---------------------------------------------------------------------- H H PPP CCC UK NATIONAL HPC SERVICE H H P P C C -------------------------- HHHHH PPP C x x provided by H H P C C xx EPCC and H H P CCC x x CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HPCx User Mailing 033 5 March 2004 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents ** Phase 2: progress report ** The tape store ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings-- MOVING TO PHASE 2 - PROGRESS REPORT The new Phase 2 platform is now running with twenty frames, that is, 640 processors. A lot of work has been done on the computer room environment to enable it to cope with the new system, and we are still in line with the timetable I sent round in Mailing 30 on 23 January. The next two planned dates are: 02 Apr Interim Phase 2 system starts fitness-for-use testing. Some user groups have 'at risk' access without charge. Phase 1 service not affected. 15 Apr 22-frame Phase 2 cluster (20 production frames) starts pre-service release validation. Phase 1 service not affected. On the support side, we are planning for the acceptance tests, and assessing the new system's performance so as to plan future terascaling work. I shall report progress again in a fortnight's time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THE TAPE STORE The new tape archive system, which was outlined at the last User Group meeting, has been in beta test both by HPCx staff and by some user groups. Our thanks to the beta users, who have already given us invaluable information and helped us to remove some kinks. We feel that the actual functionality of the archive system has now been proved to be reliable and sufficient for users' needs, and that this first phase of beta testing is complete. We now need to move to tuning and enhancing the user interface to suit users' needs. We already have some useful feedback in this area, but we really need more. We need to know also which features that we have provided are convenient and useful and should be developed further, and which could perhaps be dispensed with. This means that we are keen to encourage more users to take part in this second phase of testing. If you would be interested in doing this, please get in touch. Existing testers have already been sent a preliminary version of the documentation for the tape archive. Early next week we will put a more recent version on the website; there will be a link from this page: http://www.hpcx.ac.uk/services/storage/index.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Regards --John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Earlier mailings: http://www.hpcx.ac.uk/support/notices/index.html To be removed from the mailing list: log into your website account, go to the "Update" page, and click the "Opt out of user emails" field; then click "Commit update". -- John Fisher j.fisher@epcc.ed.ac.uk HPCx User Administration and Helpdesk HPCx: http://www.hpcx.ac.uk Helpdesk: support@hpcx.ac.uk Phone: +44 131 650 5029 Fax: +44 131 650 6555