Invitation to Participate

Researchers considering their own purchase of a Linux cluster are invited to consider the purchase of nodes on this ITC Linux cluster instead. This program enables researchers to purchase nodes in a Linux cluster that ITC houses and maintains for a three-year period.

Some of the benefits include:

• Free system administration
• Timely security updates
• 24 hour a day monitoring in ITC's machine room
• Ability to use more nodes than purchased during periods of non-peak demand.

Program Description

Cluster and node details:

• Node will be installed into and operated as a production cluster, installed in the ITC data center in Carruthers Hall, which includes uninterruptable power supply (UPS) and 24-hour per day operation.
• Individual nodes will be part of the whole cluster and purchasers will have priority access for their nodes. Priority access means that your jobs will go to the front of the job queue when submitted. Jobs running on those nodes will be pre-empted.
• ITC uses NPACI Rocks cluster administration suite, which includes the PBSPro batch queuing and job submission software.
• On-demand access through the PBSPro scheduler to all the nodes.
• One-time cost for the initial purchase of your nodes covering the three-year life of the cluster - no annual or recurring charges.

ITC provides:

• Electrical power, (including uninterruptable power supply), machine room space, and cooling.
• Network capacity
• System software, clustering software, system administration, setup, configuration, and the usual research applications (e.g,. Matlab, Fortran 90).
• A pool of local spare parts to ensure that you always have access to the nodes you fund.
• Local, temporary storage for use during computational runs. (Note: You are NOT purchasing any long-term storage space as part of your nodes.)
• A minimal amount of system administration time to install a user-purchased application on the cluster. Complex or problem installations will be done on a for-fee basis.
• The procurement (purchase) of the cluster and nodes, including compliance with SWAM and eVA guidelines as well as receipt of cluster, unpacking, and setup. Nodes purchased with ETF funds will have included appropriate as well as free storage after the three-year life cycle. ITC can arrange the inventory management to ensure departments will not lose their ETF allocations by participating in this project.

Important details

• The per-node cost includes the cost of the computer node, its three year maintenance contract, and pro-rated partial cost of the network switch and chassis, KVM and equipment rack. It does NOT include any charge for the cluster's head node, local temporary storage, the HVAC, electricity use (uninterruptible power supply), machine room space, and system administration—ITC is providing all these as its contribution. (Note: node cost is only the incremental cost of adding nodes to this cluster. It is not the fully loaded cost share of the full cluster purchase and operation.)
• Longer-term storage will need to be provided by the researcher (departmental storage, lease of disk wedges from ITC, etc.). ITC can help you determine the best way to provide additional storage if you need more disk storage as part of this purchase.
• When you place your order for cluster nodes, you agree to these terms and conditions.

Take the Next Step

To participate in the Cluster Node Purchase Program, or find out more about it, please use our Web form.