Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 34.1: Types of compute nodes in Clemson University's Palmetto
cluster.
Make/Model
CPU
RAM
Qty
Sun X6250
Intel Xeon L5420
32 GB
430
IBM dx340
Intel Xeon E5410
16 GB
340
Dell PE1950
Intel Xeon E5410
12 GB
258
Dell PE1950
Intel Xeon E5345
12 GB
257
Sun X2200
AMD Opteron 2356
16 GB
256
HP DL165
AMD Opteron 6176
48 GB
70
Sun X4150
Intel E5410
16 GB
10
HP DL580
Intel Xeon X7542
512 GB
6
Sun X4600
AMD Opteron 8220
256 GB
1
HP DL980
Intel Xeon X6560
2 TB
1
34.2.3 Palmetto
Palmetto is Clemson University's largest compute cluster. It represents a
successful instantiation of the condominium model of supercomputing, where
users contribute funds for hardware to secure time on the platform [4]. This
model creates a varied mix of hardware that can participate in computations.
Palmetto is used to run a large number of applications, including molecular
dynamics, econometrics, network simulation, biophysics, genomics, and com-
bustion codes. The measured configuration achieved the 96
th
slot on the June
2011 TOP500 list with a score of 92 TFLOPS [3].
Table 34.1 shows a list of all machines within the cluster at the time
of measurement, sorted by quantity. A small number of large-RAM nodes
were purchased for specific applications, and are not included in the general
availability pool of resources. Nodes are connected to a Myrinet fabric.
Palmetto's storage hardware included 32 Dell R510 servers with Dell
PERC H700 controllers. Each controller ran a RAID 5 array with five 1-TB
disks, with a total usable space of 256 TB. An OrangeFS scratch file sys-
tem [28] of 115 TB occupied this space, with the remainder unused. A further
360 TB of data storage was provided by three Data Direct Networks (DDN)
arrays: two DDN 6620s with sixty 2-TB disks apiece that host home and
project directories; and one unused DDN 9550 with five trays, each contain-
ing forty-eight 500-GB disks [22]. The DDN 6620 units were configured with
Oracle's StorageTek Storage Archive Manager (SAM) [27]. Two Sun F5100
servers with eighty 22-GB flash disks each were used for SAM metadata.
To measure the power use of Palmetto, each power distribution unit was
sampled every two hours. During this period, June 20 through June 27, 2011,
Palmetto was approximately 50% loaded [11]. Figure 34.2 shows that Pal-
metto's storage power use ranges between 4.9% and 6.1% of the total ma-
chine's consumption throughout the testing period, or 20 to 24 kW total.
