Openstack at MIT Overview

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At MIT there are a few people (led by Jan Balewski) working on a cluster designed to allow generic users to process data with custom software running on virtual machine images instead of directly installing the software on the nodes like a typical cluster. This is geared toward a flexible computing model via virtualization and the technology being used is called Openstack. I've installed GlueX software on a VM and deployed it on this cluster which has shown good results thus far (<5% different from running on "bare metal").

"Reuse" cluster specs

  • 27 Dell blades with 8 cores, 16 GB RAM, 100 GB disk
  • Almost all hardware is recycled from other clusters through MIT's "reuse" program

Data Challenge 2

  • Would like to include in the upcoming data challenge
    • From the MIT perspective, this would be the first demonstration of this cluster's performance and hopefully generate some additional interest
    • From the GlueX perspective, this adds to the compute resources (expect to have exclusive access to ~160 cores) and explore virtualization