Public Batch and Interactive Services on Linux FOCUS — July 1 st 1999 Tony Cass —

2 Tony Cass Linux Services: Background  The Linux environment (SUE, HEPiX, ASIS, …) is now at the same level as for other Unix flavours.  Therefore, adding a central service (PLUS, WGS, SHIFT) is simple---if we have the boxes we can provide a service –we provide services for ALICE, ATLAS, NA49 and NOMAD –and we will start a service for LHCb at the end of July.

3 Tony Cass A Public Linux Service  DELPHI (and some others) asked for a basic interactive Linux service as a “reference platform”. The need is for a platform running the approved Linux installation which can be used to develop and test code---but with general interactive work remaining on, e.g., DXPLUS.  LHCb also need an initial front end to their future Linux batch facility.  A basic service has been available since early June.

4 Tony Cass LXPLUS: Current Status  Three dual Processor PCs provide two different services –2 run the current standard Linux environment based on RedHat 5.1. These machines are accessible using the lxplus ISS alias. –1 machine (lxp03) has the forthcoming environment based on RedHat 6.0 –We intend to move the service to the RedHat 6 environment in late July or early August. (But we will keep one machine running RedHat 5.1 for some time.)

5 Tony Cass LXPLUS: A Sizing Comparison  LXPLUS - 2 dual processor PC nodes  HPPLUS - 5 dual processor HP nodes  DXPLUS - 5 dual processor DEC PWS nodes  RSPLUS - 15 dual processor RS6000 nodes  Reasonably, LXPLUS can support active users compared to the of HPPLUS and DXPLUS (which have, respectively, some 850 and 350 different users each week).

6 Tony Cass The Future For Linux –We propose to »significantly increase LXPLUS capacity u But general interactive work (mail/web related) should move to a local desktop where possible. »Provide general purpose Linux batch capacity –The size for these services has to be determined, but should be such that these platforms are attractive and encourage people to move from RISC capacity.  For other platforms –We suggest that other public services (HPPLUS, DXPLUS, RSPLUS and RSBATCH) should be phased out by the end of 2001 at the latest.