SJ – Mar 2003 1

The “opencluster” in

“openlab”

A technical overviewSverre Jarp IT Division

CERN

SJ – Mar 2003 2

Definitions

The “CERN openlab for DataGrid applications” is a framework for evaluating and integrating cutting-edge technologies or services in partnership with industry, focusing on potential solutions for the LCG.

The openlab invites members of the industry to join and contribute systems, resources or services, and carry out with CERN large-scale high-performance evaluation of their solutions in an advanced integrated environment.

“opencluster” projectThe openlab is constructing a pilot ‘compute and storage farm’ called the opencluster, based on HP's dual processor servers, Intel's Itanium Processor Family (IPF) processors, Enterasys's 10-Gbps switches and, at a later stage, a high-capacity storage system.

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LHC Computing Grid

02 03 04 05 06 07 08

LCGLCG

Project Selection, Integration (technology) and

deployment (full scale) Full Production service Worldwide scope

09

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CERN openlab

02 03 04 05 06 07 08

LCGLCG

Framework for collaboration Evaluation, integration, validation (of

cutting-edge technologies) 3-year lifetime

CERN openlabCERN openlab

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Technology onslaught

Large amounts of new technology will become available between now and LHC start-up. A few HW examples:

Processors SMT (Symmetric Multi-Threading) CMP (Chip Multiprocessor) Ubiquitous 64-bit computing (even in laptops)

Memory DDR II-400 (fast) Servers with 1 TB (large)

Interconnect PCI-X PCI-X2 PCI-Express (serial) Infiniband

Computer architecture Chipsets on steroids Modular computers

ISC2003 Keynote Presentation  Building Efficient HPC Systems from Catalog Components

Justin Rattner, Intel Corp., Santa Clara, USA Disks

Serial-ATA Ethernet

10 GbE (NICs and switches) 1 Terabit backplanes

Not all, but some of this will definitely be used

by LHC

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Vision: A fully functional GRID cluster node

Gigabit long-haul link

CPU

Servers

WAN

Multi-gigabit LAN

Storagesystem

RemoteFabric

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opencluster strategy

Demonstrate promising technologies LCG and LHC on-line

Deploy the technologies well beyond the opencluster itself

10 GbE interconnect in the LHC Test-bed Act as a 64-bit Porting Centre

CMS and Alice already active; ATLAS is interested CASTOR 64-bit reference platform

Storage subsystem as CERN-wide pilot Focal point for vendor collaborations

For instance, in the “10 GbE Challenge” everybody must collaborate in order to be successful

Channel for providing information to vendors

Thematic workshops

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The opencluster today

Three industrial partners: Enterasys, HP, and Intel

A fourth partner to join Data storage subsystem

Which will “fulfill the vision”

Technology aimed at the LHC era Network switches at 10 Gigabits Rack-mounted HP servers 64-bit Itanium processors

Cluster evolution: 2002: Cluster of 32 systems (64 processors) 2003: 64 systems (“Madison” processors) 2004/05: Possibly 128 systems (“Montecito” processors)

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Activity overview Over the last few months

Cluster installation, middleware Application porting, compiler

installations, benchmarking Initialization of “Challenges” Planned first thematic workshop

Future Porting of grid middleware Grid integration and benchmarking Storage partnership Cluster upgrades/expansion New generation network switches

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opencluster in detail

Integration of the cluster: Fully automated network installations 32 nodes + development nodes RedHat Advanced Workstation 2.1 OpenAFS, LSF GNU, Intel, ORC Compilers (64-bit)

ORC (Open Research Compiler, used to belong to SGI)

CERN middleware: Castor data mgmt CERN Applications

Porting, Benchmarking, Performance improvements

CLHEP, GEANT4, ROOT, Sixtrack, CERNLIB, etc.

Database software (MySQL, Oracle?)

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The compute nodes HP rx2600

Rack-mounted (2U) systems Two Itanium-2 processors

900 or 1000 MHz Field upgradeable to next generation

2 or 4 GB memory (max 12 GB) 3 hot pluggable SCSI discs (36 or 73 GB) On-board 100 Mbit and 1 Gbit Ethernet 4 PCI-X slots:

full-size 133 MHz/64-bit slot(s) Built-in management processor

Accessible via serial port or Ethernet interface

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Opencluster - phase 1

Perform cluster benchmarks:

Parallel ROOT queries (via PROOF)

Observed excellent scaling: 2 4 8 16 32 64 CPUs

To be reported at CHEP2003

“1 GB/s to tape” challenge Network interconnect via 10 GbE

switches opencluster may act as CPU servers 50 StorageTek tape drives in parallel

“10 Gbit/s network Challenge” Groups together all openlab partners

Enterasys switch HP servers Intel processors and n/w cards CERN Linux and n/w expertise

MB/s

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

MB/s

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Enterasys extension 1Q2003

1-12 13-24 25-36 37-48

49- 60 61-72 73-84 85-96

1-12 13-24 25-36

4 4 4

4 444

2 2 2

2

2

1-96 FastEthernet

Disk Servers

Gig copperGig fiber10 Gig

32

32 node Itanium cluster 200+ node Pentium cluster

E1 OAS E1 OAS

E1 OAS E1 OAS

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Why a 10 GbE Challenge?

Demonstrate LHC-era technology All necessary components available

inside the opencluster Identify bottlenecks

And see if we can improve

We know that Ethernet is here to stay 4 years from now 10 Gbit/s should be

commonly available Backbone technology Cluster interconnect Possibly also for iSCSI and RDMA traffic

We want to advance the state-of-the-art !

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Demonstration of openlab partnership

Everybody contributes: Enterasys

10 Gbit switches Hewlett-Packard

Server with its PCI-X slots and memory bus Intel

10 Gbit NICs plus driver Processors (i.e. code optimization)

CERN Linux kernel expertise Network expertise Project management IA32 expertise

CPU clusters, disk servers on multi-Gbit infrastructure

Stop Press: We are up and running with

back-to-back connections

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Opencluster time line

Jan 03 Jan 04 Jan 05 Jan 06

Install 32 nodes

Start phase 1 - Systems expertise in place

Complete phase 1

Order/Install G-2 upgrades and 32 more nodes

Order/Install G-3 upgrades; Add nodes

op

en

Clu

ste

rin

teg

ratio

n EDG and LCG interoperability

Start phase 2

Complete phase 2Start phase 3

SJ – Mar 2003 17

Opencluster - future

Port and validation of EDG 2.0 software Joint project with CMS

Integrate opencluster alongside EDG testbed Porting, Verification

Relevant software packages (hundreds of RPMs) Understand chain of prerequisites Exploit possibility to leave control node as IA-32

Interoperability with EDG Testbeds and later with LCG-1

Integration into existing authentication scheme GRID benchmarks

To be defined later

SJ – Mar 2003 18

Recap:opencluster strategy

Demonstrate promising IT technologies File system technology to come

Deploy the technologies well beyond the opencluster itself

Focal point for vendor collaborations

Channel for providing information to vendors

SJ – Mar 2003 19

The Workshop

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IT Division 250 people

About 200 are at engineering level

10 groups: Advanced Projects’ Group (DI) (Farm) Architecture and Data Challenges (ADC) Communications Services (CS) Fabric Infrastructure and Operations (FIO) Grid Deployment (GD) Databases (DB) Internet (and Windows) Services (IS) User Services (US) Product Support (PS) Controls (CO)

Groups have both a development and a service responsibility

Most of today’s speakers are from ADC and DB

SJ – Mar 2003 21

High Energy Physics Computing Characteristics

Independent events (collisions) Trivial parallel processing

Bulk of the data is read-only versions rather than updates

Meta-data in databases linking to files

Chaotic workload – research environment - physics extracted by

iterative analysis, collaborating groups of physicists

Unpredictable unlimited demand

Very large aggregate requirements: computation, data, i/o

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SHIFT architecture

Three tiers Interconnected via Ethernet

StorageTek Powderhorn6,000 1/2” tape cartridges

CPU servers(no permanent data)

DISK servers(cached data)

Tape robots

SJ – Mar 2003

reconstruction

simulation

analysis

interactivephysicsanalysis

batchphysicsanalysis

batchphysicsanalysis

detector

event summary data

rawdata

eventreprocessing

eventreprocessing

eventsimulation

eventsimulation

analysis objects(extracted by physics topic)

Data Handling and Computation for

Physics Analysisevent filter(selection &

reconstruction)

event filter(selection &

reconstruction)

processeddata

les.

rob

ert

son

@ce

rn.c

h

CERN

SJ – Mar 2003 24

Backup