---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 043 7 May 2004 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents ** New system expands to 38 frames ** Regions of the system ** Note on tcsh ** Phase 1 filestore ** GROMACS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings-- NEW SYSTEM EXPANDS TO 38 FRAMES During the maintenance session on Wednesday, a further 18 frames were added to the new Phase 2 system. These are currently being exercised, and will be available to users from Monday, 10 May. This brings the new system to 38 frames, as compared to the Phase 1 platform, which had 40. After Monday, the system will have a throughput of at least 4.8 Tflops (4800 AU/hr), as compared to 3.24 Tflops (3240 AU/hr) on Phase 1. The final Phase 2 system will include 50 frames and will have a throughput of at least 6000 AU/hr. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- REGIONS OF THE SYSTEM >From Monday, 37 of the 38 frames will be available for general batch work. One frame will be reserved for parallel interactive jobs. On Phase 1, a number of frames were reserved specifically for development work. At present this is not the case on Phase 2; development work is included in the general job mix. Once the system is complete we will set up a development region as before. At present we are closely monitoring the way the frames are used and when necessary jobs a scheduled by hand to fill up any gaps that appear. Once the system is complete, we will optimise the LoadLeveler configuration to make the best use of the 50 frames. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE ON tcsh The location of tcsh has been changed on the new system. It used to be at /usr/local/bin/tcsh; it is now at /usr/bin/tcsh. People who use this shell will need to change their LoadLeveler jobs and shell scripts. Our apologies for not publicising this change well enough. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PHASE 1 FILESTORE When we moved to the new system, everyone's Phase 1 files were moved across - a total of 2,466,867 user files, in fact, about 4.5 Tbytes. This was done with almost no problems. Just in case, we cross-mounted the old disks to Phase 2, so that users could copy files from them if they needed. As I said in my last mailing, we kept this going until yesterday, May 6. I said that we hoped to be able to continue to make the old disks available for a bit longer than this; but in the end this turned out not to be possible. However, we have the whole of the old filestore copied to tapes, and if necessary we can get files back from these, although this obviously will not be as quick or convenient. The tape copies will be kept indefinitely. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GROMACS Version 3.1.4 of the MD code GROMACS has been installed on HPCx. Users keen to use it should contact the helpdesk (see below). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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