Grant Info
Contents
Grant Information[edit]
In order to assist faculty in preparing grants, the CNRG maintains this page of descriptions for our services. This page describes the services we offer in a format that we have been told is what is most often needed.
Biocluster[edit]
Biocluster is the High Performance Computing (HPC) resource for the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Containing 2824 cores and over 27.7 TB of RAM, Biocluster has a mix of various RAM and CPU configurations on nodes to best serve the various computation needs of the IGB and the Bioinformatics community at UIUC. For storage, Biocluster has 1.5 Petabytes of storage on its GPFS filesystem for reliable high speed data transfers within the cluster. Networking in Biocluster is either 1, 10 or 40 Gigibit ethernet depending on the class of node and its data transfer needs. All computation and data storage in Biocluster is charged a fee on a monthly basis for the amount of data and computation used during that month.
Biodatabase[edit]
The Biodatabase is a high performance SQL server. Biodatabase consists of 2 servers operating in parallel to provide redundancy and load distribution. This runs the MariaDB database software, [https://mariadb.org/]. There is a total of 8TB of database storage. Both servers have 10GB Ethernet connections to the Biocluster and IGB Public networks.
Networking[edit]
The public network in the IGB is 1 Gbps networking with the aggregation of those ports to the redundant core of the IGB through redundant 10Gbps networking. The IGB networking core is connected to campus through redundant 10Gbps connections as well. The IGB research network is connected to the campus research router, CARNE, at 100Gbps. A small number of systems are connected via this networking path and allows for extremely fast data transfers to and from campus.
BioArchive[edit]
Active Archive is a tape backup system for long term storage of large amounts (TBs) of data. It consists of a Spectralogic T950 Tape Library with LTO8 tape drives and a Black Pearl control system. This system is scalable to hold exabytes of data and can be accessed via a GUI, command line tools, and an Amazon compatible S3 interface. The archive is designed to be a central location to store large amounts of data that need to be stored for a 10+ year period. A fee of $200/TB/10yr is charged on all data stored on the archive.
File Server[edit]
The IGB has a 250TB of disk space available on the File-Server. Each user with an IGB systems account is allocated 20GB of storage space. In addition, each theme is allocated 5TB to be used at the theme leader’s discretion. This system is designed to be a central, high performance storage location to hold moderate amounts of data that needs to be accessed or modified regularly.
Server Backups[edit]
The Backup Server consists of a LTO8 tape library. Using Bacula, we backup all the servers every evening, then once every six months, we backup this information to tape and start over again. Tapes created by the backup service once full are sent to a secure offsite storage facility for protection from fire or other disasters.
Desktop Backups[edit]
Desktop Backups are managed by Carbonite Endpoint. Carbonite Endpoint is installed on a server locally with in the IGB with a total of 240TB of storage. This is free to use for all IGB members to backup their desktops and laptops within the IGB building and from home. Backups are done on a continuous basis. Certain file types are excluded. A list is at Desktop Backup Policy
Monitoring[edit]
Monitoring of systems is essential to maintain a reliable IT infrastructure. CNRG utilizes a program called Intermapper to monitor whole systems and how they interact with each other. When there are problems with a system or how it communicates with other systems CNRG staff is automatically notified by Intermapper. Additionally CNRG utilizes a number of tools to monitor other devices, like storage systems, to be doubly sure that everything is working properly and that more frequent failure vectors, like hard drives, are monitored for health.
Computer Lab[edit]
The IGB computer lab consists of 48 Dell OptiPlex 5260 All-in-One computers with 21.5 inch displays. These computers use the Intel i5 processor, and are meant to perform normal, every day tasks such as web browsing or word processing. Using a software package provided by CCBoot, we are able to rapidly reconfigure the operating system and software of these machines. The bulk of the high performance processing is expected to be done on the cluster that is dedicated for use in the classroom and is described below. Additionally, the lab has a file/web/database server that can host information to facilitate any scheduled event.
Computer Lab Cluster[edit]
The IGB computer lab cluster is a part of the Biocluster. It consists of 10 Dell Poweredge R620 with 24 Intel Xeon E5-2697 at 2.7-Ghz, 348GB RAM and 10GB Ethernet. The intent of the cluster is to teach students how to use their applications in a high performance computing (HPC) environment. This would include experience with the Linux operating system, learning how to write scripts for submission of non-interactive jobs, and submission and monitoring of jobs through the SLURM job scheduler.
