1. technology and computing

ADMINISTRATIVE AND SUPPORT UNIT REVIEW
SELF-STUDY REPORT SUBMISSION COVER SHEET
Cycle Year 2008-2009
The attached report is a:
Departmental/Unit Report
University Function Report
Department/Function Name:
Advanced Campus Services
[University Academic Technology
Services, research computing]
Submission Date:
October 31, 2008
Dept./Function Head’s Name:
Art Vandenberg
Self-Study Report Primary Writer/Editor
Art Vandenberg
Phone:
404-413-4743
Self-Study Report Team Members
Victor Bolet
Nicole Geiger
Jaro Klc
Mike Russell
Division or College:
IS&T
Dept./Function Head’s Supervisor
Name: Michael L. Russell
Title: Director, University Academic
Technology Services
Number of Subunits in Department
0
Number of Employees in Department/
Function: 5 (4 current;
1 new position, unfilled,
interviewing in process)
Peer Institutions Used for Comparisons:
Louisiana State University
(Southern Universities Group)
University of Georgia
(Board of Regents Peer Group
for Georgia State University)
Virginia Commonwealth University
(Board of Regents Peer Group
for Georgia State University)
List of Appendices
Appendix A: Georgia State University
Strategic Plan items as related to Section
1.A
Appendix B: Unit’s Customer Feedback
Survey Results to Section II
Appendix C: Unit’s WEAVE (Institutional
Effectiveness) Annual Reports related to
Section III
Appendix D: Unit’s Summary Results of
Employee Survey related to Section IV
Appendix E: Material on Peer University
Research Computing
Date of this Draft 14/Oct/2008
IS&T ACS (University Academic Technologies Services – research computing)
10/14/1008
Advanced Campus Services
Administrative and Support Unit Review Self-Study
October 31, 2008
www.gsu.edu/ist/acs
I. Structure, Mission and Functional Responsibilities
A. 1. Advanced Campus Services (ACS) is a unit of Information Systems &
Technology (IS&T). As of June 2008, the unit dual reports to Director, University
Academic Technology Services (a unit of IS&T). This dual reporting collects all
Academic Technology activities of IS&T into a single unit – with the overall intent of
improving faculty focused information technology services. Prior to June 2008, ACS
reported directly to the Associate Provost Information Systems & Technology/CIO.
2. Mission of the unit.
Advanced Campus Services (ACS) provides systems and applications support for
research computing.
3. Department mission, support for missions and strategic plans of the division and
the university.
The department’s mission is to provide research computing infrastructure –
infrastructure being the technology, system management and user support services
required to make advanced computing useful to faculty in accomplishing their research
in such areas as molecular modeling, protein structure prediction and analysis, financial
analytics, econometric forecasting or other computational data analysis requiring large
amounts of computer time, storage or technology networks. Georgia State University’s
Strategic plan calls for increasing Research funding to $100 million by 2010. High
performance computing (HPC) infrastructure for research increases the opportunity for
advanced research and additional grants. Research computing infrastructure helps
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researchers address more complex problems (having compute power to do so), attracts
faculty and students (who see that Georgia State University has presence in advanced
research computing space), and establishes Georgia State University as a leader in
advanced computing for research (or at least more than just being a follower). See
Appendix A to see how unit aligns its mission with Georgia State University Strategic
Plan.
4. How is the mission communicated to unit staff and constituents?
As a small unit (5 positions) we have close communication with staff. IS&T, of course,
communicates its overall objectives via quarterly All Hands Meetings, an IS&T
Communication Committee, and weekly IS&T Directors meetings. Communications to
constituents are accomplished through a web site, the High-Performance Computing
Subcommittee (joint subcommittee to Senate Research and Information Systems And
Technology committees), news articles and publicity, collaborations on grants and
papers, or one-on-one support of high performance computing applications.
B. List the functional responsibilities of the unit. Note which of these are core functions.
Is the structure of the unit appropriate to meeting the unit’s functional responsibilities ?
Guide and support High-Performance Computing infrastructure – a core function
Support Research Faculty in the use of research computing – a core function
Provide effective communication channels with campus researchers – a core function
II. Services or Products Provided
A. What services/products does the unit provide? (Please list these by functional
responsibilities.)
Guide and support High-Performance Computing infrastructure
• Manage high-performance computing resources for research
 IBM Supercomputer (1.3 Teraflops -trillion floating point operations per sec);
 IBM BladeCenter Cluster (3.0 TeraFlops);
 Distributed PC computing;
 SURAgrid regional grid (12.2 Teraflops – in addition to GSU systems)
• Manage data storage services with full backup and off-site tape storage
• Manage a certificate authority that is a key to secure computing access
Support Research Faculty in the use of research computing
• Provide researchers with consulting and solutions for research computing
• Design and implement research computing policies and procedures for use of
HPC systems and to ensure fair share allocation of resources
• Provide application support for compilers, scientific libraries and applications
(such as, Gaussian, Amber, SAS, MATLAB or others that may be requested)
• Provide custom portals for application users (see URSA at http://pyxis.gsu.edu/)
Provide effective communication channels for campus researchers
• Maintain a web site (http://www.gsu.edu/ist/acs/index.html)
• Implement and manage a collaborative WIKI
(http://pyxis.gsu.edu/twiki/bin/view/ResearchComputing/WebHome)
• Provide a Analytics portal for viewing HPC usage (http://pyxis.gsu.edu:8095/)
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B. 1 Who are the unit’s customers? Consider also secondary customers and those
supported by your products or services such as faculty, department heads, and
administrators.
Research faculty, their labs (Post-Docs, students); VP Research; University System
Research schools and other institutions; SURA community (per MOU with SURA-GSU
related to acquisition of IBM Supercomputer).
2. How does the unit learn about the customers’ needs and obtain ongoing
feedback regarding products and service delivery?
The HPC Subcommittee is a forum for customer review and comment on research
computing. We also have regular communications with Assoc. Dean Graduate &
Research Studies College Arts & Sciences. The CIO and VP Research also provide key
avenues for customer requests and feedback. We also participate actively in SURA
community (ACS Director is Chair of SURAgrid Governance Committee; ACS staff are
on working committees). We ask that requests for service (new accounts, help with
applications, reporting of problems, etc.) be submitted to IS&T HELP Desk
(help@gsu.edu, 404-413-4357) so that Tickets (metrics) can be monitored and tracked.
3. From your customers’ perspective, how well does your unit understand and meet
their needs? In this section discuss pertinent results from your customer
feedback.
The Customer Survey with 9 questions (see Appendix B) was initiated September 19,
2008. Data from 10 responses was collected as of 5:00PM October 17, 2008. Email
announcing Survey was sent to rc-announce email list that goes to all users who have
requested an account on any research computing resource since Fall 2006 –
approximately 112 users as of October 2008.
Overall (though a small response set) we seem to meet customer needs.
For 6 of 7 questions, at least 8 of 10 respondents AGREED or STRONGLY AGREED:
• They were aware of Advanced Campus Services computing services
• Open communication channels existed to IS&T’s ACS
• ACS Staff were knowledgeable and helpful in assisting customers
• ACS Staff provided positive experiences
• IS&T research computing technology made a positive contribution to their
research results
There were only 7 of 10 AGREE and STRONGLY AGREE responses to a question
about awareness of ACS research computing website, with 1 STRONGLY DISAGREE
and 2 DISAGREE. This would suggest we could improve our web presence.
There was 1 DISAGREE response for:
• ACS Staff were knowledgeable and helpful in assisting customers
• IS&T research computing technology made a positive contribution to their
research results
as well as a STRONGLY DISAGREE for:
• They were aware of Advanced Campus Services computing services
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It would seem that these negative responses might call for a revised Survey question,
perhaps asking for open-ended “suggestions for how ACS can improve…”
4. How does the unit make potential customers aware of available services and
products (what the unit offers)?
HPC Subcommittee is a core communication avenue. We maintain a Web site
(http://www.gsu.edu/ist/acs/index.html); we’ve arranged workshops such as IBM briefing
on new products and features; PR and News Releases (with GSU, regional, national
audiences) are prepared when there are significant additions or changes in services.
5. Are there services or products that clients need or request which the unit cannot
provide? If so, please describe those services or products and discuss the
feasibility of providing them.
Yes. We’ve had requests for more computation, for advanced visualization, for more
training, interactive computing clusters and dedicated clusters. A major factor remains
funding. HPC resources are expensive and have a typical lifetime of 3 years – which
compounds the process of acquiring and maintaining currency. We have no
depreciation model, and there is not a percent (or formula) for applying research
overhead funds to acquire HPC resources. Another limiting factor is that acquisition of
hardware requires additional infrastructure costs such as space, special power,
specialized heating/cooling, network switches not to mention annual maintenance and
staffing support – all of which are costly. In acquiring new services, we try to evaluate
expected usage and balance costs against broad benefits. For instance, dedicated
clusters are difficult to justify compared to shared clusters that benefit a wider range of
researchers. A key factor in services delivery is not just acquiring the systems, but
helping researchers use them. Funding for staff (staff, post-Docs, PhD or Masters
students) who can help with application codes is limited. Having technical resources
without people resources can almost be worse than no technical resources at all.
C. 1. How are services prioritized and scheduled, and by whom?
We have developed a review process with the HPC Subcommittee, which consists of
knowledgeable research faculty who review and guide decisions in technology
acquisition, policy recommendation and strategy. The context for decision-making is
understanding national trends and best practices. We have input from CIO and VP
Research. We consult with peer institutions (University System and such as SURA
institutions) for viewpoints on strategic planning for research computing.
2. Do any laws, regulations, or other requirements external to the university impact
the provision of services/products? If so, please identify.
Funding limits seem to be key: cf. GRA funds cannot be used until bonds issued;
Georgia State (as a State agency) has no model for depreciation; year-end funds are
variable and occasional. So we cannot plan financing for technology upgrades.
Especially critical is response to technology changes – our constrained funding model
means we may lag on research computing infrastructure – and therefore with some
negative impact on research results and grants.
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State of Georgia salary ranges make hiring skilled support staff more difficult (this is not
uncommon in higher education). One solution is to promote/train from within, though
building skills that way can take a longer time.
3. How does the unit make its customers aware of its priorities, policies, and
procedures (how the unit operates)?
We use our Web site; meet (during Academic year) with HPC Subcommittee; have
direct meetings with Asso. Dean Graduate & Research Studies College Arts & Sciences
(Chairs HPC Subcommittee); meet (about quarterly) with VPR; have various campus
contacts on specific research computing support topics (for instance, data storage for
Public Urban Health Research; SAS support for Robinson College of Business Faculty;
Matlab site license for campus users…); participate in new faculty fall orientation; have
“hours” in The Exchange – Faculty Resource Center (http://www.gsu.edu/28320.html).
Required Appendix: Summary of results from customer feedback data (e.g., surveys
and/or focus groups). These data should cover both actual and potential customers and
should be designed to fit the specific needs of the unit under review. See Appendix B
III.
Unit Outcomes and Accomplishments
A. 1. What are the unit’s current Intended Outcomes?
• Objective 1: The university community has access to reliable, up-to-date technology
resources.
• Objective 2: The university community participates in the development and review of
strategic and tactical technology goals in support of the university’s missions.
• Objective 3: Effective communications channels exist between the university
community and IS&T regarding technology support for academic, research and
administrative activities.
2. Explain how they relate to the defined mission and functional responsibilities of
the unit. Do current Intended Outcomes cover all of the unit’s core functional
responsibilities? If not, please explain.
These intended outcomes (Objectives 1, 2, 3) are aligned across all of Information
Systems & Technology (Advanced Campus Services, as part of University Academic
Technology Services, is a part of IS&T). The Objectives/Intended Outcomes are directly
correlated to ACS Unit functional responsibilities:
• Guide and support High-Performance Computing infrastructure (Objective 1)
• Support Research Faculty in the use of research computing (Objective 2)
• Provide effective communication channels for campus researchers (Objective 3)
3. How were these Intended Outcomes developed and how were they
communicated to staff and constituents?
These Intended Outcomes were established through an IS&T wide process of reviewing
IS&T functions, services and customers and aligning them directly with identified
elements of the Georgia State University Strategic Plan. Once the Intended Outcomes
were agreed to by IS&T’s units, each unit was charged to develop specific action items
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to advance these outcomes. This was done within the context of the University’s
Effectiveness Measures initiative.
B. 1. What indicators does the unit use to measure its performance on intended
outcomes (Effectiveness Indicators)?
• Objective 1: The university community has access to reliable, up-to-date technology
resources.
Indicator 1: Increased computing cycles available.
Indicator 2: Measure of researcher accounts using HPC.
• Objective 2: The university community participates in the development and review of
strategic and tactical technology goals in support of the university’s missions.
Indictor 3: Engagement with participation of researchers.
• Objective 3: Effective communications channels exist between the university
community and IS&T regarding technology support for academic, research and
administrative activities.
Indicator 4: Information and communication articles.
Indicator 5: Broad set of meeting forums for researcher input.
Indicator 6: IST Research Computing participation in grants.
2. Describe what actions the unit has taken to improve performance based upon its
analysis of the data collected on the effectiveness indicators. (Include any
current strategies, goals, and objectives developed to improve performance.)
We focused on our 3 objectives: up-to-date technology; broad engagement/input of
researchers; communication channels. We chose metrics that we believed would be
reasonable indicators and worked to improve the metrics. In some cases, we revised or
adjusted the metrics. For instance, initially we did not have good data on CPU hours
used or jobs submitted by researchers, so we looked at the number of accounts issued
to researchers or at the number of Help Tickets submitted as proxies for activity. But as
we were able to collect CPU usage and jobs submitted data, we added these measures.
In another case, to assess open communication channels we initially measured the
number of meetings with researchers or their working groups, but having established
the High-Performance Computing Subcommittee, ongoing communication with VP
Research Office, and other regular forums, we are not tracking individual meetings. It is
likely that we will add metrics to track the number of publications or amount of grant
funding that correlates to availability or use of High-Performance Computing technology.
3. What are the unit’s most notable accomplishments for the past three years?
• Provided High-Performance Computing infrastructure for Georgia State,
increasing high-performance computing resources. (see graphic following)
• Increased staff from 2 to 4 (with a 5th position being recruited) from FY2005 to
present.
• High-Performance Computing Subcommittee established.
• Research Computing web site, dashboard, collaborative Wiki implemented.
• Established strong relationship with IBM as HPC vendor partner.
• Built strategic partnership with SURAgrid, including benefits of vendor discounts.
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•
•
•
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Increased funding for research computing through collaboration with Areas of
Focus (Molecular Basis of Disease; Brains & Behavior) and VP Research.
Obtained $131,750 in grant funding through 4 proposals.
21 Publications related to high-performance computing research.
Required Appendix: Unit’s Annual Reports for the past 3 years.
Appendix C: See WEAVE reports from FY2006, FY2007 and FY2008:
ACSweaveFY2006.pdf; ACSweaveFY2007.pdf; ACSweaveFY2008.pdf
IV. Organization and Climate
A. 1. For any services/products provided by the unit in conjunction with other units
within the university, please describe the relationship.
As of June 2008, ACS is now a component of Information Systems & Technology’s
University Academic Technology Services (UATS). UATS is intended to collect into one
unit the IS&T support for faculty teaching and research. This reflects IS&T’s intention to
better communicate its services for faculty. ACS research computing works closely with
the IS&T Technology Infrastructure (TI) unit as TI manages the operations center in
which the research computing equipment is housed. ACS research computing works
closely with IS&T Help Center as its source of 1st Level Support for research computing
(and have an established Operation Level Agreement detailing the relationship.)
2. How is the work coordinated between or among units?
Information Systems & Technology has IS&T Directors’ Meetings on a weekly basis in
which the CIO meets with all his Directors and senior managers to review progress and
coordinate activities among IS&T units.
3. How can such relations be facilitated?
They are being facilitated by CIO, by weekly IS&T Directors Meetings, by ongoing IS&T
Communications Team activities, and through direct ACS unit (UATS) communications
with IS&T Technology Infrastructure and IS&T Help Center.
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B. Are duplicate or parallel services offered within the unit or elsewhere in the
university? Describe any potential or apparent overlap and discuss what changes
might be indicated (e.g., centralization, coordination, elimination of duplication).
Research Computing services are supported at the campus-wide level only by ACS
unit. IS&T’s CIO is leading IS&T-wide review beginning with customer services and
Help Center and continuing with Service Catalog of IS&T services that are being
reviewed to eliminate redundancy and improve effectiveness through consolidation.
There are likely further efficiencies to be gained by reviewing other research computing
services among Colleges and departments and considering possible value of
coordination and/or consolidation.
C. 1. What are the unit’s (1) planning, (2) decision-making, and (3) individual and (4)
unit performance evaluation processes?
We have strong direction from CIO in aligning our unit’s actions with University Strategic
plan. We inform our planning and decision-making by research and study of national
initiatives and best practices, as well as from collaboration with peer universities
(University System, SURA, or other institutions) and our vendor partners (IBM in
particular). Our Employee Evaluation process follows university guidelines and is
coordinated by IS&T’s Human Resources Liaison. We follow Institutional Effectiveness
practice with annual WEAVE reporting tracking our metrics to improve effectiveness.
2. Who is involved in each?
ACS Unit Director works with IS&T Management team (led by CIO and including other
IS&T unit Directors.) All ACS Unit staff are involved in IS&T-wide communications and
work with the ACS Unit Director to set goals and meet performance targets.
3. How does the reward structure within the unit (including recognition, promotion,
and merit salary increases) support unit performance?
We seek to align performance with reward of course – but we also seek to align
personal/professional interest with work (i.e. find the things that individual staff are
interested in… to the extent possible.)
D. 1. How are individual and unit work responsibilities and expectations determined?
We align our unit objectives with IS&T objectives – which are specifically aligned with
University Strategic Plan objectives. ACS staff work together on implementing annual
goals identified for research computing. In addition to core responsibilities (e.g. lead
system admin for IBM System p5; system admin for Tivoli Storage Manager; system
admin for portals, wiki and user application support…), each staff takes on project
specific roles (e.g. lead for project, or assigned to sub-tasks). Staff consult with each
other and ACS Director to determine priorities based on customer requirements,
available resources, competing projects and other factors. Once roles are agreed to,
staff will work relatively independently on their tasks, coordinating as needed with each
other where needed. Weekly staff meetings, project specific progress reports (verbal,
email, documents), and annual personnel evaluation process are all opportunities to
review progress toward goals and adjust schedules or assignments to ensure success.
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2. How are they communicated to the employees of the department?
ACS Unit has weekly staff meetings; we meet with IS&T in quarterly staff meetings;
ACS Unit participates in the IS&T Communications team and understands the overall
goals of IS&T communications, customer service, and effectiveness initiatives.
E. 1. Please describe the general morale, attitude, and culture of the Unit. (Note: If
detailed explanations of employee survey data are required, please include this
discussion in the appendix.)
We have a small size and have worked closely over the past three years to build our
services. Excepting the Director, all 3 current staff employees come to the department
by way of being student assistants (2 from ACS, 1 from Student Recreation Center),
graduating, and continuing with research computing activities that they supported as
student assistants. In this sense, there is a strong sense of camaraderie in having built
the research computing services from an initial idea to an effective, robust service.
Probably the most challenging aspect of our unit is the need to add personnel to keep
pace with the growing demand.
The Employee Survey (Appendix D) has a small sample size, which should be
remembered in any analysis (the mean can be skewed rather dramatically by outliers –
either positive or negative.)
Items of concern from the Survey are where the ACS Mean is less than University
and/or the %Rank is low compared to other Administrative Units:
• “I am confident that my unit/department is meeting our customer’s needs.”
Mean=3.0; University Mean=3.90; %Rank=4. (SD=.816) This may indicate a need to
make sure that we agree on customer needs or, at least, agree on our approach and
how to monitor/improve. Being below University Mean and of low %Rank would
indicate there is room for improvement at least.
• “I have access to al the data/information I need to do my job right.” Mean=3.75;
University Mean=3.66; %Rank=41. (SD=.500) While a little above University Mean,
the %Rank seems to show we could improve with respect to other units. Would
recommend that we be sure to ask the question “Do you have what you need to
complete the task…?” each time we take on project tasks.
• “I clearly understand what is expected of me in a typical work day.” Mean=4.25;
University Mean=4.24; %Rank=45. (SD=.500) Though at University Mean, %Rank is
below middle, indicating an opportunity to improve communication of expectations.
Perhaps something like a written (email) “Tasks planned this week” would help ACS
as a group clarify and coordinate on expectations and perhaps highlight mismatches
that should be addressed.
• “I have the materials and equipment necessary to do my job well.” Mean=4.00;
University Mean=3.88; %Rank=48. (SD=.816) Standard deviation may indicate at
least some extreme that could be addressed, especially given that %Rank is
mediocre. This may also reflect symptoms of tight budgets in reducing training or
other resources?
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Positive Items from the Survey are where the ACS Mean higher than University
and/or the %Rank is high compared to other Administrative Units:
• “I am held accountable for the quality and quantity of my work.” Mean=5.00;
University Mean=4.40; %Rank=96. (SD=.000)
• “Someone at work encourages me to increase my skills.” Mean=4.75; University
Mean=3.62; %Rank=95. (SD=.500)
• “I get the training I need to do my job well.” Mean=4.50; University Mean=3.61;
%Rank=90. (SD=.577)
• “At work, my opinions matter.” Mean=4.50; University Mean=3.58; %Rank=88.
(SD=.577)
In general, these positive items indicate that the staff understand the accountability of
their work, have mentoring and training opportunities, and feel comfortable that their
input is heard and taken seriously. This sets pretty good communication channels for
continuing and improving overall morale.
2. What measures are taken to ensure that the unit is appropriately sensitive to the
cultural backgrounds of staff and customers?
Nothing specific comes to mind other than the ongoing University emphasis on cultural
diversity awareness. It is noted the current 4 staff represent 25% female, 50% AfricanAmerican or Hispanic, 25% first generation American; 25% foreign born immigrant. Our
students have been from India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan as well as the U.S. Our
customers (faculty and/or graduate students) are similarly diverse and we work well with
our customers.
Required Appendix: Summary results of employee survey. (See Appendix D).
V. Resources
A. 1. Budget allocation and expenditure summary for the past three fiscal years.
FY2009
FY 2008
FY 2007
FY 2006
ACS
Budgeted Budgeted Expended Budgeted Expended Budgeted Expended
Personal
$367,838 $289,445
$253,975
$215,515
Svcs.
Travel
$ 6,873 $ 7,650
$ 9,277
$ 1,000
Operating $ 20,509 $ 26,082
$ 23,633
$ 1,650
Supplies
Equip.
$
0 $ 5,000
$
0
$
0
Total
$395,220 $328,177 $328,177 $286,885 $286,885 $218,265 $218,265
ACS
Other IST
$ 82,575
$ 66,977
$ 19,822
funds for
Research
IS&T
$395,220 $328,177 $410,752 $
$353,862 $
$238,087
TOTAL
VPR fund
$ 38,667
$ 77,299
$
0
GRA fund
$375,000
$316,361
$
0
Year End
$
0
$
0
$585,000
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Research $395,220
Comp.
GRAND
TOTAL
$328,177
$824,419
$286,885
$747,522
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$218,265
$823,087
2. Indicate how resources are spent on each of the core functional activities
identified in Section I.B.
There is correlation between the funding for hardware, operations and staff and the
ability to acquire, manage and maintain high-performance computing resources. NOTE:
In the second chart below (Available Research HPC CPU Hours…), the ATIPA is the
first compute cluster acquired as a shared resource; it was phased out in early FY2008.
ACSgrid is a staff-built development and test cluster used to test grid technology.
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3. To what extent does the budget allocation and its utilization allow unit outcomes to
be realized?
High-performance computing resources are costly to acquire, maintain and
operate. 3-year useful life expectancy is common and failure to maintain reasonably
state-of-the-art technology can negatively impact the capability for research results.
Staff funding is especially important for managing technical components and, very
importantly, for ensuring people are on hand to assist researchers in use of resources.
4. What is the decision-making process for the distribution of budget allocations
within the unit?
A) CIO B) VPR C) HPC Subcommittee D) some input from IT Steering Group
B. 1. Describe the staff complement for the unit (and subunits, if appropriate).
ACS research computing staff includes:
Director
Software Systems Engineer Lead (2 positions, one is new for FY2009 – being recruited)
Software Systems Engineer Intermediate (2 positions)
Graduate Research Assistant (3 positions, but 1 eliminated, 1 reduced due to cutbacks)
2. To what extent does the staff allocation and deployment allow the unit’s
outcomes to be realized?
We’ve grown from 1.5 in FY2003 to 5 as of 9/2008. Staffing is important for technology
management but probably even more important in working with researchers to help
them use the technology. A significant improvement in services could be obtained with
more staffing to be deployed in application assistance.
3. How does the unit backup critical staff functions?
We cross-train by having a primary and secondary for key functions; we have good
vendor relationships – and, very importantly, maintain hardware maintenance contracts
most effectively done by not running hardware after useful life (when maintenance
becomes more expensive). We maintain good relations with SURAgrid peer institutions
as they can provide valuable technical knowledge.
4. Do employee skills match the unit’s foreseeable needs? (How is the need for
skills determined? How is training and cross-training provided? How is the
acquisition of new skills and knowledge encouraged? )
Our major challenge is the fast pace of change for complex technology. We try to focus
skill sets and have trained all 3 current staff in AIX – the core operating system of our
IBM Supercomputer. We target AIX skills as the basis for future HPC systems from IBM.
We are seeking a Linux staff, as we need that specialization. We also have Tivoli
Storage Management and Globus Grid technology skills as key to our unit. Additionally,
we are building application skills in Gaussian, Amber, SAS, and Matlab – mostly from
aspect of how-to-use the applications (rather than the science or research per se.) We
have provided training using IBM training centers (in Atlanta to minimize travel costs), or
application vendor sites (SAS, MATLAB…). Where certifications are possible, staff
performance evaluation is tied to achieving certification (cf. AIX System Administration).
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C. 1. What is the space, facilities, and technology allocation (describe the quantity and
quality)?
As for staff workspace, ACS unit staff has 2 offices and 4 cubicles in Commerce
Building 10th floor. Staff have at least a desktop and/or laptop as their key work
computer, though larger monitors for analytics and systems administration are available.
Facilities related to HPC systems are housed in the IS&T Technology Operations
Center. There are 2 full racks (4’ X 6’ floor space with heights to 7’-8’) for the IBM
System p Supercomputer, the Storage Area Network and tape backup system; a full
rack for the IBM 1350 Cluster; the equivalent of 6 racks space of custom design for ACS
development grid resources. These systems have Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS),
special high-capacity power connections, Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC)
systems that require significant space, and networking equipment. One rack of a
Supercomputer usually requires at least 2 additional racks for UPS, HVAC, networking
and storage. So 4’ X 6’ supercomputer can end taking 3 times that space. All racks
require clearance of at least 2’ front and back, so a 4’ X 6’ Supercomputer and two
additional racks requires 120 to 160 sq. feet of special raised floor, high ceiling space.
September 2008 we acquired 2 additional IBM System p racks to be installed 2009.
2. To what extent do the allocation and its utilization allow unit outcomes to be
realized?
Fitting equipment into limited space (about 5,000 sq. ft.) is a challenge – campus needs
significant data center solution – especially when addressing high-performance
computing which typically has high power, networking and air conditioning needs.
D. 1. What changes could be made to produce greater efficiencies or economies of
scale (e.g., reduction, modification, or elimination of paperwork; structural
reorganization)?
ACS unit tries to use IS&T Financial, Human Resource, and administrative staffing as
much as reasonable – as we have no admin staff. A specific economy of scale initiative
is the CIO’s recent (June 2008) consolidation of faculty related services units of IS&T
into one unit: University Academic Technology Services. Three units (University
Educational Technology Services, Library Support Services and ACS) are therefore
better balanced in size, resources and voice as compared to other IS&T units (such as
Planning Strategic Initiatives, Technology Infrastructure, or University Information
Services.) As IS&T’s UATS continues in FY2009 and beyond, we expect additional
opportunities for economies of scale and efficiency. For instance, rather than ACS
preparing research computing training on its own, it can leverage expertise from UATS
staff with expertise in development of pedagogical instruction modules.
2. What constraints (e.g., resources, personnel, technology) must the unit address
to achieve these?
Staffing resources are important whether at the ACS unit level itself, the IS&T University
Academic Technology Services unit (of which ACS is now the Research Computing
unit), or IS&T itself. Capital funding is particularly important to maintain currency in
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research computing infrastructure. UATS research computing is working the IS&T
FullCost Maturity Modeling initiative to create a capital depreciation model that promises
to establish a sustainable formula to funding such capital.
VI. Peer Comparisons
A. If appropriate and available, please provide data to indicate how the unit compares
with similar units at peer institutions (e.g., Urban 13+, BOR peer institutions) in terms
of structure, responsibilities, # of employees, and budget. Information from the unit’s
professional organization can be used in lieu of selected peer institutions. If
comparisons are not appropriate or if data are not available, please explain why not.
Peer Institutions.
Louisiana State University, University of Georgia and Virginia Commonwealth
University. Visited web sites, located Information Technology (CIO) equivalent sites
and found “research computing and/or high performance computing” related sections.
Appendix E has more extended excerpts of the materials reviewed (URLS and quoted
sections of relevant pages) from which are provided the following comparisons.
A. 1 – Louisiana State University, http://www.lsu.edu/ (Southern University Group)
Enrollment: 28,019
67th Public University - U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 America’s Best Colleges
Research Expenditures: $54,040,693 (Fall 2007)
Total Revenues: $737,135,454
Information Technology Services, http://www.lsu.edu/its/
Structure: Vice Chancellor for IT/CIO office has “Research IT Enablement” unit
reporting to it. Research IT Enablement unit is a joint effort of Information Technology
Services and the Center for Computation & Technology (CCT).
Responsibilities: “Information Technology Services (ITS) enables the IT resources
used by LSU students, staff, and faculty. ITS’s divisions include the Vice Chancellor for
Information Technology, LOUIS – the Louisiana Library Network, User Support &
Student IT Enablement, University Information Systems, Research IT Enablement,
and Networking and Infrastructure. ITS’s nearly 170 staff members create and
maintain vital university systems like course registration and payroll; provide network,
wireless and telephone connectivity campus-wide; house the computational resources
used by many LSU researchers; staff and maintain student computing labs; and
provide direct support to the thousands of computer users…”
Employees: 170 in Information Technology Services. Research Enablement (in
conjunction with CCT) has about 27 Research Staff (staff & faculty). It appears that
associated with CCT (a center) are 37 LSU Faculty (with some overlap in CCT Faculty
& Research Staff listing) and 3 Post-Docs.
Budget: $29,101,442 (source: 2007 Annual Report)
$ 9,000,000 CCT annual budget (source: email re CCT Director Search
RESEARCH ENABLEMENT, http://www.lsu.edu/its/re.html
“Research IT Enablement supports LSU researchers through the provision of high
performance computing resources, computational cycles, a robust network and
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infrastructure, tools, as well as specialized support and training. RE includes both
HPC (a joint effort of Information Technology Services and the Center for Computation
& Technology) as well as the statewide Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI).”
CCT HOME, http://www.cct.lsu.edu/home
CCT Mission Statement: “The LSU Center for Computation & Technology is an
innovative and interdisciplinary research environment for advancing computational
sciences, technologies, and the disciplines they touch. Our efforts branch out from the
center to serve Louisiana through international collaboration, promoting the progress in
leading edge and revolutionary technologies in academia and industry...”
HPC SYSTEMS, http://www.hpc.lsu.edu//systems/
LSU HPC Systems
Commissioned Systems
Tezpur: A 15.322 TFlops, 360 node, 2 Dual-Core processor Linux v4 cluster
from Dell, 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon 64bit processors and 4 GB RAM per node.
Pelican: A 2.797 TFlops Peak Performance, 30 node, 16 processor AIX v5.3
constellation from IBM, 1.9 GHz IBM POWER5+ processors and 32 GB RAM per node.
Nemeaux: A 0.256 TFlops, 32 node, dual processor Mac OS X v10.4 cluster
from Apple, 2.0 GHz Apple G5 processors and 2 GB RAM per node.
Santaka: A 0.192 TFlops, single node, 32 processor ProPack 4 - Linux SSI
from SGI, 1.5 GHz Intel Itanium2, 128 GB RAM per system.
LSU Researchers have access to additional LONI Systems, http://loni.org
1 Dell 50 teraflop Linux Cluster housed at the state's Information Systems Building
(Queen Bee: A 50.7 TFlops, 680 node. According to the June, 2007 Top500 listing,
Queen Bee ranks the 23rd fastest supercomputer in the world.)
4 Dell 5 teraflop Linux Clusters housed at LONI member institutions (4.772 TFlops,
128 node, 2 Dual-Core, 2.33 GHz Intel Xeon 64bit cpu, 4 GB RAM per node).
5 IBM Power5 575 AIX clusters housed at LONI member institutions (0.851 TFlops,
13 node, 8 processor AIX v5.3, 1.9 GHz POWER5 processors, 16 GB RAM per node).
A.2 – University of Georgia, http://www.uga.edu/ (Southern University Group)
Enrollment: 33,831
20th Public Research University - U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 Best Colleges
Research Revenue: $153,700,000
Total Revenues: $1,300,000,000
OFFICE OF THE CIO, http://www.eits.uga.edu/cio.php
Structure: Office of CIO Associate Provost, Enterprise Information Technology
Services, has Research Computing Architecture & Infrastructure reporting to an
Associate CIO Customer Service, Infrastructure & Operations, who reports to a Senior
Associate CIO, who reports to the CIO.
Responsibilities: “The Office of the CIO (OCIO) and Enterprise Information
Technology Services (EITS) are committed to the mission of UGA as a land-and-sea-
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grant institution where academics come first and the research extensive university
community encourages research efforts at the undergraduate and graduate levels.”
“The Research Computing Center (RCC http://rcc.uga.edu/) is the result of collaboration
between the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and the Office of the
Chief Information Officer (CIO). The Center provides high-performance computing
hardware and network infrastructure, as well as consulting and training services in
pursuit of its mission.
“The mission of RCC is to provide and support world-class research computing and
communications resources that enhance the productivity of researchers at UGA, enable
UGA researchers to accelerate the rate of new scientific and artistic breakthroughs,
enable collaborative research between UGA researchers and their peers at other
research institutions, provide effective access to information sources throughout the
world, and facilitate the efficient use of information technologies by providing training,
outreach, and consulting in the use of hardware and software resources.”
Employees: 222 full time; 77 student workers
EITS/Research Computing has 5 employees (Director; Asso. Director; Systems
Administrator Principal; Systems Administrator Asso.; Scientific Computing Professional
Principal.
Budget: $15 million in central funding; $8.5 million cost recovery units (EITS FactBook)
Overview of High Performance Computing Systems of Research Computing Center:
“One of the three primary machines is an IBM p655 cluster with 256 Power-4+
CPU's, and 512GB RAM. This computer has 1.5 Tflops of compute power, and is
primarily used to run compiled code (Fortran, C), and resource intensive scientific
applications such as Amber, Mathematica, R, Nwchem, and Gaussian.
“Another primary system is a Rackable-Systems Linux cluster, with 120 (dualprocessor) AMD Opteron nodes, and 24 (dual-processor) dual-core AMD Opteron
nodes, with the latter nodes having InfiniBand network connectivity. This system has
680GB of RAM, produces 1.6 Tflops of compute power, and is used for a diverse array
of applications, including GCG, SAS, Blast, MatLab, Clustal, Phylip, Hmmer, and
IPRscan.
“The third HPC computer is a Silicon Graphics Altix 3700, with 16 Itanium-64
processors and 32GB RAM. This machine runs a variety of software packages including
EMBOSS, Phred/Phrap/Consed, MEME, RepeatMasker, and Blast. The Altix is also
used for code compilation.”
A.3 – Virginia Commonwealth University, http://www.vcu.edu/ (Board of Regents peer
for Georgia State)
Enrollment: 32,000
One of Top100 Research Universities (http://www.vcu.edu/cie/analysis/facts/index.html)
Research Expenditures: $132,800,000
(http://www.gsu.edu/images/Downloadables/comparative.pdf)
Total Revenues: $816,355,000
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VCU Technology Services, http://www.ts.vcu.edu/
Structure: VCU Technology Services Chief Information Officer does not have a
research computing unit reporting to it. The VCU Center for the Study of Biological
Complexity's (CSBC) Bioinformatics Computational Core Laboratory maintains high
performance computers. Technical Services manages technology resources and
provides end-user support to researchers.
Responsibilities: VCU provides central computing resources dedicated to research.
These resources are managed by Technology Services (TS) and by the Center for the
Study of Biological Complexity's (CSBC) Supercomputing Systems Group. TS also
provides support services consisting of statistical consultation and database design
consults, online documentation and tutorials, training in Unix and statistical software
such as SAS and SPSS, reference manuals, and presentation and publication
resources such as scanners, color printing and slide scanners.
Employees: Approx. 200 staff in Technical Services.
6 CSBC Bioinformatics Computational Core Laboratories STAFF (Director; Faculty
Director of Research & Development; 4 technical staff).
Budget: Unable to locate any information.
VCU Central Computing Resources Dedicated to Research
Resources managed by Technology Services:
hubert.vcu.edu - Sun v880 - Unix statistical and database applications, 4
UltraSparcIII 750 MHz processors 8 GB RAM 216 GB internal disk storage 2 TB
Network Attached Storage
App2Go.vcu.edu -Windows mathematical and statistical applications, dual core
3.00 GZ processors 14 GB RAM Windows 2003 operating system Resources managed (CSBC) Supercomputing Systems Group:
gis.vcu.edu - Sun 420R - GIS applications
4 Sparc Ultra II 450 MHz processors, 4 GB RAM, 72 GB internal disk storage
bach.vcu.edu - Linux Beowulf cluster - computationally intensive applications
500 processors, 2.6 GHz Opteron 1 TB RAM (4GB-32GB per node), 2TB direct
attached Fiber Storage,16.8 TB internal disk storage (73GB per node)
linn.vcu.edu - Linux Beowulf cluster - computationally intensive applications
54 processors, 3.06 GHz PIV 64 GB RAM (2GB/ node) 2.2TB internal disk storage (66
GB per node)
watson.vcu.edu - Sun v880 - bioinformatics and statistical applications
8 UltraSparcIII 750 MHz processors, 32 GB RAM, 360 GB internal disk storage
fenn.vcu.edu - Linux server - bioinformatics cluster
70 processors 2 GHz G5, 140 GB RAM (4 GB per node), 2.6 GB internal disk storage
viz.vcu.edu - Sun v880 - visualization
6 UltraSparcIV 1.2 GHz processors, 2 Graphics Pipes, 24 GB RAM, 180 GB internal
disk storage,
Storage - 5 TB Networked Attached Fibre Storage, 5 TB Direct Attached Fibre
Storage, 34 TB Networked Attached Storage
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B. Analyze the differences and similarities between your operations and those of your
peer institutions (if applicable).
Georgia State University Comparison to 3 Selected Peer/Aspirational Schools
Enrollment
Total Budget
(revenue)
Research
Budget
IT Staff
GSU
27,137
LSU
28,019
UGA
33,831
VCU
32,000
$459,500,000
$737,135,454
$1,300,000,000
$816,355,000
$51,400,000
(revenue)
$54,040,693
(expenditure)
$153,700,000
(revenue)
$132,800,000
(expenditure)
170
170
222
200
IT Budget
$12,145,612
$29,101,442
$15,000,000
–
Research Staff
5
27
5
6
HPC Budget
$395,220
$9,000,000
–
–
Largest HPC
system (Tflops)
3.0
15.3
1.6
1.5 (estm)
2nd Largest
HPC system
1.3
2.8
1.5
–
NOTE: This is table is for general comparison only – can’t guarantee figures as they
may reflect different years or different metric (e.g. revenue vs. expenditure).
There are 4 key points I would suggest are relevant in analyzing Georgia State
University and the three selected peer/aspirational universities:
1. These are probably more aspirational universities than peer (though LSU seems
more of a peer to Georgia State). These schools can be considered flagship institutions
for their states, with significantly more Total Budget, rather larger enrollments.
2. LSU seems to have leveraged its High Performance Computing to highest degree,
establishing a center that is a resource for their campus researchers, with relationship to
the IT unit for support of infrastructure. Georgia State University, given the level of its IT
Budget and HPC funding, seems to be on a reasonable track if one considers the HPC
systems deployed by IT/Research.
3. Georgia State University seems to be taking an appropriate approach to building HPC
resources that are “enterprise focused”, meaning that these are shared resources for
the benefit of a wide group of researchers and research applications. LSU seems to
have taken this “enterprise focus” farthest (of the schools compared) and this would
suggest that Georgia State University is well advised to continue along its current,
similar path.
4. Funding can be helpful, though it would appear that UGA and VCU, even with large
Total and Research Budget than LSU, are not necessarily keeping up with their HPC
systems – which appear to be a bit older and providing less overall aggregate power (as
measured in Teraflops.) I would argue that Georgia State University’s “enterprise
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focused” strategy is helping it become competitive in support of Research Computing –
which is IS&T’s Research Computing mission.
VII. Summary of Report and Strategic Directions
A. 1. Overall, what are the unit’s greatest strengths?
• Visionary but practical – with measurable progress since FY 2005.
• Working cooperatively to resolve constraints.
• Willing to train/mentor to develop staff.
• Strategic alignment to Georgia State, University System, regional/national initiatives.
2. How can the unit leverage the strengths that already exist?
Work cooperatively with University System schools toward shared resource centers –
working together, not independently; pooling resources (cf. SURAgrid). Use specific
skills to offer services to wider audience (University System researchers) and by so
expanding also benefit Georgia State research.
3. Can the strengths be improved upon?
Yes. Continue measuring and monitoring key metrics; keep well informed as to peer
institutions’ approach to research computing; stay informed of national research
computing infrastructure best practices; continue to invest in staff through on-the-job
cross-training and/or training opportunities with technical or application vendors;
continue to communicate information, listen to and respond to customers requirements.
B. Describe any changes or modifications that would improve your unit’s effectiveness.
(Please include corrective activities as well as quality or service improvements).
1. What, if any, changes are indicated in the unit’s current mission and functional
responsibilities (Section I)
• Adding faculty to ACS unit staff – to better assist researchers.
• Develop Georgia Cyberinfrastructure Alliance.
• Establish sustainable funding model – at least track actual cost of services.
2. What, if any, changes are indicated in the services/products provided to clients
by the unit? (Section II)
• Keep technology current.
• Include visualization services.
• Include Humanities; Law; and Health and Human Science customers.
3. What, if any, changes are indicated in the unit’s intended outcomes and
effectiveness indicators? (Section III)
Reflect expanded customer base (measure and track).
Increase use of SURAgrid resources (significant resources available).
Establish some Return on Investment metric to analyze effectiveness of investments.
4. What, if any, changes are indicated in the unit’s organizational structure,
processes, and climate? (Section IV)
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Continued alignment with VP Research (see Org Chart dotted lines for instance).
5. What, if any changes are indicated in the unit’s resources (budget, space,
staffing, technology, etc.)? (Section V)
Create sustainable funding model to expand resources for Georgia State researchers.
C. Using the format given below, please recommend 1-, 3-, and 5-year goals for your
unit based on the information discussed in Section B above. (Consider appropriate
time frames, priorities, and how progress will be quantifiably measured.)
One-year goals
Prioritized recommendation(s)
Measures of progress
1. Increase campus Research Computing resources.
Measure: Track to at least double every 18 months
2. Increase Georgia State researchers using SURAgrid resources.
Measure1: Increase Georgia State users on SURAgrid, jobs submitted, CPU hrs used.
Measure 2: Establish CASE STUDIES of researcher exemplars using HPC.
3. Establish showcase HPC for Petit Science Teaching Laboratory
Measure: Plan and progress toward build out of 1,500 sq. ft. space 4th floor Petit.
4. Kick off Georgia Cyberinfrastructure Alliance
Measure: Ongoing collaboration with University of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia
around high-performance computing infrastructure (compute, storage, etc.)
Three-year goals
Prioritized recommendation(s)
Measures of progress
1. Establish Georgia State leadership in SURAgrid Green HPC Cyberinfrastructure
initiative.
Measure: SURAgrid Green HPC Cyberinfrastructure initiative established with goals.
2. Establish sustainable (funded) HPC service for under-served researchers in
University System.
Measure: Increase in number of University System researchers with access to
competitive HPC resources.
3. Create Humanities cyberinfrastructure.
Measure: Engagement of liberal arts researchers with cyberinfrastructure supporting
their research (cf. remote music collaboration or performances using high-bandwidth
networks; large data stores for archival videos or annotated knowledge bases; visual
arts support; collaborative technologies for researchers.)
Five-year goals
Prioritized recommendation(s)
Measures of progress
1. Establish “Center” for high-performance scientific research computing that supports
University System and other regional schools requiring access to cyberinfrastructure.
Measure: Sustainable funding, research and publications.
2. Place Georgia State University in Top500 Supercomputer list.
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Appendix A
Georgia State University Strategic Plan items as related to Section 1.A:
Section 1.A.3
Objective 1: The university community has access to reliable, up-to-date technology
resources.
Related Georgia State University Strategic Plan Initiatives:
A-3: Graduate Experience
B-1: Faculty
C-2: Interdisciplinary Programs
D-3: Technology
E-1: Financial Support
Associated Institutional Priorities:
G1-1: Targeted programs of distinctiveness that are nationally and internationally
recognized
G1-4: Dynamic, intellectual and physical environment that stimulates scholarship,
creativity, & innovation
G1-5: Recruitment, retention, development and promotion of high-quality faculty and
staff
G2-1: Applied focus based upon a strong foundation of excellence in the liberal arts
and sciences
G3-2: Participation in partnerships that have a positive impact on the community,
state, and nation
G4-3: Effective utilization of resources
Objective 2: The university community participates in the development and review of
strategic and tactical technology goals in support of the university’s missions.
Related Georgia State University Strategic Plan Initiatives:
B-1: Faculty
C-2: Interdisciplinary Programs
D-3: Technology
Associated Institutional Priorities:
G1-1: Targeted programs of distinctiveness that are nationally and internationally
recognized
G1-4: Dynamic, intellectual and physical environment that stimulates scholarship,
creativity, & innovation
G2-1: Applied focus based upon a strong foundation of excellence in the liberal arts
and sciences
G3-2: Participation in partnerships that have a positive impact on the community,
state, and nation
G4-2: Development of alternative (non-state) resources
G4-3: Effective utilization of resources
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Objective 3: Effective communications channels exist between the university community
and IS&T regarding technology support for academic, research and administrative
activities.
Related Georgia State University Strategic Plan Initiatives:
B-1: Faculty
C-2: Interdisciplinary Programs
D-3: Technology
Associated Institutional Priorities:
G1-1: Targeted programs of distinctiveness that are nationally and internationally
recognized
G1-4: Dynamic, intellectual and physical environment that stimulates scholarship,
creativity, & innovation
G2-1: Applied focus based upon a strong foundation of excellence in the liberal arts and
sciences
G3-2: Participation in partnerships that have a positive impact on the community, state,
and nation
G4-2: Development of alternative (non-state) resources
G4-3: Effective utilization of resources
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Appendix B
Unit’s Customer Feedback Survey Results to Section II:
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Note: Customer Survey shown in Appendix B was initiated September 19, 2008.
Data shown reflects results of 10 responses as of 5:00PM October 17, 2008.
Email announcing Survey was sent to rc-announce email list. (RC-ANNOUNCE list
goes to all users who have requested an account on any research computing
resource since Fall 2006 – approximately 80 users as of October 2008.)
From: Victor Bolet <vbolet@gsu.edu>
Subject: [rc-announce] Administrative and Support Unit Review (ASUR) Customer
Feedback Survey
Date: September 19, 2008 4:51:39 PM EDT
To: rc-announce@mailbox.gsu.edu
Reply-To: rc-announce@mailbox.gsu.edu
Administrative and Support Unit Review (ASUR) Customer Feedback Survey
September 16, 2008
The IS&T University Academic Technology Services research computing unit
(established as Advanced Campus Services in January 2000) is preparing its
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required Administrative and Support Unit Review (ASUR) Report due October 31,
2008.
We invite our customers, or others interested in our research computing services, to
provide Customer Feedback by visiting the following URL
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=8tc7xuwiuUB1cFDPELxHgA_3d_3d
and responding to a short survey. Responses will be anonymous and we will post a
summary of results received by October 24, 2008 on our website
(www.gsu.edu/ist/acs).
Thank you in advance for your input.
_______________________________________________
rc-announce mailing list
rc-announce@mailbox.gsu.edu
http://mailbox.gsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/rc-announce
Additionally, the research computing main web page (http://www.gsu.edu/ist/acs/) has a
NEWS item at top of page inviting users to participate:
----- NEWS ----Please take our customer feedback survey to help us improve our research
computing services.
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Appendix C
Unit’s WEAVE (Institutional Effectiveness) Annual Reports related to Section III:
See WEAVE reports from FY2006, FY2007 and FY2008:
ACSweaveFY2006.pdf
ACSweaveFY2007.pdf
ACSweaveFY2008.pdf
NOTE: Online Weave Reports may have some slight edits and corrections compared to
the 3 reports attached here.
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Appendix D
Unit’s Summary Results of Employee Survey related to Section IV:
IS&T ADVANCED CAMPUS SERVICES
EMPLOYEE SURVEY FINDINGS
June 2008
N = 4 (response rate = 100.0 percent)
University (51 Units) N = 1072 (response rate = 90.8 percent)
Table 1
Mean*
SD
.816
Univ.
Mean*
3.88
%
Rank**
48
I have the materials and equipment
necessary to do my job well.
Someone at work encourages me to
increase my skills.
At work, my opinions matter.
I clearly understand what is expected of me
in a typical work day.
I get the training I need to do my job well.
I am confident that my unit/department is
meeting our customer's needs.
I receive feedback on my progress at work.
It is important to Georgia State that I do my
job well.
I am held accountable for the quality and
quantity of my work.
People let me know when I do a good job.
I have access to all the data/information I
need to do my job right.
My job makes good use of my skills and
abilities.
Overall, I would recommend my
unit/department as a good place to work.
4.00
4.75
.500
3.62
95
4.50
4.25
.577
.500
3.58
4.24
88
45
4.50
3.00
.577
.816
3.61
3.90
90
4
4.25
4.50
.957
.577
3.66
4.45
76
49
5.00
.000
4.40
96
4.50
3.75
.577
.500
3.64
3.66
88
41
4.00
.000
3.79
60
4.50
.577
3.88
77
*Mean range: 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree
**Percentile rank is based on 52 administrative units
IS&T ADVANCED CAMPUS SERVICES
EMPLOYEE SURVEY COMMENTS
June 2008
The following statements are in response to the comment section in the online
survey.
All responses are exported directly into a Word document without any changes to
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wording, punctuation, or grammar.
The main point of concern is that we are all overwhelmed with tasks. Hopefully, that will
be alleviated somewhat when we hire another staff person.
We are a small group (4) in a large administrative unit (175+). It is sometimes difficult to
get the 'face time' or attention needed to be as successful as we might be. We've been
growing our group and function (it was 1.5 persons in 2000-2004; grew to 3 by 2006;
now 4; a new person to be hired this quarter) and trust we can find a 'right size' to be
most effective for Georgia State.
Our department is incredibly understaffed. We have trouble keeping deadlines and
responding in a timely fashion to the needs of our customers because there are not
enough of us to handle the workload. Conversely, we also produce a tremendous
amount of work for the limited staff we have and have managed to create a research
computing culture on campus that previously was said to be impossible. It is time to
take our small department to the next level if we are to keep up with the present and
future generated demands of campus researchers.
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Appendix E
Material on Peer University Research Computing.
Georgia State University – For comparison:
Enrollment: 27,137
Top 100 public universities for doctoral degrees awarded
Research Revenue: $51,400,000 (Fall 2007)
(http://www.gsu.edu/images/Downloadables/comparative.pdf)
Total Revenues: $459,500,000
Southern University Group
Louisiana State University, http://www.lsu.edu/
http://appl003.lsu.edu/UNV002.NSF/(NoteID)/1A68AE39B921F251862574AD004EF395
?OpenDocument
“U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 edition of America’s Best Colleges, LSU is ranked in
the first tier for ‘Best National Universities’… 130th among 262 American public and
private universities in the United States. LSU ranks 67th when compared to public
universities only.”
Fall 2007 Facts
http://www.bgtplan.lsu.edu/quickfacts/fall2007/Fall%20Facts%202007.pdf
Enrollment: Undergrad= 23,397 Grad/Professional= 4,622 TOTAL= 28,019
2006-2007 Total Expenditures Research (Restricted) = $54,040,693.00
Total Expenditures Research (Unrestricted + Restricted) = $126,560,416.00
http://www.bgtplan.lsu.edu/budget/08-09/bor1.pdf
2008-2009 Expenditures by Function: Research = $58,489,115.00
http://www.bgtplan.lsu.edu/budget/08-09/bor3.pdf
Revenue Sources 2007-2008, Gifts, Grant & Contracts= $110,400,000.00
Total revenues by source
http://www.bgtplan.lsu.edu/TREND/finances/actual/revbysource.pdf
$737,135,454 for 2006-2007 (restricted and unrestricted)
Enrollment: 28,019
67th Public University - U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 America’s Best Colleges
Research Revenue: $110,400,000
Total Revenues: $737,135,454
http://www.lsu.edu/its/
Information Technology Services. 170 staff; HPC services in conjunction with CCT
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“Information Technology Services (ITS) enables the IT resources used by LSU
students, staff, and faculty. ITS’s divisions include the Vice Chancellor for Information
Technology, LOUIS – the Louisiana Library Network, User Support & Student IT
Enablement, University Information Systems, Research IT Enablement, and
Networking and Infrastructure. ITS’s nearly 170 staff members create and maintain
vital university systems like course registration and payroll; provide network , wireless
and telephone connectivity campus-wide; house the computational resources used
by many LSU researchers; staff and maintain student computing labs; and provide
direct support to the thousands of computer users here at LSU.”
http://www.lsu.edu/its/its/its_orgchart.html
IT STRATEGY
http://www.lsu.edu/departments/its/vcit/fits.html
“FLAGSHIP IT STRATEGY (FITS)
“Today, information technology (IT) is one of the most critical tools in higher education;
the great universities of the future will be those that have an exemplary IT infrastructure
and embrace IT services.
“The FITS team sets out to transform LSU from a university that simply tolerates
technology to one that truly embraces it. By meeting with task forces of university
members who represent information systems, infrastructure, research, student
experience, and teaching and learning, we hope to matriculate each of these areas into
interrelated enabled fields with as much bleeding edge technology as is reasonably
appropriate.
“The Flagship IT Goal will position Louisiana State University to be a national leader
among public universities in teaching and learning, research, the student experience,
outreach, community service, regional economic development, and promotion of lifelong learning.”
Vice Chancellor 2007 Annual Report,
http://www.lsu.edu/its/its/images/2007annualreport.pdf
“At the “high end,” the cyberinfrastructure assets and connectivity afforded to
computational-based researchers also positions LSU in the lead; no other institution has
the kinds of access and support provided by the partners in this endeavor – The Center
for Computation and Technology (CCT), the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI),
and Information Technology Services…”
“ ‘Today, LSU steps further onto the forefront of the national stage, solidifying its place
as a real supercomputing power. The presence of this kind of resource sets LSU into
the rarest of company when it comes to the enablement of research and teaching using
the latest and most powerful tools information technology has to offer. These are the
kinds of resources available only at top, flagship-level research institutions – and LSU
has them.’ - LS U Chancellor Sean O’Keefe
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‘Tezpur will dramatically advance our ability to study complex systems of importance to
the region and nation, such as coastal erosion or storm surges from hurricanes or
erosion, as well as providing insight into mysteries of the universe, such as computing
detailed signals from black holes and supernovae.’ - CCT Director Ed Seidel
”
“TEZPUR
New supercomputer Tezpur immediately advanced LSU’s standing into a top-tier highperformance computing environment. One of the most powerful supercomputers owned
by any university in the nation, Tezpur packs nearly 15 TeraFLOPS of capacity,
providing nearly three times its predecessor SuperMike’s computational speed.
“Named for one of the world’s hottest peppers, Tezpur consists of a Linux Intel Cluster
built by Dell that will deliver more than 11 million hours of computational resources and
be capable of performing approximately 15 trillion numerical operations per second.
“Tezpur marks the next step in LSU’s efforts to create a top-tier high-performance
computing environment and stems from the partnership between the LSU Center for
Computation and Technology (CCT), LSU Information Technology Services, and LSU
researchers.”
RESEARCH ENABLEMENT
http://www.lsu.edu/its/re.html
“Research IT Enablement supports LSU researchers through the provision of high
performance computing resources, computational cycles, a robust network and
infrastructure, tools, as well as specialized support and training. RE includes both
HPC (a joint effort of Information Technology Services and the Center for Computation
& Technology) as well as the statewide Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI).”
CCT HOME
27 Research Staff (staff & faculty); 37 associated CCT Faculty (there is some overlap in
CCT Faculty & Research Staff listing); 3 Post-Docs.
http://www.cct.lsu.edu/home
ABOUT:
The Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT, is an interdisciplinary research
center located on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La. CCT
advances LSU’s Flagship Agenda and promotes economic development for the state by
using computational applications to aid research and develop solutions that benefit
academia and industry.
CCT is an innovative research environment, advancing computational sciences,
technologies and the disciplines they touch. Researchers at CCT use the advanced
cyberinfrastructure –high-speed networks, high-performance computing, advanced data
storage and analysis and hardware and software development – available on campus to
enable research in many different fields. By uniting researchers from diverse disciplines,
ideas and expertise are disseminated across LSU departments to foster knowledge and
invention.
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Mission Statement
The LSU Center for Computation & Technology is an innovative and interdisciplinary
research environment for advancing computational sciences, technologies, and the
disciplines they touch. Our efforts branch out from the center to serve Louisiana through
international collaboration, promoting the progress in leading edge and revolutionary
technologies in academia and industry...View Expanded Mission Statement
FOCUS AREAS
All CCT research activities are organized into broad, interdisciplinary “focus areas,”
each led by a CCT faculty member. Staff within the focus areas develop research
agendas that share expertise and technologies across LSU departments, which makes
them eligible for federal grants. Focus areas are coordinated by the CCT Assistant
Director for Computing Applications, Gabrielle Allen, Ph.D., one of the lead creators of
the Cactus toolkit.
SEARCH CCT Director:
“From: "Daniel S. Katz" <d.katz@ieee.org>
Date: October 10, 2008 10:04:54 AM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Subject: CCT/LSU Director search
“DIRECTOR
Louisiana State University and A&M College (LSU) is conducting an international
search for Director of its Center for Computation & Technology (CCT). The CCT is an
innovative and interdisciplinary research environment that is taking an international
leadership role in advancing computational sciences, technologies, and the disciplines
they touch. It has an annual university budget of $9M to support this mission. The CCT
serves Louisiana through regional, national, and international collaborations, leading
progress through revolutionary advancement in academia and industry.
“The next Director will: have an outstanding scholarly record in computer science or
computational disciplines of sciences, engineering, or arts and qualify for a tenured
appointment in an appropriate academic department at LSU; have a demonstrated
record of working in and managing a multidisciplinary research organization; cultivate
an environment that enhances the research productivity of faculty and students at LSU
as well as at partner institutions throughout the state; serve as an ambassador to
regional, national, and international partners on large-scale computational and
technological issues; work with government and business leaders on issues relating to
economic development; and facilitate initiatives that promote computational science and
technology education throughout Louisiana…”
HPC HOME (30 Staff from ITS/CCT
http://www.hpc.lsu.edu//
High Performance Computing at LSU.
“In an effort to advance research and optimize user service, LSU's Center for
Computation & Technology (CCT) and Information Technology Services (ITS) have
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joined forces to create a central gateway to the high performance computing resources
and expertise of LSU: http://www.hpc.lsu.edu/. CCT and ITS are establishing a premium
computing environment that advances interdisciplinary research as well as research
within individual disciplines, and supports users with the best possible infrastructure to
carry out their research.
“Through this site, faculty researchers can view the systems and services available to
perform their research, open accounts for access to these computational resources, and
obtain the customer service and support that they need to successfully and smoothly
carry out their projects. By combining efforts, the CCT-ITS collaboration, coupled with
statewide projects like LONI, further positions Louisiana as a national leader, not only in
deploying the most progressive high-tech infrastructure, but also in advancing it for
scientific, engineering, arts, and business applications. Together, CCT and ITS are
building upon the current momentum to further strengthen Louisiana's intellectual
capital.”
HPC SYSTEMS
http://www.hpc.lsu.edu//systems/
LSU HPC Systems
Commissioned Systems
Tezpur: A 15.322 TFlops Peak Performance, 360 node, 2 Dual-Core
processor Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) v4 cluster from Dell with 2.66 GHz Intel
Xeon 64bit processors and 4 GB RAM per node.
Pelican: A 2.797 TFlops Peak Performance, 30 node, 16 processor AIX v5.3
constellation from IBM with 1.9 GHz IBM POWER5+ processors and 32 GB RAM per
node.
Nemeaux: A 0.256 TFlops Peak Performance, 32 node, dual processor Mac
OS X v10.4 cluster from Apple with 2.0 GHz Apple G5 processors and 2 GB RAM per
node.
Santaka: A 0.192 TFlops Peak Performance, single node, 32 processor
ProPack 4 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 (SLES9) SSI from SGI with 1.5 GHz Intel
Itanium2 processors and 128 GB RAM per system.
LONI Systems
HPC @ LSU provides consultation and administrative support for the following LONI
supercomputers.
1 Dell 50 teraflop Intel Linux Cluster housed at the state's Information Systems
Building (ISB)
Queen Bee: A 50.7 TFlops Peak Performance, 680 node, 2 Quad-Core
processor Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) v4 cluster from Dell with 2.33 GHz Intel
Xeon 64bit processors and 8 GB RAM per node. Housed at ISB. According to the
June, 2007 Top500 listing, Queen Bee ranks the 23rd fastest supercomputer in
the world. Half of Queen Bee's computational cycles is contributed to the
TeraGrid community as LONI joins TeraGrid.
6 Dell 5 teraflop Intel Linux Clusters housed at 6 LONI member institutions
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Eric: A 4.772 TFlops Peak Performance, 128 node, 2 Dual-Core processor
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) v4 cluster from Dell with 2.33 GHz Intel Xeon 64bit
processors and 4 GB RAM per node. Housed at LSU. Status: open for general use to
LONI users.
Oliver: A 4.772 TFlops Peak Performance, 128 node, 2 Dual-Core processor
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) v4 cluster from Dell with 2.33 GHz Intel Xeon 64bit
processors and 4 GB RAM per node. Housed at ULL. Status: open for general use to
LONI users.
Louie: A 4.772 TFlops Peak Performance, 128 node, 2 Dual-Core processor
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) v4 cluster from Dell with 2.33 GHz Intel Xeon 64bit
processors and 4 GB RAM per node. Housed at Tulane. Status: open for general use
to LONI users.
Poseidon: A 4.772 TFlops Peak Performance, 128 node, 2 Dual-Core
processor Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) v4 cluster from Dell with 2.33 GHz Intel
Xeon 64bit processors and 4 GB RAM per node. Housed at UNO. Status: open for
general use to LONI users.
5 IBM Power5 575 AIX clusters housed at 5 LONI member institutions
Bluedawg: A 0.851 TFlops Peak Performance, 13 node, 8 processor AIX v5.3
constellation from IBM with 1.9 GHz IBM POWER5 processors and 16 GB RAM per
node. Housed at LaTech.
Ducky: A 0.851 TFlops Peak Performance, 13 node, 8 processor AIX v5.3
constellation from IBM with 1.9 GHz IBM POWER5 processors and 16 GB RAM per
node. Housed at Tulane.
Zeke: A 0.851 TFlops Peak Performance, 13 node, 8 processor AIX v5.3
constellation from IBM with 1.9 GHz IBM POWER5 processors and 16 GB RAM per
node. Housed at ULL.
Neptune: A 0.851 TFlops Peak Performance, 13 node, 8 processor AIX v5.3
constellation from IBM with 1.9 GHz IBM POWER5 processors and 16 GB RAM per
node. Housed at UNO.
University of Georgia, http://www.uga.edu/
Barb White, David Matthews-Morgan, David Lee, Jerry NeSmith
Quick Facts
http://www.uga.edu/profile/facts.html
U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 “Best Colleges” edition has UGA tied for 20th
among national public research universities.
Annual budget (FY 2007) $1.3 billion (37.6% provided by the state of Georgia)
Research
Income (FY 2007) $153.7 million
Expend. (FY 2007) $332.6 million
Intellectual Property Income (FY 2007) $16.8 million
OFFICE OF THE CIO
http://www.eits.uga.edu/cio.php
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organization
http://www.eits.uga.edu/cio.php?l=2&c=Admin
functional org (includes Research Computing Architecture & Infrastructure)
http://www.eits.uga.edu/documents/pdf/functionalorgchart.pdf
Org chart
http://eits.uga.edu/orgchart/
250 employees;
Research Computing has Director, Asso. Director, Systems Administrator Principal,
Systems Administrator Asso, Scientific Computing Prof. Principal.
FACT BOOK
http://eits.uga.edu/brochures/pdf/EITS_FactBook.pdf
Vision
The vision identified through the UGA Chief Information Officer, and
the senior management of EITS, is to continue in the role of state and
national leader in information technology, and to be recognized as
the first source for knowledge and expertise in the area of information
technology. Attributes include demonstrated leadership, level of
expertise, next generation exploration of systems and applications
advancing connectivity and expanded functionality, and customer
service.
Mission
The Office of the CIO (OCIO) and Enterprise Information Technology
Services (EITS) are committed to the mission of UGA as a land-and-seagrant institution where academics come first and the research extensive
university community encourages research efforts at the undergraduate
and graduate levels. To that end, under the direction of the University’s
Chief Information Officer, EITS endeavors to provide a robust, reliable,
and secure Core information technology infrastructure, maintain essential
production services, and offer world-class support.
Budget and Financial Oversight
$15 million in central funding; $8.5 million cost recovery units.
Number of employees
222 full time; 77 student workers
Greater than 90% management Six Sigma trained
STRATEGIC CORE AREA
Enterprise Production Applications
Goal: Deploy and deliver enterprise applications which support the
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administrative, research, instructional, and outreach activities of the University
in a risk-managed, cost-effective, and continuously improved environment.
Services [Includes]:
• Research Applications
o High Performance Computing
o Statistical Software
ENTERPRISE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
http://www.eits.uga.edu/index.php
Research computing (http://rcc.uga.edu/)
“The Research Computing Center (RCC) is the result of collaboration between the
Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and the Office of the Chief
Information Officer (CIO). RCC is administered by Enterprise Information Technology
Services (EITS) and the Office of Research Services (ORS). The Center provides highperformance computing hardware and network infrastructure, as well as consulting and
training services in pursuit of its mission.
“Mission
The mission of RCC is to provide and support world-class research computing and
communications resources that enhance the productivity of researchers at UGA, enable
UGA researchers to accelerate the rate of new scientific and artistic breakthroughs,
enable collaborative research between UGA researchers and their peers at other
research institutions, provide effective access to information sources throughout the
world, and facilitate the efficient use of information technologies by providing training,
outreach, and consulting in the use of hardware and software resources.
“Strategic Goals
• Provide high performance, high capacity computing, storage, and communications
capacities available to researchers.
• Build a funding model, policies, and procedures that maximize the effectiveness of
IT resources purchased in support of research.
• Provide platforms for researchers to use in experiments, problem solving, and data
analysis.
• Provide policies, practices, and software in support of simple service level
agreements between RCC and its client researchers.
• Provide software to support best practices in fiscal management, laboratory
management, safety and regulatory compliance.”
Overview of Systems:
http://rcc.uga.edu/overview.html
“The Research Computing Center (RCC) at the University of Georgia supports several
high-performance compute (HPC) platforms. One of the three primary machines is an
IBM p655 cluster with 256 Power-4+ CPU's, and 512GB RAM. This computer has 1.5
Tflops of compute power, and is primarily used to run compiled code (Fortran, C), and
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resource intensive scientific applications such as Amber, Mathematica, R, Nwchem, and
Gaussian. Another primary system is a Rackable-Systems Linux cluster, with 120 (dualprocessor) AMD Opteron nodes, and 24 (dual-processor) dual-core AMD Opteron
nodes, with the latter nodes having InfiniBand network connectivity. This system has
680GB of RAM, produces 1.6 Tflops of compute power, and is used for a diverse array
of applications, including GCG, SAS, Blast, MatLab, Clustal, Phylip, Hmmer, and
IPRscan. The third HPC computer is a Silicon Graphics Altix 3700, with 16 Itanium-64
processors and 32GB RAM. This machine runs a variety of software packages including
EMBOSS, Phred/Phrap/Consed, MEME, RepeatMasker, and Blast. The Altix is also
used for code compilation.
“Data storage for all of the RCC computers is provided by network attached fas960 and
r200 disk clusters from Network Appliance. At present, total available storage capacity
on these storage clusters is 20TB.
“All of the RCC computing hardware is protected by a state of the art, hardware-based
Intrusion Protection System (IPS), which actively detects and prevents intrusions of all
RCC resources from outside networks.”
Board of Regents Proposed Georgia State University Aspirational or Peer
Peer Institutions
Virginia Commonwealth University, http://www.vcu.edu/
http://www.vcu.edu/about/
Virginia Commonwealth University is the largest university in Virginia and ranks among
the top universities in the country in sponsored research. Located on two downtown
campuses in Richmond, VCU enrolls nearly 32,000 students in 205 certificate and
degree programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-five of the programs are
unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU’s 15 schools and one
college. MCV Hospitals and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth
University compose the VCU Medical Center, one of the nation’s leading academic
medical centers.
VCU Fact Card 2007-2008
http://www.vcu.edu/cie/pdfs/factcard200708.pdf
Grants & Contracts Revenue: $164,300,000.00
FACTS
http://www.vcu.edu/cie/analysis/facts/index.html
One of the top 100 [99?] research universities in the country
Budget Plan 2008-2009
http://www.budget.vcu.edu/pdf/2008-09_budget_plan.pdf
Grant and Contracts $180,870,000
Total Sources = $816,355,000
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VCU Technology Services
http://www.ts.vcu.edu/
approx. 200 staff;
RESEARCH
http://www.ts.vcu.edu/research/
VCU's Technology Services(TS) has a variety of computer resources dedicated
specifically to research, including specialized Unix and Windows servers. The Center for
the Study of Biological Complexity's (CSBC) Bioinformatics Computational Core
Laboratory maintains high performance computers. These resources are available to
VCU faculty, staff and graduate students.
These central facilities are directly available to researchers in their offices, department,
labs or from off campus. Security is critical for research and every effort is made to
ensure the security of these machines and of the data on them.
TS also provides support services for VCU researchers, which consist of statistical
consultation and database design consults, online documentation and tutorials, training
in Unix and statistical software such as SAS and SPSS, reference manuals, and
presentation and publication resources such as scanners, color printing and slide
scanners.
TS also provides a wide variety of software critical to researchers on central servers and
for individuals desktops at little or no cost through site licenses and volume purchases.
http://www.ts.vcu.edu/research/avail_resources.html
VCU Central Computing Resources Dedicated to Research
VCU provides central computing resources dedicated to research. These resources are
managed by Technology Services (TS) and by the Center for the Study of Biological
Complexity's Supercomputing Systems Group.
Resources managed by Technology Services:
hubert.vcu.edu - Sun v880 - Unix statistical and database applications
4 UltraSparcIII 750 MHz processors 8 GB RAM 216 GB internal disk storage 2 TB
Network Attached Storage
Solaris 9 operating system Hubert accounts are available to current VCU faculty, staff
and graduate students. Undergraduates may use these resources for specific research
projects on request from and sponsorship by a VCU faculty member.
App2Go.vcu.edu -Windows mathematical and statistical applications
dual core 3.00 GZ processors 14 GB RAM Windows 2003 operating system Citrix App2Go accounts are available to current VCU faculty, staff and students.
Request an App2Go account
Resources managed by the Super Computing Systems Group of the Center for
the Study of Biological Complexity:
These resources are available to faculty, staff, and graduate students. Undergraduates
may use these resources for specific research projects on request from and
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sponsorship by a VCU faculty member.
gis.vcu.edu - Sun 420R - GIS applications
4 Sparc Ultra II 450 MHz processors
4 GB RAM
72 GB internal disk storage
To request a gis account
bach.vcu.edu - Linux Beowulf cluster - computationally intensive applications
500 processors, 2.6 GHz Opteron 1 TB RAM (4GB-32GB per node)
2TB direct attached Fiber Storage 16.8 TB internal disk storage (73GB per node) To
request a bach account
linn.vcu.edu -Linux Beowulf cluster - computationally intensive applications
54 processors, 3.06 GHz PIV 64 GB RAM (2GB/ node) 2.2TB internal disk storage (66
GB per node)
17TB NAS 2TB NAS To request a linn account
watson.vcu.edu - Sun v880 - bioinformatics and statistical applications
8 UltraSparcIII 750 MHz processors
32 GB RAM
360 GB internal disk storage
2TB NAS
To request a watson account
fenn.vcu.edu - Linux server - bioinformatics cluster
70 processors 2 GHz G5
140 GB RAM (4 GB per node)
2.6 GB internal disk storage (80GB per node)
viz.vcu.edu - Sun v880 - visualization
6 UltraSparcIV 1.2 GHz processors, 2 Graphics Pipes
24 GB RAM
180 GB internal disk storage
1TB NAS
Storage
5 TB Networked Attached Fibre Storage
5 TB Direct Attached Fibre Storage
34 TB Networked Attached Storage
Center for the Study of Biological Complexity
http://www.vcu.edu/csbc/resources_3.html
Bioinformatics Computational Core Laboratories
http://www.vcu.edu/csbc/bccl/
OVERVIEW
The Bioinformatics Computational Core Laboratories (BCCL) are located on the
first floor of the Trani Center. The facility, which occupies approximately 1500 square
feet, consists of three main laboratories plus offices.
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The Supercomputing Cluster contains a two tower, 64 node Beowulf Cluster with 32
Gbyte of SDRAM, 1 Terabyte of disk storage, a tape backup unit and an uninterruptible
power supply. In addition, a 12 Processor 1.2Ghz Sun/ /V1280 32GB RAM, 400GB
internal RAID, access to 2 TB NAS, a 64 Processor 3.06Ghz Sun Grizzly 72GB RAM
per node, access to 2 TB NAS have just been added. As part of its commitment to the
development of an Advanced Visualization Laboratory, a 6 Processor 1.2Ghz V880Z,
Visualization server, 24GB RAM, 151GB internal RAID, assess to 2 TB NAS is now
available. With these additions, the VCU CSBC supercomputing environment now has
the following hardware totals: 206 parallel processors in Beowolf Clusters, 130
processors of SMP machines, 5.5 TB central storage(including nodes on the Beowolf,
Fibre Channel, etc.) and 5.2 TB CSBC storage (includes nodes on the Beowolf and
servers). Genomics and proteomics software and databases are mounted on and
maintained on the server for access across VCU. Additional processors are being
added. The Cluster is networked to the University Backbone with GigaBit Ethernet.
The Instructional/Videoconferencing Lab contains teaching, distance learning, and
video conferencing capabilities. It has 12 student and one instructor stations, projection
capabilities and plasma screen displays, distance learning and videoconferencing
equipment, and other equipment required for instruction.
The Research Core Lab contains 8 high-end Intel double boot (Windows/Linux)
workstations for research applications. These workstations will be available for use by
CSBC Fellows and Associates for short or long term applications. This Research Core
also serves as a smaller scale instructional facility, with projection and teaching
capabilities. These rooms are all linked to the University backbone through a dedicated
Gigabit Ethernet link.
The SuperComputing Systems Group. Headed by J. Michael Davis, the
Supercomputing Systems Group consists of a strike team of highly trained operating
systems analysts with extensive experience in highly parallel Unix/Linux operating
systems. This team is located in approximately 1100 square feet of offices in the Trani
Center for Life Sciences and provides 24/7 coverage for the CSBC and the BCCL.
SYSTEMS
CSBC Computational Resources
64 Processor Beowulf(Medusa) 64 PIII 933Mhz 1GB RAM per node (32GB total
RAM) 20 GB disk per node (960 GB total Disk) 1TB NAS Gigabit networking
2 Processor 2Ghz Xeon Database Server (Saga) 2GB RAM 144 GB internal
RAID Access to 2TB NAS
2 Processor 1.8Ghz File Server (nath) 1GB RAM 144GB internal RAID Access to 2 TB
NAS
2 Processor 1.8 Ghz Database Development Server (Apollo) 1GB RAM 144GB internal
RAID Access to 2 TB NAS
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8 Processor Sparc Ultra3-750Mhz Sun V880 32GB RAM 360 GB internal RAID Access
to 2TB NAS
Central Resources
16 Processor 250 Mhz Origin 2000 (Xena) 2.5GB RAM 1TB disk Access to 2TB NAS
78 Processor Beowulf (Hydra) - 26 PIII 600Mhz - 20 PIII 933 MHz - 32 Athlon
1.8Ghz 512MB to 1GB Ram per node (34 GB total RAM) 6 GB to 20 GB HD per node
(646GB total disk) Access to 512GB NAS Gigabit networking
4 Processor UltraSparcIII 750Mhz v880 (Shoten) 8GB RAM 216GB Internal
Disk Gigabit networking Access to 2.7TB NAS
4 Processor UltraSparcIII 750Mhz v880 (new aurora) 8GB RAM 216GB Internal
Disk Gigabit networking Access to 2.7TB NAS
4 Processor Sparc UltraII-450Mhz 420R (aurora) 4GB RAM 730GB Internal disk Access
to 3 TB NAS
4 Processor Sparc UltraII-450Mhz 420R (GIS) 4GB RAM 72 GB Internal Disk
Totals 148 Processors in two Beowulf Clusters 46 Processors of SMP machines 5.5 TB
Central Storage (includes nodes on beowulf, Fibre Channel, etc) 5.2 TB CSBC Storage
(includes nodes on beowulf and servers)
BCCL STAFF
Tarynn M. Witten, Ph.D., MSW, FGSA, FCSBC Director, Research & Development
Brian Yuri Constance, Information Systems Specialist
Nihar Sheth, M.S. Programming Specialist
SuperComputing Systems Group:
J. Michael Davis
Carlisle Childress
John Noble
2006 Faculty/Staff Guide to Technology, Virginia Commonwealth University
http://www.ts.vcu.edu/iama/FacHandbook.pdf
[page] 28
Research Support
www.ts.vcu.edu/research
Technology Services provides support and resources, frequently in
collaboration with researchers and Centers, dedicated specifically
to researchers.
Statistical Support
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• Statistical software—Technology Services provides site
licenses for SAS and SPSS. In addition other specialized
statistical software packages are available at no cost or low
cost through negotiated volume purchase agreements for your
desktop or on central Unix servers. For more information, see
www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/stats.
• Consultation—Our goal is to provide advice and resources to
enable you to independently use statistical packages available
at VCU to analyze your dissertation, research or administrative
data. Statistical consulting is provided at no cost by appointment For more information, see www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/stats/statconsult.html.
• Training—Instructor lead short courses are available, (see
www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/training/it/calendarat.asp), as well as online documentation (see www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/docs/).
• Central Unix servers and storage—For group projects and
statistical analysis that is too large for desktop machines,
Technology Services provides central Unix servers and storage available to faculty, staff, and graduate students. For more
information, see www.ts.vcu.edu/research/avail_resources.html.
Database Support
www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/support
Technology Services provides consultation about database design
and management, central database servers and storage including the
DB2 database on a Unix server and MS-SQL on a Windows server,
online documentation, and training, www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/support.
[page] 29
Geographical Information System (GIS)
www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/gis
VCU has a site license for the ArcGIS software. For details on
the software available, how to obtain and use it, data and training
available, see www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/gis/.
High Performance Computing
www.ts.vcu.edu/research/avail_resources.html
In collaboration with the Center for the Study of Biological
Complexity, Technology Services provides significant resources in
support of high performance computing. For more information, see
www.ts.vcu.edu/research/avail_resources.html. For software available on these machines, see www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/software/. It is
possible to add additional software on request.
Internet2, National Lambda Rail, SURA
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IS&T ACS (University Academic Technologies Services – research computing)
ciations to provide researchers with access to high speed networks
and research resources. VCU is a member of Internet2, www.
ts.vcu.edu/faq/i2/; a founding member of the Mid-Atlantic Terascale Project, www.midatlantic-terascale.org; provides connection to
the National Lambda Rail, www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/nlr/nlr%20index.
htm; and is a member of the Southeastern Universities Research
Association, www.sura.org/home.
Consulting and Support
www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/support
For any other questions about technology at VCU and your
research, we would be glad to schedule an appointment to discuss
and assist you in any way we can. For more information, see
www.ts.vcu.edu/faq/support.
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