[Wrf-users] Help! computing experts

[Xingang Fan]

Hi, Michael:

Thank you and all who have replied.  There were several colleagues who 
have provided very helpful information and tips.

I am still collecting more detailed information on the configuration, 
mainly focusing on getting a Dell HPC.

Thanks,

Xingang Fan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. Geography & Geology
Western Kentucky University
1906 College Heights Blvd, #31066
Bowling Green, KY 42101-1066
Phone: (270)745-5980
Email: xingang.fan at wku.edu



michael bane wrote:
>   
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:34:13 -0500
>> From: Xingang Fan <xingang.fan at wku.edu>
>> Subject: [Wrf-users] Help! computing experts
>> To: wrf-users at ucar.edu
>> Message-ID: <4BA13CC5.1000806 at wku.edu>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Is there anybody out there who has experience of putting together a
>> small HPC cluster to run WRF model? I would appreciate it very much if
>> you could give any suggestions.
>>
>> GOAL: I got an empty room and some funding (12-15K), and hope to have
>> WRF modeling results from there. So, what computing hardware and
>> software should I put into that room?
>>
>> I have seen that DELL has different PowerEdges, but have no ideas  
>> about
>> which one is the most appropriate one for our tasks.  I hope to have  
>> at
>> least 32 cpus, some disk space (~10TB). But to configure a small HPC
>> computer out of those DELL options seems too hard for me. Please share
>> your experience and help me out!
>>
>> -- Xingang Fan, Ph.D.
>>
>> Assistant Professor
>> Dept. Geography & Geology
>> Western Kentucky University
>> 1906 College Heights Blvd, #31066
>> Bowling Green, KY 42101-1066
>> Phone: (270)745-5980
>> Email: xingang.fan at wku.edu
>>     
>
> I've not noticed any other replies but I'd suggest you seriously  
> consider investing in a rack and fast interconnects (InfiniBand,  
> gigabit Ethernet), then populate the rack with various compute and  
> disk nodes as you can afford (of course don't forget suitable air con  
> too). This will give you some h/w upgradability and the interconnects  
> will help with the parallel performance. It partly depends on what  
> size model you want to run - if it's a small domain and fits on 24  
> core then a single machine with 2 sockets of Magny Core chips would  
> suffice...
>
> I'd seriously consider the disk side too if you're doing a few runs...  
> or have somewhere to move the many GBytes of data off to
>
> M
> --
>
> Dr. Michael K Bane
> Senior Development Officer
> RESEARCH COMPUTING SERVICES
> Univ. of Manchester M13 9PL
> http://www.rcs.manchester.ac.uk
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