What are the benefits of being involved in UD’s community cluster program?
Choose your level of participation…
Buy as many nodes (shares) as your research computing needs dictate. You may buy a standard UD HPC compute node based on a typical configuration. Or, you may choose to add options like more memory and local disk. All nodes have a common chipset and vendor. This homogeneity results in very deep discounts and also reduces what you need to learn to work on the cluster.
Cap your expenses…
Your up-front expense includes maintenance for the warranty of the cluster. Information Technologies funds the infrastructure including expert staff to maintain and assist researchers with cluster use.
Get more than you pay for…
Your buy-in provides you access to a certain amount of resources. We never oversubscribe the resources. When resources are idle, you may use them for a given period of time based on availability and priority. A job scheduling system governs this opportunistic use of idle nodes and enforces fair use policies among owner groups.
Enhance grant proposals…
Funding agencies take note of an institution’s commitment to sustain HPC resources for research; the availability of relevant computational resources immediately after your research grant is awarded; your use of an institutional, energy-efficient solution; and IT’s infrastructure cost-matching contribution. Program officers will recognize and reward your focus on the research, not on physical renovation and computer administration.
Exercise flexible group membership…
Add and delete people to your research group membership at will, including non-UD collaborators. All members of a group have equal privileges and draw on their group’s resource quotas.
Work in a consistently managed software environment…
The initial programming environment includes commercial and open-source compilers, scientific subroutine libraries, common open-source application software, and some campus-wide licensed software*. VALET (like Modules) help you manage your programming environments. This reduces the complexity of the system for you and follows similar guidelines used at XSEDE and other national HPC centers.
*Some commercial software may be restricted to specific research groups.
Enjoy improved network access…
Ongoing network improvement to the data center, to key on-campus buildings and to Internet2-accessible institutions and data resources enhance the central cluster’s value and access for multi-disciplinary and multi-site research consortia.