[gpfsug-discuss] A GPFS newbie

[Robert Esnouf]

Dear GPFS users,

Please excuse what is possibly a naive question from a not-yet 
GPFS admin. We are seriously considering GPFS to provide 
storage for our compute clusters. We are probably looking at 
about 600-900TB served into 2000+ Linux cores over InfiniBand. 
DDN SFA10K and SFA12K seem like good fits. Our domain-specific 
need is high I/O rates from multiple readers (100-1000) all 
accessing parts of the same set of 1000-5000 large files 
(typically 30GB BAM files, for those in the know). We could 
easily sustain read rates of 5-10GB/s or more if the system 
would cope.

My question is how should we go about configuring the number 
and specifications of the NSDs? Are there any good rules of 
thumb? And are there any folk out there using GPFS for high 
I/O rates like this in a similar setup who would be happy to 
have their brains/experiences picked?

Thanks in advance and best wishes,
Robert Esnouf

--

Dr. Robert Esnouf,
University Research Lecturer
and Head of Research Computing,
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics,
Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive,
Oxford OX3 7BN, UK

Emails: robert at strubi.ox.ac.uk   Tel: (+44) - 1865 - 287783
    and robert at well.ox.ac.uk     Fax: (+44) - 1865 - 287547