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MSRC News

Consolidated Software Initiative

In the past, each individual DoD HPC center was responsible for licensing software applications for their own support based on their specific user requirements. This created difficulties for users if they were assigned to more that one system at differing locations or if the resource allocation assignments changed from one year to the next as the required software was not available on that system or at every data center.

To address this problem, the HPCMPO established a new initiative called the Consolidate Software Initiative (CSI). CSI will provide shared software application licenses for the most commonly used software applications across all the MSRCs and ADCs.

On 23 March 2005, the HPCMPO announced the signing of the CSI contract with ITEQ, Inc. of Silver Spring, Maryland a 8(a) certified small business specializing in complex advanced technology business solutions.

Starting in October 2005, to be completed by January 2006, software applications for the MSRCs and ADCs will be serviced from a set of centralized license servers. One set of fully redundant severs will be located at the ARL MSRC and a shared set of servers will be at a geographically remote site. This will provide continuous license distribution even if one site should become unavailable for any reason. Software licensing will be managed by FlexLM (Flexible License Management software) which will provide a homogeneous set of tools for tracking utilization and user growth requirements for each application. The CSI implementation will provide users’ access to the most widely used applications regardless of their allocated centers or geographic location. As DoD HPCMPO has stated, this will provide a “highly optimized process” and licensing scheme which will provide more flexibility to users; as they transition from machine to machine and while accessing the same software license and toolkits, upon which they have come to depend.

The initial 15 software suites selected for CSI are:

Work is already underway in implementing a support infrastructure and a seamless transition for the users. A centralized CSI server website and helpdesk will be in place by no later than December 31 2005. The CSI COR, Mr. Thomas W. Crimmins will make every effort to keep the users informed of the transition.

Software requirements and historical utilization data will be reviewed at each annual renewal. This will provide the opportunity for license quantities to be adjusted and new software applications added, to meet the dynamic requirements of users and projects. Additionally, this review will identify new software required to support new platforms and capabilities provided by each new year’s Technology Insertion process. Requests for additional license keys, updated versions and new software can be made through the Requirements Questionnaire (http://www.hpcmo.hpc.mil/Htdocs/Require/index.html).

JVN Workshop

JVN is one the latest additions of Linux NetworX Evolocity II clusters to join the ARL MSRC family. JVN runs a SuSE SLES 8 operating system with 2048 Xeon 3.4 MHz processors, 82.768 TB of storage, 4.096 TB of memory, and has the computational power of 13.9264 GFLOPS. Since JVN, one of the top 13 largest systems in the world will be allocated shortly, ARL staff members felt it would be beneficial for the Systems Administrators and Operators to increase their expertise in JVN’s computing environment. The ARL MSRC invited CFS and Linux NetworX to provide the nuances to our staff.

The Lustre File system workshop hosted by Cluster File Systems (CFS), was held offsite at the Four Points by Sheraton in Aberdeen MD on March 16th and 17th. Lustre is a novel storage and filesystem architecture suitable for very large clusters and is currently used by JVN. The name Lustre is an association of Linux and Clusters. Geared primarily towards Systems Administrators, CFS gave a brief overview of how Lustre works, and then continued to explain internals, configuration, and troubleshooting. The lecturer and CEO of CFS Phil Schwan, discussed topics such as the Metadata Server (MDS), Object Storage Server (OSS), and Object Storage Targets (OST). Fore more on Lustre Filesystems refer to http://www.clusterfs.com.

The second workshop hosted by Linux NetworX (LNXI), was held onsite at the Army Research Laboratory on the Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD., from April 4th through 7th. This workshop focused specifically on JVN and how it is set up in the ARL MSRC environment. Geared toward Systems Administrators and Operators, LNXI focused on the hardware, software, and network configurations within the system. The lecturers, Kevin Van Maren, Josh Aune, Jason Lowry, and Pad Iyer discussed topics such as the Icebox, Storage Architecture, Myrinet, and ClusterworX (CWX).

Prestigious Awards to Bouchelle-Keithley, Brainard and Rinker

Federal Executive Board Excellence in Federal Career Awards

The Baltimore Federal Executive Board (FEB) represents all federal agencies and installations throughout the State of Maryland. Currently, there are over 140 federal agencies represented by the FEB. On May 6, 2005 three of our staff members were recognized at the Baltimore Federal Executive Board Excellence in Federal Career Awards Banquet and Ceremony. The purpose of the Federal Executive Board Award is to honor outstanding men and women in the Federal Government who have performed exceptional and meritorious work for the Federal Government.

Judy Bouchelle-Keithley is the administrative Contracting Officer Representative of the ARL Major Shared Resource Center Raytheon contract since 1996. The ARL MSRC is one of four multi-million dollar HPC Centers which supports the research and development efforts in the DoD. Judy has been instrumental in optimizing the use of HPCMP funding within the Center by managing requirements, deliverables and costs. Additionally, through her outreach efforts, the ARL MSRC is well recognized in the international HPC community. Along with members of the HPCD, Ms. Bouchelle-Keithley has worked diligently to grow the MSRC from its initial operation in 1996 to a world class, efficiently run, technically excellent High Performance Computing (HPC) center. Judy was awarded a Bronze Award.

Lee Ann Brainard was recognized with a Bronze award for her responsibility of over 800 UNIX and Linux systems throughout the laboratory and her assistance to the ARL Major Shared Resource Center with Unix, Linux and cyber security expertise. She and her team are also responsible for all internet protocol (IP) addressing within the Laboratory, currently over 9000 addresses are in use, and are responsible for the operation of one of the 13 root name servers on the Internet. Additionally, her leadership on the selection and deployment of the Army Research Laboratory’s enterprise backup solution has resulted in a significant increase in capability and efficiency of backups.

Rick Rinker is a cyber security analyst in the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Center for Intrusion Monitoring and Protection (CIMP). As an analyst within the CIMP he has had critical impact in thwarting cyber attacks against the DoD infrastructure with the intent to steal critical data that could impact the U.S. defense posture. In many of the most serious events the CIMP has uncovered, Mr. Rinker has been the first analyst to realize there is an issue with a particular pattern of network traffic. The value of the information that he protects is priceless. Rick received a Silver award from the FEB.

Congratulations to Judy, Lee Ann and Rick.

Nietubicz Inducted as AIAA Fellow

AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala

In Washington DC, on 11 May, 2005 the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) hosted an Awards Gala dedicated to honoring achievements in aerospace. Attending this black-tie event were some of the most influential and inspiring individuals in the industry to include CEOs/Presidents of leading defense industries and representatives from the DoD, NASA, FAA, and other government agencies. This special event featured guests of honor including the newly elected AIAA Fellows and Honorary Fellows as well as recipients of some of the industry’s most notable awards.

Four Honorary Fellows and thirty Fellows were honored at this momentous celebration. Our own ARL MSRC Director, Charles J. Nietubicz was honored as a 2005 AIAA Fellow for his outstanding contributions to the advancement and application of high performance computing in the aerospace sciences. Congratulations Charlie!