High Performance Computing (HPC)/Cluster Management

Overview

Engineering IT provides professional system administration services for individual clusters and other high performance computing systems.

Covers

Research or Instructional Computer Clusters and other High Performance Computing Systems that the Illinois Campus Cluster model is unable to support.

Features

The following are the primary features of High Performance Computing (HPC)/Cluster Management:
Ordering and Setup:

Engineering IT will advise on system configuration and design.
Engineering IT will facilitate ordering and receiving of computer hardware and software.
Engineering IT will perform initial setup including operating system setup and configuration, network configuration, operating system and network security, and scheduler installation.

Software:

Engineering IT will coordinate with vendors for software licenses, and install requested software.
Engineering IT will maintain a library of software modules, and will add modules as new versions or applications are needed.

Security:

Engineering IT will keep abreast of and follow industry best practices for security, State and University policies, and the requirements and recommendations of Technology Services.
Incident response/resolution as required.

Ongoing Maintenance:

Patch and update operating system and applications.

Available To

All research units, research groups, faculty, research assistants, and instructional units in the College of Engineering.

Service Hours

Requests will receive a response within one business day, Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, excluding University holidays.
* For High Performance Computing / Cluster Management system design, Engineering IT staff will respond within one business day. Resolution of requests will be highly variable as these projects vary considerably in scope and complexity.

Support Contacts

Email: engrit-help@illinois.edu
Phone: 217-333-1313

Cost

Please see Service Fees page for the most up to date pricing.
Clusters have a base cost plus a cost per node per year. Costs to support other high performance computing machines may be negotiated.

Service Terms

The supported group must be willing to agree to the following terms:

Engineering IT must be consulted on all new purchases or acquisitions of machines or software to be supported.
Engineering IT must have administrator/root-level privileges on all supported systems.
Engineering IT reserves the right to refuse support on hardware or software that is past end-of-life or otherwise considered unsupportable.
Engineering IT will build, maintain, and install standard operating systems on all supported computers.
The Campus Cluster is the preferred method of obtaining cluster computing. This service is designed for uses which are not well suited for the Campus Cluster. Engineering IT is happy to assist in deciding if the Campus Cluster is suited for a particular need.
In-depth knowledge of features and functions of individual applications beyond installation is outside the scope of this service.

New Service Inquiries

Mark Hart
Assistant Director for Research Services
mshart@illinois.edu
217-244-7517

Related Services

Subscribers to this service may be interested in these additional services:

For a broader view of research-related support offerings from Engineering IT and on campus, please contact our Research Technology Facilitator, Ethan Conner.