Systems-Facing Track

The Systems-Facing track of the People Network will focus on aspects relevant to the execution of research computing and data systems.

Topics include:

  • Architecture (hardware solutions, cloud integration, VMs, container integration, …)
  • Storage systems (file systems, SAN, NAS, NVMe, Burstbuffer, …)
  • Networking (data transfer solutions, Infiniband, campus-wide, …)
  • Cluster management and configuration (scheduling, accounting and reporting, …)
  • Accelerators (GPU, FPGA, …)
  • Security (auditing, compliance, policies, procedures, …)
  • User environment (Modules, CUDA, …)
  • Trending Tech (AI, CXL, …)

We connect via monthly calls, on slack and an email list.

Join Us!

Join Us! Create a membership profile to let us know who you are and what you’re interested in. You can add other People Network Tracks at the same time.

Monthly Calls

Monthly calls are on the third Thursday of the month, 1PM ET / 12PM CT / 11AM MT / 10AM PT. Connection information and links to any materials are distributed via email.

Previous Call Documents Folder Link

Previous Systems-Facing Recordings on YouTube Link

Upcoming Call(s)

No call for November – See you at SC24!

Track Coordination

Track Coordinators (sf-coordinators@carcc.org):

  • Brian Haymore, Sr IT Architect – HPC, Center for High Performance Computing, University of Utah
  • Matthew Smith, Manager – Research Systems, Advanced Research Computing, University of British Columbia

Steering Committee Members:

  • Dori Sajdak, Senior Systems Administrator at University at Buffalo
  • Jason Wells, Founder, Builder, Admin, Facilitator of Research Computing at Bentley University
  • Jim Leous, Office of the Associate CIO for Research, Penn State
  • John Blaas, HPC Operations Manager at Lambda and Vice Chair for ACM SIGHPC SYSPROS
  • Sai Pinnepalli, Chief Technologist, Center for Computation and Technology, Louisiana State University
    <Open Spot Seeking Volunteer> – (Contact S-F Coordinators for more info)
    <Open Spot Seeking Volunteer> – (Contact S-F Coordinators for more info)
    <Open Spot Seeking Volunteer> – (Contact S-F Coordinators for more info)

We also wish to thank persons who have previously lead and contributed to the System-Facing track:

Former Track Coordinators:

Alan Silver, IT Professional, UW-Madison
Troy Baer, Senior HPC Systems Engineer, Ohio Supercomputer Center
Betsy Hillery, Director, Research Computing, Purdue University

Former Steering Committee Members:

Betsy Hillery, Director, Research Computing, Purdue University
Matthew Smith, Manager – Research Systems, Advanced Research Computing, University of British Columbia

Previous Calls

10/01/2024 NSPM-33 – Not a Type of Sun Lotion Doc
09/19/2024 On-Premises Storage Solutions and Growth Projection in Research Computing Doc
08/15/2024 PEARC ’24 Recap – Combined call with Researcher-Facing Track Doc
06/20/2024 Debian GNU/Linux for Scientific Research Doc
04/18/2024 Supply Chain Challenges & Strategy Discussion Doc
03/21/2024 AI Support Community Discussion Doc
02/15/2024 Overview of the Georgia Tech Rogues Gallery Testbed Doc
01/18/2024 Navigating PBS to Slurm Migrations in Production Environments Doc
10/19/2023 Containerizing HPC Video
Doc
Slides
09/21/2023 CaRCC Systems Facing Roundup Session Video
Doc
Slides
08/17/2023 Cluster Resource Management software and solutions Video
Doc
Slides
06/15/2023 Cluster Resource Management software and solutions Video
Doc
05/18/2023 Introduction to Universal Design Doc
Slides
04/04/2023 Dealing with New Cloud Storage Limits Video
Doc
Slides
03/16/2023 Chilling Out: Building, Operating, and Updating a Modern Data Center Video
Doc
Slides
02/16/2023 Towards a Data Commons at Harvard Video
Doc
Slides
01/19/2023 Deploying Web-Based Software for Researchers on the Commercial Cloud Video
Doc
Slides
10/20/2022 Identifying “core/common” Skills a Novice RCD Systems Focused IT Professional Should Prioritize Video
Doc
Slides
09/15/2022 Open XDMoD/ColdFront/Open OnDemand HPC Toolset Overview Video
Doc
Slides
08/18/2022 Identifying Requirements for Early Career PT/FT RCD Systems Focused It Video
Doc
Slides
07/20/2022 No S-F Call, PEARC22
06/16/2022 A Case for a Notebook-Centric Analysis Platform Around Jupyter Ecosystem Video
Doc
Slides
05/19/2022 Operating a Research Computing Environment for a Large University Video
Doc
Slides
04/21/2022 Cloud Solutions Panel Discussion (Request Access) Doc
03/17/2022 Integrating Cloud Storage into Research Workflows (Wrong Doc Attached Doc
02/17/2022 Post CentOS 8 Era: Community Discussion (Request Access) Doc
01/20/2022 Real-World RoCE: Architecture and Implementation video
Doc
Slides
10/21/2021 Network Troubleshooting: Techniques and Approaches video
Doc
Slides
09/16/2021 Managing an NVIDIA DGX Superpod at UF Doc
08/19/2021 PEARC21 Recap and Community Discussion video
Doc
06/17/2021 Two Unique Approaches to Developing CUI Compliant Systems video
Doc
05/20/2021 Clusters in the Sky: How Canada is Building Beyond laaS Cloud with Magic Castle video
Doc
Slides
04/15/2021 Experiences and Advice for Large and Small Data Centers (cooling) video
Doc
Slides
03/18/2021 Enabling Science Collaborations with Secure and Flexible Service Deployment video
Doc
Slides
02/17/2021 Geddes Composable Platform video
Doc
Slides
01/21/2021 OURRstore: Big Data on a Small Budget video
Doc
10/17/2020 Basic Cloud Bursting with Azure and VMWare video
Doc
Slides
09/17/2020 Overview of HPC File Systems and One Site’s Experience video
Doc
08/20/2020 Multi-Track: Service Models for Research-Purchased Computing and Data video
Doc
Slides
07/16/2020 OURRstore: Big Data on a Small Budget video
Doc
Slides
06/18/2020 Introduction to Metrics Collection with Prometheus and Visualization with Grafana video
Doc
Slides
05/20/2020 Multi-Track: Student Workers video
04/16/2020 Direct to the Cip Warm Water Cooling HPC System at OSC video
03/19/2020 Visualize and Analyze your Network Activities using OSU INAM video
02/20/2020 UC San Diego Health’s approach to meeting HIPAA compliance in AWS video
01/16/2020 HIPPA-Aligned Data and Public Cloud Platforms video
12/05/2019 Cornell’s Data Finder Tool video
10/17/2019 HTCondor’s, Philosophy of High-Throughput Computing video
09/19/2019 Providing a Unified Software Environment for Canada’s National Advanced Computer Centers video
08/15/2019 Storage and Data Management for Mid-Scale Research Data Set video
07/18/2019 Racktables, Graphical HPC Cluster Mangement video
06/20/2019 Open Discussion video
05/16/2019 Globus, Installation and Configuration video
04/18/2019 Charliecloud, Unprivileged Containers for a User-Defined Software Stack video
03/21/2019 Ceph, A Campus Storage Solution (block and object) video