XSEDE and IU Partner to Help Researchers Make the Most of HPC Tools

July 24, 2015

July 24 — For researchers with big data but little access to the IT tools needed to analyze it, the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) Campus Bridging team is a bit like a superhero squad.

Based at Indiana University, the team makes it easier to connect researchers’ analyses to the national cyberinfrastructure — including computing and data storage systems, advanced instruments and data repositories, visualization environments and people — smoothing the way for discovery and breakthroughs.

Campuses around the US are finding that installing the XSEDE Compatible Basic Cluster (XCBC) software suite quickly improves computing. Designed to help researchers ranging from big data scientists to people running small campus clusters, XCBC lets a local campus create a high performance computing (HPC) cluster from scratch.

The open source software tools match the software of the most commonly used systems within XSEDE, and Campus Bridging team members even offer on-site installation help. The first such visit took place in April at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. The project involved increasing the cluster’s capabilities, including integrating eight GPUs and enhancing system management.

“XCBC makes computing more accessible for everyone,” said Jeremy Fischer, IU senior systems analyst and XCBC engineer. “Many times researchers don’t have the knowledge or the capability to set up a high performance cluster on their own. By working with the Campus Bridging team on an on-site XCBC installation, these folks can get their science up and running again.”

Jack Smith can attest to that. As cyberinfrastructure coordinator in the Division of Science and Research of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, Smith worked closely with Fischer and colleague Eric Coulter when they came to Marshall.

“Before they came out, our HPC cluster Big Green was limping along on only a few of its cylinders, and the GPUs were not accessible at all,” said Smith. “Following their week-long visit, Big Green is now running on all cylinders. Our researchers are once again able to take full advantage of a local HPC resources.”

Other services provided by the XSEDE Campus Bridging team include:

  • XSEDE National Integration Toolkit (XNIT, formerly known as the YUM repository). This service allows campus administrators to keep their XSEDE software stack up to date or install chosen packages from the stack. They can add XNIT as a standby and never worry about missing software updates that increase software security and improve functionality included in the XCBC.
  • Data and job management technologies using Globus and Genesis II.
    • Globus is a fast and reliable high-performance service for secure data movement. Designed specifically for researchers, Globus provides simplified, automated data transfers between any two resources—whether between two XSEDE resources or to/from XSEDE and another machine, such as another supercomputing facility, cloud resource, campus cluster, lab server, desktop, or laptop.
    • Genesis II is an open source, standards-based grid platform designed to support both high-throughput computing and secure data sharing. The features of the Genesis II platform are designed with two communities in mind: the user community and research community.

For information about XSEDE and its Campus Bridging efforts, visit: https://www.xsede.org/campus-bridging

About XSEDE

The Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) is the most advanced, powerful, and robust collection of integrated advanced digital resources and services in the world. It is a single virtual system that scientists can use to interactively share computing resources, data, and expertise. XSEDE accelerates scientific discovery by enhancing the productivity of researchers, engineers, and scholars by deepening and extending the use of XSEDE’s ecosystem of advanced digital services and by advancing and sustaining the XSEDE advanced digital infrastructure. XSEDE is a five-year, $121-million project and is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Source: XSEDE

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