Condor@Cardiff

Dr Hugh Beedie

Dr James Osborne

Condor_History@Cardiff

• Led by Information Services directorate– Not by the School of Computer Science– A Solution looking for problems

• Began as a pilot project in April 2004• First user from the School of Business• Supported on a best efforts basis for 21 months• Funding for 1yr post from January 2006 JO • Novell Zenworks to deliver to workstations

HB

Condor_Pool@Cardiff

• Windows only• Student workstations initially• Now adding staff workstations• Now up to 1400 workstations• Demand growing near supply• Plans to add more staff workstations• Plans to experiment with flocking• Lots of applications

HB

Central Manager

1400 Workstations

25 Workstations

Submit Nodes

Execute Nodes

master, startd, starter

master, schedd, shadow

master, collector, negotiator

Condor_Takes_Flight@CardiffExpansive Forces

• All publicity is good publicity– Presentations

• Tag on to research seminars• Given on request

– Newsletters • Cardiff News x3 with focus on COMSC, OPTOM, BIOSI• Research Fortnight (like www.researchresearch.com)

• Word of mouth– Alice is a happy user, tells Bob, Bob is a happy user

• Donations of more machines to the pool– Progressive Local Computing Representatives

JO

Condor_Takes_Flight@CardiffCompressive Forces

• Need more machines in the pool– Resistive Local Computing Representatives

• Need more heterogeneity in the pool– Windows only pool today– Windows and Linux pool in the future ?

• Campus level pool, not a school level pool• Dual Boot or CoLinux

– Too much effort

• Virtual Machines– Maybe with VMWare Player 6 and Lab Manager

• Environmental restrictions– IP address space, MAC addresses NAT

JO

Condor_Depts@Cardiff

• ARCHI = School of Architecture• BIOSI = School of Biosciences• CARBS = School of Business• COMSC = School of Computer Science• ENGIN = School of Engineering• EPIDE = School of Epidemiology• HISAR = School of History and Archaeology• INSRV = Information Services Directorate• MATHS= School of Mathematics• OPTOM = School of Optometry and Vision Sciences• PHYSX = School of Physics• SOCSI = School of Social Sciences

JO

Condor_Apps@Cardiff

• ARCHI = Energyplus• BIOSI = Blast, Lea, Leadmix, Paup, R, Structure• CARBS = Oxcal, Monte Carlo - Econometric Modelling• COMSC = Matlab, Monte Carlo - Radiation Transport,

Monte Carlo - WIFI Roaming, Image Processing• ENGIN = Travelling Salesman Problem, Geological Modelling• EPIDE = R• HISAR = Oxcalwin• INSRV = Perl, Grinder• MATHS= Computational Fluid Dynamics - Polymers and Gels• OPTOM = Dammin, Damfilt, Gasbor• PHYSX = Fourier Analysis• SOCSI = Siesta*

JO

Condor_Users@Cardiff

• ARCHI 1*• BIOSI 5• CARBS 2• COMSC 2• ENGIN 2• EPIDE 2

• HISAR 2*• INSRV 1• MATHS 2• OPTOM 2• PHYSX 1• SOCSI 1*

JO

Condor_Users@CardiffQ1 2006

ARCHI

BIOSI

CARBS

COMSC

ENGIN

EPIDE

HISAR

INSRV

MATHS

NGS

OPTOM

PHYSX

OTHER

JO

Condor_Users@CardiffQ2 2006

ARCHI

BIOSI

CARBS

COMSC

ENGIN

EPIDE

HISAR

INSRV

MATHS

NGS

OPTOM

PHYSX

OTHER

JO

Condor_Users@CardiffQ3 2006

ARCHI

BIOSI

CARBS

COMSC

ENGIN

EPIDE

HISAR

INSRV

MATHS

NGS

OPTOM

PHYSX

OTHER

JO

Condor_Users@CardiffQ4 2006

ARCHI

BIOSI

CARBS

COMSC

ENGIN

EPIDE

HISAR

INSRV

MATHS

NGS

OPTOM

PHYSX

OTHER

JO

Condor_Users@CardiffQ1 2007

ARCHI

BIOSI

CARBS

COMSC

ENGIN

EPIDE

HISAR

INSRV

MATHS

NGS

OPTOM

PHYSX

OTHER

JO

Condor_Usage@Cardiff

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Q1-06 Q2-06 Q3-06 Q4-06 Q1-07

Th

ou

san

ds

JO

Condor_Issues@Cardiff

• Full Economic Costing– Can it be done ?– How to hook new users ?

• Give them an inch and make them pay for a mile (later)– How to re-assure resource owners ?

• National Grid Service– Ours is the only Windows based Condor pool– Our adaptations to the GITS tests not ratified yet

• Campus Grid Roadmap– Access (portal vs command line) MWE– Authentication (managing and hiding certificates) SHIB

HB

Condor_Research@Cardiff

• Osborne, J and Hardisty, A. Cardiff Universitys Condor Pool: Background, Case Studies, and fEC. In S. Cox, editor, Proceedings of 5th UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, pages 361-364, Nottingham, UK, September 18th to September 21st 2006.

• Baldock, C., Siegler, V., Bax, D.V., Cain, S.A., Mellody, K.T., Marson, A., Haston, J.L., Berry, R., Wang, M.C., Grossmann, J.G., Roessle, M., Kielty, C.M., Wess, T.J. (2006) Nanostructure of fibrillin-1 reveals compact conformation of EGF arrays and mechanism for extensibility. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103: 11922-11927.

• Dyksterhuis, L.B., Baldock, C., Lammie, D., Wess, T.J., Weiss, A.S. (2007) Domains 17*27 of tropoelastin contain key regions of contact for coacervation and contain an unusual turn-containing crosslinking domain. Matrix Biology, 26:125-135.

HB

Summary

• Positive research impact– 3 research papers

• Efficient use of resources– Clusters are wasted on uncoupled jobs

• Saves power and the environment– Compared to clusters

• Campus level pools vs school level pools– Automate, automate, automate

HB