1. HEPIX - Spring 2015 Tony Wong (BNL)

2.  Yearly purchase cycle of hardware for RACF timed with U.S. gov’t fiscal year (October to September)  Aim for delivery of new equipment by end of fiscal year to maximize value for the $  Purchase cycle has taken longer to complete in recent years  12 months in FY14 and delivery spilled into FY15  All three components of the purchase cycle are to blame (evaluation, purchase and delivery)

3.  As late as FY 2011, the cycle was ~3 months long  The FY 2014 experience  Evaluation  Dec. 2013 to Jun. 2014 ~ 7 months  Purchase  Jul. to Oct. 2014 ~ 3 months  Delivery  Dec. 2014 ~ 2 months  Multiple hardware options to evaluate (Intel/AMD cpu’s, drive options, RAID controllers, IB, 10 GbE, etc)  Long lead times with vendor (~1-2 months) to obtain parts to change hardware configuration

4.  Onerous internal purchase procedure  Multi-level approval for large $ purchase  Multiple bidding cycles  RACF-external technical approval required  Frustrating back and forth with procurement dept.  Delivery delays by supplier  Required to be within 6 weeks of awarding order  Actual delivery took 11 weeks  Since FY11, delays are the norm rather than the exception

5.  Of the three components (evaluation, purchase and delivery), RACF only fully controls evaluation  Proposed strategy to minimize delays  Shorten evaluation process by relying on remote access  Address purchase delays internally at BNL  Address delivery delays with supplier  Purchase and delivery delays may be self- inflicted wounds – large work load near end of U.S. fiscal year

6.  Previous experience with remote access to special purpose servers (ie, HP’s Moonshot system – results presented at Annecy meeting)  Discussed remote evaluation goals with Dell and HP  formal agreements signed  BNL legal dept. involved  Split evaluation process in two phases  Initial (wide range of configurations – weed out uninteresting technologies)  DONE  Final (focus on specific configurations – may include physical access to systems)  in progress

7.  Use established VPN’s provided by supplier  Temporary account allows access over a defined period (~2 weeks)  Supplier and/or RACF installs system software  RACF installs benchmark and executes  Occasional re-configuration of hardware, re- installation of software and re-execution of benchmark

8.  Dell PowerEdge 430  Dual E5-2660v3 @ 2.6 GHz (40 logical cores)  10 x 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz  PERC H330  4 x 2 TB Seagate 7200 rpm 6.0 Gbps SATA drives  441.15 HS06  Dell PowerEdge R730xd  Dual E5-2690v3 2.6 GHz (48 logical cores)  8 x 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz  PERC H730P  5 x 2 TB Seagate 7200 rpm 6.0 Gpbs SAS drives  560.63 HS06 (462 Watts at peak load)  Dell PowerEdge R730xd  Dual E5-2660v3 2.6 GHz (40 logical cores)  16 x 6 GB DDR4 2133 MHz  PERC H730  12 x 6 TB Seagate 7200 rpm 6.0 Gpbs SATA drives  449.60 HS06 (434 Watts at peak load)

9.  HP DL160  Dual E5-2660v3 @ 2.6 GHz (40 logical cores)  12 x 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz  SmartArray H240  4 x 4 TB 7200 rpm 6.0 Gbps SATA drives  451.48 HS06  HP DL180  Dual E5-2660v3 @ 2.6 GHz (40 logical cores)  12 x 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz  SmartArray P840  12 x 6 TB 7200 rpm 6.0 Gbps SATA drives  452.65 HS06

10.  Conclude hardware evaluation by March 30 th  Purchase process: April 1 st - May 31 st  Delivery of hardware by August 1 st  Seek remote evaluation agreements with other suppliers (ie, Lenovo, etc)  Make remote access a permanent feature of the evaluation process  Use remote access to complement on-site evaluation of hardware

11.  Do other institutions have remote access agreements?  Is it possible to leverage the effort?  Provide access to multiple institutions  Motivate suppliers with bigger demand  Legal considerations  What agreements are possible between institutions and suppliers?  Laws not uniform among countries  Institutional rules vary within a country

12.  In 2014, clusters were priced in July and delivered in December  Standard prices for Intel Ivybridge in July  Discounts after Haswell became available in October  Delays affected HEPN programs at BNL  Need to minimize delays to maximize purchasing power and meet deadline for deliverables  Follow-up at Fall meeting