|
| | Cornell Center for Materials Research&Intel Technology for Education
2000 Progress Report - Q2 1999 Status Report
Accomplishments
Windows NT
Installation and Maintenance Strategies
"We even accept the fact that we occasionally need to completely re-install
the desktop OS and all of our applications, and restore all personal files
from the latest backup." Mark Hall and Ralph Barker "The Death of the Desktop",
Performance Computing, August 1998
Our first strategy is to make the installation and re-installation of WinNT
and application software from scratch to be as simple and rapid a process
as possible. We are using Ghost to save and load disk images on our
AFS (Andrew File System, Transarc)
fileserver via Samba, a public domain SMB server running under UNIX.
We have successfully deployed 8 of these machines and can re-install
to an identical configuration quickly. However, this plan has run into
a fatal flaw. New machines arriving have slightly different hardware configurations.
A simple revision update in the ethernet controller rendered the boot disk
inoperative. Once that was fixed a similar revision change in the SCSI
controller made the previous images useless.
We are now working on a strategy that combines an installation "recipe",
remote-distribution and an image. With this we will come up with a well
defined minimal set of instructions that can be used to completely reinstall
the OS. From this minimal installation we will run remote-distribution
software (PcRdist) that will use a pull-mechanism to download various packages
and configure the system and registry for printers and other resources.
Finally we will make an image of this install and save it for later reinstallation
as needed.
SMS
Systems Management Server, has been acquired from Microsoft. We have installed
2 servers and two clients and have started configuration and operation
testing. This software is expected to primarily be used for system inventories,
what software and hardware is available on various systems, and for software
package distribution.
Facility Integration
CCMR Computing Facility is based on UNIX (AIX, SunOS, IRIX, Linux)
servers and clients. Work is progressing on developing tools and techniques
to integrate NT into this structure. We are using Transarc
Corporation's AFS (Andrew File System) client for WinNT to leverage
our existing AFS based file service, backup, authentication, and administration
infrastructure for WinNT. We have purchased and installed NT-AFS
for this purpose.
File Service
In contrast to NFS (Network File System) which is stateless and relies
on local system caching, AFS uses it's own caching mechanism to keep frequently
used files local to the client. This has the potential to greatly reduce
network traffic and improve performance. Only the software that is used
on that workstation is actually local to that station. However, additional
memory overhead is significant and the type of files being accessed, many
small or a few large files, can affect performance. Also, the initial access
on a file takes longer as the client retrieves the file from the server
and is placed into the client's local AFS caching system.
We are looking into the performance of this versus NT Server, Samba
and local file access. We have seen some very irradic performance while
exploring disks on the server. We are concerned about the interaction between
the NT file cache and the AFS file cache. Both are in memory, both are
essentially doing the same thing but with different mechanisms.
Authentication
For authentication we are experimenting with a GINA (Graphical Identification
aNd Authentication?) replacement developed at Notre Dame. It is not
desirable to maintain separate authentication systems for NT and UNIX for
500 users. The ND_GINA
enables WinNT to use AFS Kerberos authentication for login. Roaming
profiles are stored in each user's AFS home directory. By executing
several scripts at boot time and login/logout time, the ND_GINA also provides
an infrastructure for workstation administration (see printing below for
example). For other GINA projects, see the MIT
NT GINA Information Website.
So far, we have modified, built, and installed the ND_GINA. We
have demonstrated that authentication, fileserver access, and roaming profiles
work. Three workstations are available for users, an other is being
used by the CCMR Ion Beam Facility. Full-scale
deployment is awaiting completion of development and implementation of
our WinNT installation strategy mentioned above.
Inconsistancy of the AFS home directory access and subsequent absence
of the user's profile seems to have been fixed with NT-AFS 3.4a patch 10.
However, a Windows DLL periodicly fails to load which renders AFS inaccessible.
Restarting fixes the problem.
Printing
Printing within CCMR is accounted. Therefore login and authentication are
an issue on each system. For NT were are using lpr configured print services.
This is being managed by the GINA modifications and PcRdist so that as
printers are removed or installed the user's view, Printer Folder, is kept
current.
Software
We are using Hummingbird's Exceed
Software for Xwindow client access to our UNIX systems. We have also installed
Microsoft Suite provided to the Intel grant equipment by a grant from Microsoft.
Currently we have not installed any specific scientific software on these
systems. We have purchased IDL, a visualization package and have licenses
for Abaqus, finite element modelling, and the Portland Group FORTRAN compiler
which is essential for the migration of some software.
Terminal Server
We have acquired Microsoft NT Terminal Server and will be installing and
evalutating it next quarter. The expectation is that this will provide
access to software that is licensed on only a few machines and access to
Windows NT applications from UNIX X-Window based systems.
Utilization
Lam/Ast
- Micro Electro Mechanical/Optical System simulations. This kind
of simulation uses finite element or finite difference software. We
have written a FORTRAN program to do finite difference time domain simulations.
A 2-D simulation takes up 128M RAM. We hope to do 3-D simulations soon.
Recently our group started using SUPREME and PISCES simulators. Both of
the simulation packages require at least 64M RAM to only to start running.
To use its graphical display at the same time an analysis is running requires
significant CPU and video capabilities and was not possible on existing
PC equipment.
Revesz
- Development of remote access capability to the CCMR Ion
Beam facility.
Facility
User Room - 3 NT machines are available for users in the computing
facilities general user rooms.
IRG2
/ Ast Install
and maintain a datebase on glass. A commercial package containing 38,000
data has been located.
Linux
Installation and Maintenance Strategies
We had a small installed base of Linux systems running on Intel systems.
With the increase in numbers we have developed a more complete installation
strategy for Linux on Intel architecture workstations. Like WinNT
this involves an installation recipe that can be easily followed. We had
developed a system configuration strategy for other UNIX variants and we
modified that to handle the addition of Linux. Unlike NT where most system
settings are in the registry, these modifications are spread across many
files. However, these files are text based, easily modified with standard
UNIX utilities and we have years of expertise in handling this. UNIX is
inherently multi-user so the system needs no special software for handling
setup upon login for individuals. Most software is located on the AFS fileserver
so updates appear via the network without a specific distribution mechanism.
We are finding that recent Linux packages like that coming from RedHat
are including more software pre-installed which conflicts with some of
our fileserver versions. This will require us to reevaluate where this
software should reside and how it will be kept current.
Facility Integration
File Service
We are using the MIT AFS client
for Linux . This is public domain and unsupported by Transarc. Transarc
has recenlty announced support of an AFS client for Linux 2.2. This client
is still in beta test and we are currently using Linux 2.0. We plan on
shifting to this in the 4th quarter of 1999. See the section of File Service
under Windows NT for a description of AFS.
One problem that we've experienced is that the AFS cache system isn't
always signally a need to refresh from system to system. For example if
a file is changed from machine A and machine B tries to read the file sometime
later, machine B will get the old copy of the file. Running 'fs flush'
on the file fixes the problem but this shouldn't be necessary. It is especially
annoying for updating web pages where the user is editting the files on
the local machine and the web server doesn't see the changes.
Authentication
Login is authticated against the AFS Kerberos server and allows full facility
access.
Printing
Because Linux uses BSD lpr print services and configuration it integrates
quickly and seemlessly into our current environment.
Computation
Six of the Intel Grant workstations are available as compute servers using
the Distributed Queuing
System from Florida State University which we also use for our IBM/AIX
and SGI/IRIX systems . These compute servers are available to our
entire 500 user faculty and graduate student research community. This allows
the user to send long jobs to several machines that will run unattended
and may take from hours to weeks for completion.
A 4 system Extreme
Linux Beowulf cluster for batch processing has been installed.
We were unable to get our benchmark to work using the LAM MPI software.
We then proceeded to try MPICH.
This was successful. The HINT
benchmark tests show that the cluster processes about three times as many
net QUIPS (QUality Improvement Per Second) as each individual machine in
the cluster. This is especially useful for large processes such as simulations.
A Beowulf cluster is not only fast but it is also expandable. If more processing
power is needed, more nodes can be added at any time. Our cluster produced
the following results running HINT with the MPICH implementation of MPI.
In general the MPI code causes the benchmark to start more slowly as seen
by the differences in the single processor graphs. The benchmark code for
MPI and multiple nodes sets parameters to start further along the "time
scale" which explains the difference for the initial points for the cluster.
The curves drop off as memory and paging occur.
No actual production work has been done on this cluster yet.
Software
We have also acquired, built, and installed a large selection of data
analysis and graphics software for the Linux/Intel platform. In addition
to our standard UNIX supported software we have purchased IDL, a visualization
package and have licenses for the Portland Group FORTRAN compiler which
is essential for the migration of some software.
Utilization
Schwarz
- Numerical computation and graphics using Matlab
Sachse
- Preparation of papers and presentations for scientific publication using
TeX
Johnson
- Investigations into solid hydrogen using VASP (Vienna
Ab-Initio Simulation Package). It does first-principles quantum
mechanics calculations for solids and liquids. The ab-initio calculation
is a very standard computational tool in physics these days. Much of this
work has been done using AIX/IBM-RS6000 and IRIX/SGI-PowerOnyx.
Pomeroy
/ IRG3
IRG3 uses scanning and scattering probes to characterize thin films, producing
real space and momentum space (respectively) images and lineshapes.
Extraction of quantitative information from these images often requires
intense image analysis, including lineshape fitting of data Careful tuning
and iteration of our fitting routines (a streamlined Mathematica notebook)
allows us to quantitatively corroborate data from real and momentum space
(STM and CHESS), as well as have the power and versatility to make on-the-fly
corrections to experimental procedure based on the information extracted.
We propose to use this computer to enhance our ability and efficiency to
perform this analysis.
Clancy
/ Engstrom
/ IRG2
Will be performing experimental and simulation work in support of work
related to IRG3 and IRG2. I intend to use the machine to run Kinetic Monte
Carlo simulations of thin film growth using a code that was written in
house (by Steve Levine- an IRG-supported student who graduated in August).
Steve performed the first simulation of polycrystalline thin film growth
by VPE in the literature, which allowed us to assess the merit of the existing
theories (none were any good so we are developing our own) and showed that
we can predict the RMS roughness of a semiconductor surface with close
to quantitative accuracy as compared to the experimental AFM results. So
this is a vital project with considerable visibility.
Facility
User Room - 3 Linux machines are available for users in the computing
facilities general user rooms.
Networking
The 100 MB switched network now includes our general user rooms in
both Clark and Thurston Halls. Our current bottleneck is in the infrastructure
wiring to the offices, labs and the building. Cornell Information Technologies
is planning to offer 100 MB connections in the Summer of 1999.
100 MB switched Ethernet has been installed in our central computer
rooms at both the Clark Hall and the Thurston Hall sites. This is helping
to relieve the network congestion that having many fast Intel computers
can create, and to improve throughput. Further testing needs to be
done.
| Transfer |
Speed |
KB/sec |
Pkt/sec |
Notes |
| |
(MB) |
|
(sustained) |
| NT-NT R/W |
100 |
1,080 |
800 |
(SMB) |
| NT-AFS Read |
10/100 |
771 |
740 |
| NT-AFS Write |
100/10 |
771 |
740 |
| NT-AFS Read |
10 |
415 |
740 |
| AIX-AFS Read |
10 |
402 |
400 |
| AIX-AFS Write |
10 |
519 |
740 |
| AIX-AIX R/W |
10 |
771 |
740 |
(rcp) |
Performance
We have only begun to compare performance between Intel and other systems
running as well as NT versus Linux. We expect to do this on standard applications
that are used under normal operating conditions, i.e. network and normal
services running. We are currently compiling this information and will
be updating the results shortly.
Test Results
| Test |
CPU |
OS |
CPU Time
|
Real Time
|
Date
|
Notes
|
|
latex1
|
Intel PII/266 |
NT 4.0 |
|
3.2 |
7/9/98 |
|
| |
|
Linux 2.0.33 |
0.89 |
2.2 |
7/10/98 |
|
| |
IBM Pwr2/59 |
AIX 4.1 |
5.62 |
7.9 |
|
|
|
tex1
|
Intel PII/266 |
NT 4.0 |
|
1.20 |
7/9/98 |
|
| |
|
Linux 2.0.33 |
0.23 |
0.48 |
7/10/98 |
|
| |
IBM Pwr2/59 |
AIX 4.1 |
0.68 |
0.74 |
|
|
|
EB
|
Intel PII/300 |
Linux 2.033 |
533 |
|
2/5/99 |
|
| |
Intel Xeon/400 |
Linux 2.0.33 |
370 |
|
" |
|
| |
IBM Power2SC/120 |
AIX 4.2 |
633 |
|
" |
|
|
Neaton
|
Intel PII/266 |
Linux 2.0.33 |
981 |
16:34 |
2/10/99 |
|
| |
Intel PII Xeon/400x512 |
" |
629 |
10:34 |
" |
|
| |
SGI Power Onyx R10K |
IRIX 6.2 |
694 |
11:49 |
2/12/99 |
|
| |
Intel Dual PII/333 |
Linux 2.0.33 |
813 |
13:48 |
|
|
|
Base SPECfp95
|
CPU
|
---
|
Unixware 2.0
|
Windows NT 4.0 |
|
|
| |
Intel PII/450 |
|
11.3 |
11.8 |
|
|
| |
Intel PII/400 Xeon |
|
|
12.4 |
|
|
| |
Intel PII/400 |
|
10.8 |
11.4 |
|
|
| |
Intel PII/350 |
|
9.64 |
9.91 |
|
|
| |
Intel PII/266 |
|
6.97 |
7.39 |
|
|
|
HINT
|
CPU
|
UNIX Version
|
UNIX Result
|
Windows NT 4.0
|
|
|
|
| |
IBM 7012-530 |
AIX |
1.563 |
|
Apr 8 1998 |
|
| |
IBM 7012-370 |
AIX |
3.72 |
|
|
|
| |
IBM 7012-380 |
AIX |
4.212 |
|
Jul 12 1997 |
|
| |
IBM 7013-550 |
AIX |
2.865 |
|
|
|
| |
IBM 7013-590 |
AIX |
5.582 |
|
Jul 12 1997 |
|
| |
IBM 7025-f40 |
AIX |
6.551 |
|
Jul 25 1997 |
|
| |
Intel P5-90 |
Linux 2.0.29 |
1.951 |
|
Jul 21 1997 |
|
| |
Intel P5-120 |
Linux 2.0.29 |
2.725 |
|
Jul 11 1997 |
|
| |
Intel P5-133 |
Linux 2.0.28 |
3.174 |
|
Jul 11 1997 |
|
| |
Intel P5-166 |
Linux 2.0.28 |
3.717 |
|
|
|
| |
Intel P5-200mmx |
Linux 2.0.33 |
4.779 |
|
Apr 8 1998 |
|
| |
Intel P6-200 |
|
|
4.297 |
|
errors! |
| |
Intel P6II-233 |
|
|
5.378 |
|
|
| |
Intel P6-266 |
Linux 2.0.33 |
9.568 |
|
Apr 8 1998 |
|
| |
Intel P6-333 |
Linux 2.0.33 |
11.52 |
|
May 20 1998 |
|
| |
Intel P6II-450 |
Linux 2.0.36 |
18.58 |
|
Mar 22 1999 |
PGC |
| |
|
|
15.23 |
|
|
PGC MPI code single processor |
| |
|
|
46.5 |
|
|
PGC MPI cluster 4 processors |
| |
Intel P6 Xeon-400 |
Linux 2.0.36 |
14.53 |
|
Dec 17 1998 |
|
| |
SGI R8k-90 |
IRIX 6.2 |
6.22 |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
4.485 |
|
|
Shared Memory 1 processor |
| |
|
|
28.37 |
|
|
Shared Memory 8 processors |
| |
SGI R10k-195 |
IRIX 6.2 |
15.88 |
|
Apr 8 1998 |
|
| |
|
|
11.63 |
|
|
Shared memory 1 processor |
| |
|
|
66.64 |
|
|
Shared memory 8 processors |
| |
SGI IP30-175 |
IRIX 6.4 |
13.52 |
|
Dec 3 1997 |
|
-
EB
-
Eberhard Bodenshatz simulation program
-
Neaton
-
Jeff Neaton, graduate student working with Neil Ashcroft, The times are
from one iteration of a density-functional calculation of the electronic
structure of solid lithium at high pressures using the VASP code (Vienna
Ab-initio Simulations Package).
-
Base Spec95fp
-
Specmark 95 Base Floating Point values from SPECfp95
-
HINT
-
Hint Home Page
Next Quarter Plans
 |
Development and implement a file system/registry lock-down strategy for
NT. |
|
Using MS SMS examine methods needed to upgrade or add applications to configured
NT systems. |
|
Install and test MS Terminal Server |
|
Continue to test and benchmark UNIX workstation applications under Windows
and Linux on Intel platform. (TeX, IDL,Hint,Spec) |
Contacts
|
Faculty |
|
CCMR Research staff |
|
Graduate Students |
|
CCMR
Intel Grant Status - Local CCMR page will be most up-to-date information
on this project |
Equipment Utilization
| Name |
Type |
Received |
Site |
OS |
Utilization |
| |
266Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
11/97 |
Clark |
WinNT |
Relocating to CCMR Interdisciplinary
Research Group
|
| |
266Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
11/97 |
Clark |
Linux |
Clancy/Engstrom/IRG2-3
|
| catalina |
266Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
11/97 |
Thurston |
WinNT |
Ast/IRG2 |
| kaa |
266Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
11/97 |
Thurston |
Linux |
Pomeroy/IRG3 |
| watson |
300Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
1/98 |
Clark |
WinNT |
SMS testing |
| bob |
300Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
1/98 |
Clark |
WinNT |
CCMR_GINA user room, replicated |
| maine |
300Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
1/98 |
Thurston |
WinNT |
Revesz |
| hood |
300Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
1/98 |
Thurston |
WinNT |
Lam |
| dinosaur |
510T 24-port 10/100MHz switching hub |
2/98 |
Clark |
N/A |
Network Hub |
| ccmrs01 |
510T 24-port 10/100MHz switching hub |
4/98 |
Clark |
N/A |
Network Hub |
| bkts00 |
510T 24-port 10/100MHz switching hub |
2/98 |
Thurston |
N/A |
Network Hub |
| bkts01 |
510T 24-port 10/100MHz switching hub |
4/98 |
Thurston |
N/A |
Network Hub |
| utah |
333Mhz Dual Pentium II 256MB w/tape |
4/98 |
Thurston |
Linux |
Computer server |
| ohio |
333Mhz Dual Pentium II 256MB |
4/98 |
Thurston |
Linux |
Compute server Johnson |
| bumble |
333Mhz Dual Pentium II 256MB |
4/98 |
Clark |
Linux |
CCMR user room, Schwarz |
| bee |
333Mhz Dual Pentium II 256MB w/tape |
4/98 |
Clark |
Linux |
Computer server |
| seven |
400Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
8/98 |
Clark |
WinNT |
CCMR_GINA development |
| sugar |
400Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
8/98 |
Clark |
Win98 |
Reseach Experience for Teachers
Program user room |
| texas |
400Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
8/98 |
Thurston |
WinNT |
CCMR_GINA user room, replicated |
| iowa |
400Mhz Pentium II 128MB |
8/98 |
Thurston |
WinNT |
CCMR_GINA user room, replicated |
| wanda |
400Mhz Pentium Xeon 256MB |
12/98 |
Clark |
Linux |
CCMR user room |
| malcolm |
400Mhz Pentium Xeon 256MB |
12/98 |
Clark |
Linux |
CCMR staff test |
| neelix |
400Mhz Pentium Xeon 256MB |
12/98 |
Thurston |
Linux |
CCMR user room |
| kurn |
400Mhz Pentium Xeon 256MB |
12/98 |
Thurston |
Linux |
Compute server Sachse |
| Beowulf |
450Mhz Pentium II 128MB (4 systems) |
12/98 |
Clark |
Linux |
Extreme Linux MP cluster |
|
