ongoing effort to be an example of campus-wide goodenvironmental practice and sustainability. In 2007, more than 20 scientists fromUEA shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for their environmental research.In addition, nearly 90 percent of the university’s research was rated of “internationalexcellence” in the latest Research Assessment Exercise, with over 50percent of that research classified as “world leading.”IT’s Personal“Platform HPC has rich functionality and thedocumentation is extremely helpful and we’vereceived ongoing positive feedback from users.”With Platform HPC, the master node is aware ofresource demands of the jobs queued and whateach node is doing. It will power down thosenodes not being used, aside from keeping about5-10 percent available at all times. When usageincreases, the master node powers on what’sneeded within a couple minutes.”Chris Collins,Head of Research and Specialist Computing SupportViglen Limited, VHQ, 7 Handley Page Way, Old Parkbury Lane, Colney Street, St. Albans, Hertfordshire AL2 2DQTel: 01727 201 800 | Fax: 01727 201 888 | Email: sales@viglen.co.uk | Web: www.viglen.co.ukUniversity of East Anglia Case Study 2012-02

VIGLEN HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTINGUNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIAA Viglen & Platform Success StoryThe ChallengesExtending HPC beyond the SciencesPowering Up to Power Down• Create a “green” HPC resource that aligned with the university’sleading edge research in climatology and environmental studies• Find a user-friendly solution, easily accessible to academics andstudents across the entire university• Expand HPC usage beyond scientifi c disciplines to researchersin the arts and humanities• Increase compute power in an effi cient manner with the abilityto automatically power systems on and off dependent onjob schedules• Support for research across multiple operating systems,including both Windows and LinuxThe SolutionPlatform HPC management softwareWith such a heavy focus on research, high performance computing(HPC) has been an integral part of the university for the past tenyears, with the campus running its own dedicated general purposeHPC facility. The HPC resource has traditionally supported researchwithin the scientifi c disciplines, such as the university’s climateand environmental research and chemistry, computer scienceand mathematics departments. But as the university’s researchdemands grew, so did their need for compute power. The systemthey had in place was no longer able to keep up with the sciencethe researchers were doing. The university also wanted to extendusage of the HPC compute system beyond the scientifi c disciplinesto support research needs within the rest of the university withthe goal of encouraging use within disciplines not traditionallyassociated with HPC applications, such as the social sciences,arts and humanities. They also required a solution that was faster,easier to manage and that provided more power.Due to a campus-wide focus on sustainability, having a “green” HPCresource was a high priority not only for the climate researcherswho regularly use the center to process their research but for theentire community. As such, UEA set out to fi nd an HPC solution thatcould offer them the high performance they needed, but that couldalso meet their strict requirements for reducing the university’scarbon footprint and power consumption at lower cost.To create their Green HPC solution, UEA turnedto Viglen and Platform HPC.With the dual needs of environmentally friendly, power effi cientcomputing and the desire to embrace new users across theuniversity in mind, UEA embarked on a project to upgrade theirHPC resources. Working together with systems integrator Viglen,UEA more than doubled its HPC core capacity from 900 to morethan 2000 cores to meet their needs. According to Chris Collins,Head of Research and Specialist Computing Support at UEA, theuniversity needed a system that provided more intelligence andfeatures than the Sun Grid Engine and Cluster Vision solutions theyalready had in place. Key to the decision process to implementPlatform HPC management software was the ability to provide acomplete solution that offered advanced cluster management andscheduling while also lowering the administration burden on theIT department so as to allow administrators more face time withusers to assist them with problems when necessary.Bordan Tkachuk, CEO of Viglen said “Viglen take very seriouslythe greening of computing especially in the area of HPC wheretraditionally huge amounts of both computing power and powerconsumption go hand in hand. This installation at UAE is anexciting step in proving that using leading edge HPC technologycan use less power without compromising the computing power.”He added “The increase in compute ability allows UEA toperform research across larger data sets and at a finer level ofgranularity than before. They really needed a faster, easier tomanage system with more capability. This new system providesthe research platform to address the requirements of the worldleading research being conducted at UEA.”UEA’s new HPC resource has provided the university a signifi cantincrease in computational power. The solution including PlatformHPC has more than doubled UEA’s computer power, going froma capacity of 9 terafl ops to 21.5 terafl ops in just a few months.The new system has 2032 cores under management and 168compute nodes. UEA also added a GPU node to the cluster foradded processing power. Platform HPC has provided UEA with thefollowing additional benefi ts:• Enables UEA to improve utilisation of their resources by placingworkloads intelligently based on the hardware required byspecifi c tasks• By considering the availability of software licenses inscheduling decisions, Platform HPC enables UEA to usesoftware licenses more effi ciently, maximize throughput andreduce administration• Improved the performance of UEA’s build environment, andhelped simplify the management of parallel jobs with PlatformMPI, a component of Platform HPCThe Result• Signifi cant increase in compute power from 9 to 21.5 terafl ops“We’re migrating new users on to the system all the time,” notedUEA’s Collins. “We also use Platform MPI (included in PlatformHPC) for migrations since transferring and linking applicationscan be a tedious process. Before we had to differentiate whatnodes applications could run on. Now we can run on bothEnternet and Infiniband, make a request for an application andeasily link it to Platform MPI.”• Grew cluster size from 900 to more than 2000 cores• System hardware running 20-40 per cent faster thanprevious solution• Cut power consumption rates and costs signifi cantly• Provides fl exible, responsive supportThe easy-to-use web interface in Platform HPC was another factorin UEA’s decision. “That was a huge benefit compared to nothaving a web interface before. With the challenge of gettingnon-HPC users to use the system, we could allow them to usethe web front end instead of using the command line interface,”Collins noted. “We don’t have to do as much work when releasinga new application or do as much new coding. Platform’s softwarewas a clear leader from the beginning of the process.”Viglen Limited, VHQ, 7 Handley Page Way, Old Parkbury Lane, Colney Street, St. Albans, Hertfordshire AL2 2DQTel: 01727 201 800 | Fax: 01727 201 888 | Email: sales@viglen.co.uk | Web: www.viglen.co.ukViglen Limited, VHQ, 7 Handley Page Way, Old Parkbury Lane, Colney Street, St. Albans, Hertfordshire AL2 2DQTel: 01727 201 800 | Fax: 01727 201 888 | Email: sales@viglen.co.uk | Web: www.viglen.co.uk