Differences between revisions 1 and 49 (spanning 48 versions)
Revision 1 as of 2008-05-27 23:09:18
Size: 3734
Comment: first skeletal draft for gravitational wave debian cluster
Revision 49 as of 2008-06-03 00:21:51
Size: 10668
Comment: choosing a title
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
Line 2: Line 2:
||<tablewidth="100%">~-[:DebianWiki/EditorGuide#translation:Translation(s)]: none-~ || This text is still in initial state. No deadline yet. To edit this page, follow through the [wiki:self:Teams/Publicity/DebianTimesTeam/Guidelines Debian Times team guidelines] for publishing workflow. || (!) ["/Discussion"] || ||<tablewidth="100%">~-[:DebianWiki/EditorGuide#translation:Translation(s)]: none-~ || This text is open for contributions until 2nd June 2008, 18:00 GMT. To edit this page, follow through the [:Teams/Publicity/DebianTimesTeam/Guidelines:Debian Times team guidelines] for publishing workflow. || (!) ["/Discussion"] ||
Line 5: Line 5:
= Debian GNU/Linux clusters at Max Planck = = Debian GNU/Linux powers Max Planck Institute 32.8 TFlops supercomputer =

A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics have created Germany's 4th largest supercomputer by using Debian GNU/Linux.

The [http://www.aei.mpg.de/english/research/teams/observationalRelativity/index.html Observational Relativity and Cosmology Research Group] is a team of scientists working at the [http://www.aei.mpg.de/hannover-en/66-contemporaryIssues/home/index.html Hannover Branch] of the [http://www.aei.mpg.de/english/contemporaryIssues/home/index.html Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics] (Albert Einstein Institute) in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannover Hannover], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany Germany].
Their goal is the direct detection of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave gravitational waves], which were first [http://www.einstein-online.info/en/ predicted] by Albert Einstein. They are working with the friends and colleagues within the [http://www.ligo.org/ LIGO] Scientific Community and [http://www.virgo.infn.it/ VIRGO].

The massive computing effort necessary for this research is provided by a [http://www.debian.org/distrib/ Debian GNU / Linux] cluster of 1342 nodes called ATLAS.
Using 10+ TB RAM, approximately 1.3 PB storage and a special network able to transfer almost 4 days worth of DVD movies each second, the cluster achieves a measured performance of 32.8 TFlops.
This performance places the ATLAS Debian GNU / Linux supercomputer at 4th place in Germany, 11th in Europe and 34th worldwide, at a cost of EUR 1.8m (~ US$ 2.8m).

The ATLAS Debian GNU / Linux cluster was designed, built and has been managed by [http://www.aei.mpg.de/hannover-en/09-staff/00-details/fehrmann/index.html Dr Henning Fehrmann] and [http://www.aei.mpg.de/hannover-en/09-staff/00-details/aulbert/index.html Dr Carsten Aulbert], who have been using Debian GNU / Linux for years.

ATLAS has smaller brother and sister systems in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam Potsdam], Germany: [http://gw.aei.mpg.de/resources/computational-resources/merlin-morgane-dual-compute-cluster "Merlin" (1.3 Tflops) and "Morgane" (6 TFlops)] -- also running Debian GNU / Linux and managed by [http://www.aei.mpg.de/english/php-Skripte/quMembPage/index.php?personKey=grunewald Dr. Steffen Grunewald] for many years; "the experience with them had been very, very good", according to Dr. Aulbert.

"Thomas Lange's [http://packages.debian.org/source/etch/fai FAI package] is extremely useful for automatic deployment of Debian [GNU / Linux]. For example, without much tweaking and using only two hosts, we were able to reinstall the cluster in about 2.5 hours and were only limited by those two servers' network connection.", said Dr. Aulbert.
Dr. Grunewald added, "FAI with its class model was a major breakthrough, in readability, functionality, and maintainability. There's no way back now."


Beyond FAI, there are [http://www.techforce.com.br/index.php/news/linux_blog/massive_installation_management_tools_p_1 other useful tools] for massive scale installation, deployment and management of Debian GNU / Linux machines for various scenarios.
"Debian features an extremely large set of packages, making it THE distro of choice for keeping us out of the hassle to package needed software ourselves", said Dr. Aulbert.

As additional benefits of using Debian GNU / Linux, he cited:

 * the simplicity of [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianDevelopment creating own packages]
 * how repositories can be set-up easily (using the [http://packages.debian.org/etch/reprepro reprepro] package)
 * using clean build environments ([http://packages.debian.org/etch/pbuilder pbuilder] and similar packages)
 * and, of course, the superb packaging infrastructure in general ([http://packages.debian.org/etch/dpkg dpkg], [http://packages.debian.org/etch/apt apt], [http://packages.debian.org/etch/aptitude aptitude], [http://packages.debian.org/etch/synaptic synaptic] and many [http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=apt&searchon=names&suite=stable&section=all useful APT tools])
By using Debian GNU / Linux at its clusters, the Observational Relativity and Cosmology Research Group reduced the amount of work needed on the hardware and software infrastructure, compared to other scientific clusters running on other distributions, allowing them to focus on their objective of detecting gravitational waves.

== About the ATLAS cluster ==

The ATLAS cluster, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LINPACK linpack] measured 32.8 TFlops and a theoretical peak of about 50 TFlops, consists of 1342 [http://supermicro.com/ Supermicro] computer nodes ([http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/server/processors/q3200/feature/index.htm Intel Xeon 3220] quad-cores 2,4 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB Hitachi HDD, IPMI remote management) along with 31 data servers (2x [http://www.intel.com/cd/products/services/emea/deu/processors/xeon5000/344530.htm Intel Xeon E5345] 2,33 GHz, 16 GB RAM, [http://www.areca.com.tw/ Areca] 1261ML, 16x750 GB Hitachi HDD) plus 4 similar head nodes with 4 x 750 GB HDD. Those are all running [http://www.debian.org/distrib/ Debian GNU / Linux] 4.0 Etch with a few modifications like custom kernel and Condor queuing system. Additional storage space is supplied by 13 [http://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4500/ Sun Fire X4500] running Solaris 10. The system was built from off-the-shelf computers from a German company, [http://www.pyramid.de/ Pyramid Computer GmbH].

One of the many special hardware components they have is the network from [http://www.wovensystems.com/ Woven Systems] which is a hierarchical fully non-blocking network. The EFX 1000 core switch features 144 10 Gb/s CX4 ports and connects currently to 32 TRX100 edge switches which feature 48 1 Gb/s ports and 4x10 Gb/s uplinks, reaching 2880 Gb/s. Also their Sun Fire X4500 are directly connected to the core switch.


According to Dr. Grunewald, the [http://gw.aei.mpg.de/resources/computational-resources/merlin-morgane-dual-compute-cluster Merlin] Debian GNU / Linux [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianBeowulf Beowulf] 180 nodes cluster (launched in 2002) initially ran on a rpm based distribution, but in 2004 migrated to Debian GNU / Linux after the rpm distro vendor changed its licensing model. The total computing power of the 360 CPU cores has been estimated to be more than 1.3 Tflops peak; the data storage capacity is about 20 TB mirrored.

The Morgane Debian GNU / Linux [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianBeowulf Beowulf] cluster, [http://gw.aei.mpg.de/resources/computational-resources/merlin-morgane-dual-compute-cluster/overview/tasks-structure-parameters/ consisting] of 615 compute nodes, 15 storage nodes, and some head nodes, launched in December 2006. The total computing power of the 1230 CPU cores has been estimated to be more than 6 Tflops peak, the data storage capacity is about 100 TB.

[:DebianWiki/EditorGuide#translation:Translation(s)]: none

This text is open for contributions until 2nd June 2008, 18:00 GMT. To edit this page, follow through the [:Teams/Publicity/DebianTimesTeam/Guidelines:Debian Times team guidelines] for publishing workflow.

(!) ["/Discussion"]


Debian GNU/Linux powers Max Planck Institute 32.8 TFlops supercomputer

A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics have created Germany's 4th largest supercomputer by using Debian GNU/Linux.

The [http://www.aei.mpg.de/english/research/teams/observationalRelativity/index.html Observational Relativity and Cosmology Research Group] is a team of scientists working at the [http://www.aei.mpg.de/hannover-en/66-contemporaryIssues/home/index.html Hannover Branch] of the [http://www.aei.mpg.de/english/contemporaryIssues/home/index.html Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics] (Albert Einstein Institute) in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannover Hannover], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany Germany]. Their goal is the direct detection of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave gravitational waves], which were first [http://www.einstein-online.info/en/ predicted] by Albert Einstein. They are working with the friends and colleagues within the [http://www.ligo.org/ LIGO] Scientific Community and [http://www.virgo.infn.it/ VIRGO].

The massive computing effort necessary for this research is provided by a [http://www.debian.org/distrib/ Debian GNU / Linux] cluster of 1342 nodes called ATLAS. Using 10+ TB RAM, approximately 1.3 PB storage and a special network able to transfer almost 4 days worth of DVD movies each second, the cluster achieves a measured performance of 32.8 TFlops. This performance places the ATLAS Debian GNU / Linux supercomputer at 4th place in Germany, 11th in Europe and 34th worldwide, at a cost of EUR 1.8m (~ US$ 2.8m).

The ATLAS Debian GNU / Linux cluster was designed, built and has been managed by [http://www.aei.mpg.de/hannover-en/09-staff/00-details/fehrmann/index.html Dr Henning Fehrmann] and [http://www.aei.mpg.de/hannover-en/09-staff/00-details/aulbert/index.html Dr Carsten Aulbert], who have been using Debian GNU / Linux for years.

ATLAS has smaller brother and sister systems in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam Potsdam], Germany: [http://gw.aei.mpg.de/resources/computational-resources/merlin-morgane-dual-compute-cluster "Merlin" (1.3 Tflops) and "Morgane" (6 TFlops)] -- also running Debian GNU / Linux and managed by [http://www.aei.mpg.de/english/php-Skripte/quMembPage/index.php?personKey=grunewald Dr. Steffen Grunewald] for many years; "the experience with them had been very, very good", according to Dr. Aulbert.

"Thomas Lange's [http://packages.debian.org/source/etch/fai FAI package] is extremely useful for automatic deployment of Debian [GNU / Linux]. For example, without much tweaking and using only two hosts, we were able to reinstall the cluster in about 2.5 hours and were only limited by those two servers' network connection.", said Dr. Aulbert. Dr. Grunewald added, "FAI with its class model was a major breakthrough, in readability, functionality, and maintainability. There's no way back now."

Beyond FAI, there are [http://www.techforce.com.br/index.php/news/linux_blog/massive_installation_management_tools_p_1 other useful tools] for massive scale installation, deployment and management of Debian GNU / Linux machines for various scenarios. "Debian features an extremely large set of packages, making it THE distro of choice for keeping us out of the hassle to package needed software ourselves", said Dr. Aulbert.

As additional benefits of using Debian GNU / Linux, he cited:

By using Debian GNU / Linux at its clusters, the Observational Relativity and Cosmology Research Group reduced the amount of work needed on the hardware and software infrastructure, compared to other scientific clusters running on other distributions, allowing them to focus on their objective of detecting gravitational waves.

About the ATLAS cluster

The ATLAS cluster, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LINPACK linpack] measured 32.8 TFlops and a theoretical peak of about 50 TFlops, consists of 1342 [http://supermicro.com/ Supermicro] computer nodes ([http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/server/processors/q3200/feature/index.htm Intel Xeon 3220] quad-cores 2,4 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB Hitachi HDD, IPMI remote management) along with 31 data servers (2x [http://www.intel.com/cd/products/services/emea/deu/processors/xeon5000/344530.htm Intel Xeon E5345] 2,33 GHz, 16 GB RAM, [http://www.areca.com.tw/ Areca] 1261ML, 16x750 GB Hitachi HDD) plus 4 similar head nodes with 4 x 750 GB HDD. Those are all running [http://www.debian.org/distrib/ Debian GNU / Linux] 4.0 Etch with a few modifications like custom kernel and Condor queuing system. Additional storage space is supplied by 13 [http://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4500/ Sun Fire X4500] running Solaris 10. The system was built from off-the-shelf computers from a German company, [http://www.pyramid.de/ Pyramid Computer GmbH].

One of the many special hardware components they have is the network from [http://www.wovensystems.com/ Woven Systems] which is a hierarchical fully non-blocking network. The EFX 1000 core switch features 144 10 Gb/s CX4 ports and connects currently to 32 TRX100 edge switches which feature 48 1 Gb/s ports and 4x10 Gb/s uplinks, reaching 2880 Gb/s. Also their Sun Fire X4500 are directly connected to the core switch.

According to Dr. Grunewald, the [http://gw.aei.mpg.de/resources/computational-resources/merlin-morgane-dual-compute-cluster Merlin] Debian GNU / Linux [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianBeowulf Beowulf] 180 nodes cluster (launched in 2002) initially ran on a rpm based distribution, but in 2004 migrated to Debian GNU / Linux after the rpm distro vendor changed its licensing model. The total computing power of the 360 CPU cores has been estimated to be more than 1.3 Tflops peak; the data storage capacity is about 20 TB mirrored.

The Morgane Debian GNU / Linux [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianBeowulf Beowulf] cluster, [http://gw.aei.mpg.de/resources/computational-resources/merlin-morgane-dual-compute-cluster/overview/tasks-structure-parameters/ consisting] of 615 compute nodes, 15 storage nodes, and some head nodes, launched in December 2006. The total computing power of the 1230 CPU cores has been estimated to be more than 6 Tflops peak, the data storage capacity is about 100 TB.

About the Debian Project

Debian GNU / Linux is [http://www.debian.org/ports/#nonlinux one] of the [http://www.debian.org/intro/free free libre] operating systems ([http://www.debian.org/ports/#released GNU/Linux], [http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd GNU/Hurd], [http://www.debian.org/ports/netbsd/ GNU/NetBSD], [http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/ GNU/kFreeBSD)], running 18733+ [http://qa.debian.org officially] maintained [http://packages.debian.org packages] on [http://www.debian.org/ports 15 hardware platforms], from [http://www.debian.org/ports/arm/ cell phones] and [http://www.linux-sh.org network devices] to [http://www.debian.org/ports/s390/ mainframes] and [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianBeowulf supercomputers], developed by more than [http://asdfasdf.debian.net/~tar/bugstats/?8 two thousand] volunteers from [http://www.debian.org/devel/developers.loc all over the world] who [http://www.debian.org/devel/ collaborate] via [http://www.us.debian.org/support the internet] on the [http://www.debian.org Debian Project].

Debian's dedication to [http://www.debian.org/intro/free Free Libre Open Source Software], its [http://www.debian.org/devel/constitution constitutional] non-profit nature, its [http://vote.debian.org/ open] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy meritocratic] development model, [http://www.debian.org/intro/organization organization] and social [http://www.techforce.com.br/index.php/news/linux_blog/scientific_study_about_debian_governance_and_organization governance] make it [http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ a first] among free libre operating system distributions.

The Debian project's key strengths are [http://www.debian.org/devel/people its volunteer base], its dedication to the [http://www.debian.org/social_contract Debian Social Contract] and the [http://www.debian.org/devel/constitution Debian Constitution], and its [http://wiki.debian.org/WhyDebianForDevelopers commitment] to [http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/ provide the best] operating systems [http://release.debian.org/ attainable], following a strict quality [http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy policy], working with an established [http://qa.debian.org/ QA Team] and helpful [http://www.debian.org/users/ users] reporting [http://bugs.debian.org bugs, suggestions], [http://lists.debian.org exchanging ideas], and [http://wiki.debian.org registering experiences].

You can [http://www.debian.org/intro/help help] Debian Project without [http://www.debian.org/devel/join joining] it and [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianForNonCoderContributors even not being a ][http://wiki.debian.org/DebianForNonCoderContributors programmer], or being a development and or service [http://www.debian.org/partners/ partner] company or institution at the [http://www.debian.org/partners/partners Debian Partner Program], or simply making various [http://www.debian.org/donations donations] to the Debian Project.

Debian Project news, press releases and press coverage can be found from the official Debian wiki [http://wiki.debian.org/News page]. PR contact at [http://lists.debian.org/debian-publicity debian-publicity list].