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! Fill out our membership form to let us know who you are and what you’re interested in. We’ll add you to the email list. Visit the People Network page to join other tracks.

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)

July, 2024 – call cancelled to provide space for PEARC ’24
August, 2024 – topic TBD.

Track Leadership

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 Systems Engineer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and active member in the ACM SIGHPC Syspros community
  • 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)

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

June, 2024 Debian GNU/Linux for Scientific Research Doc
April, 2024 Supply Chain Challenges & Strategy Discussion Doc
March, 2024 AI Support Community Discussion Doc
February, 2024 Overview of the Georgia Tech Rogues Gallery Testbed Doc
January, 2024 Navigating PBS to Slurm Migrations in Production Environments Doc
October, 2023 Containerizing HPC Video
Doc
Slides
September, 2023 CaRCC Systems Facing Roundup Session Video
Doc
Slides
August, 2023 Cluster Resource Management software and solutions Video
Doc
Slides
June, 2023 Cluster Resource Management software and solutions Video
Doc
May, 2023 Introduction to Universal Design Doc
Slides
April, 2023 Dealing with New Cloud Storage Limits Video
Doc
Slides
March, 2023 Chilling Out: Building, Operating, and Updating a Modern Data Center Video
Doc
Slides
February, 2023 Towards a Data Commons at Harvard Video
Doc
Slides
January, 2023 Deploying Web-Based Software for Researchers on the Commercial Cloud Video
Doc
Slides
October, 2022 Identifying “core/common” Skills a Novice RCD Systems Focused IT Professional Should Prioritize Video
Doc
Slides
September, 2022 Open XDMoD/ColdFront/Open OnDemand HPC Toolset Overview Video
Doc
Slides
August, 2022 Identifying Requirements for Early Career PT/FT RCD Systems Focused It Video
Doc
Slides
July, 2022 No S-F Call, PEARC22
June, 2022 A Case for a Notebook-Centric Analysis Platform Around Jupyter Ecosystem Video
Doc
Slides
May, 2022 Operating a Research Computing Environment for a Large University Video
Doc
Slides
April, 2022 Cloud Solutions Panel Discussion (Request Access) Doc
March, 2022 Integrating Cloud Storage into Research Workflows (Wrong Doc Attached Doc
February, 2022 Post CentOS 8 Era: Community Discussion (Request Access) Doc
January 2022 Real-World RoCE: Architecture and Implementation video
Doc
Slides
October, 2021 Network Troubleshooting: Techniques and Approaches video
Doc
Slides
September, 2021 Managing an NVIDIA DGX Superpod at UF Doc
August, 2021 PEARC21 Recap and Community Discussion video
Doc
June, 2021 Two Unique Approaches to Developing CUI Compliant Systems video
Doc
May, 2021 Clusters in the Sky: How Canada is Building Beyond laaS Cloud with Magic Castle video
Doc
Slides
April, 2021 Experiences and Advice for Large and Small Data Centers (cooling) video
Doc
Slides
March, 2021 Enabling Science Collaborations with Secure and Flexible Service Deployment video
Doc
Slides
February, 2021 Geddes Composable Platform video
Doc
Slides
January, 2021 OURRstore: Big Data on a Small Budget video
Doc
October, 2020 Basic Cloud Bursting with Azure and VMWare video
Doc
Slides
September, 2020 Overview of HPC File Systems and One Site’s Experience video
Doc
August, 2020 Multi-Track: Service Models for Research-Purchased Computing and Data video
Doc
Slides
July, 2020 OURRstore: Big Data on a Small Budget video
Doc
Slides
June, 2020 Introduction to Metrics Collection with Prometheus and Visualization with Grafana video
Doc
Slides
May, 2020 Multi-Track: Student Workers video
April, 2020 Direct to the Cip Warm Water Cooling HPC System at OSC video
March, 2020 Visualize and Analyze your Network Activities using OSU INAM video
February, 2020 UC San Diego Health’s approach to meeting HIPAA compliance in AWS video
January, 2020 HIPPA-Aligned Data and Public Cloud Platforms video
December, 2019 Cornell’s Data Finder Tool video
October, 2019 HTCondor’s, Philosophy of High-Throughput Computing video
September, 2019 Providing a Unified Software Environment for Canada’s National Advanced Computer Centers video
August, 2019 Storage and Data Management for Mid-Scale Research Data Set video
July, 2019 Racktables, Graphical HPC Cluster Mangement video
June, 2019 Open Discussion video
May, 2019 Globus, Installation and Configuration video
April, 2019 Charliecloud, Unprivileged Containers for a User-Defined Software Stack video
March, 2019 Ceph, A Campus Storage Solution (block and object) video