Advanced Systems & Operations Group

The Advanced Systems & Operations group conducts research in High Performance Computing systems and data storage. Current projects provide researchers better access to their data via the development of fast parallel filesystems and distributed filesystems for widely distributed computing environments.

In addition, the Advanced Systems & Operations group manages all PSC HPC resources, including security, supercomputing operations, high performance storage, and data management and file systems. We also provide support services for PSC staff that include desktop support, security and account management.

Research Projects

Zest

Zest is a parallel storage system specifically designed to meet the ever-increasing demands of HPC application checkpointing. Zest differs from traditional parallel filesystems by making use of log-structuring filesystems on the I/O server in combination with opportunistic data placement. Utilizing these techniques, Zest is capable of driving its disks at 90% peak bandwidth.

Read more about Zest at http://quipu.psc.teragrid.org/zest.

SLASH2

SLASH2 is a distributed filesystem that incorporates existing storage resources into a common filesystem domain. It provides system-managed storage tasks for users who work in widely distributed environments. The SLASH2 metadata controller performs inline replication management, maintains data checksums and coordinates third party, parallel, data transfer between constituent data systems. The SLASH2 I/O service is a portable, user-space process that does not interfere with the underlying storage system's administrative model.

Read more about SLASH2 at http://quipu.psc.teragrid.org/slash2.

Research Collaborations

Advanced Systems & Operations staff also work closely with The University of Pittsburgh MIDAS National Center of Excellence and the MIDAS Network Software Repository to enable research that prepares the nation to plan for, detect and respond to infectious diseases.

Security

The Information Security team is responsible for ensuring the availability and integrity of the PSC's high performance computing assets. The security team constantly monitors PSC resources to detect unauthorized/malicious activity and quickly responds to eliminate threats.

Workshops

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center offers a variety of workshops, both at PSC and off-site, on subjects ranging from code optimization and parallel programming to specific scientific topics.

For more information about PSC's education, outreach and training programs, see http://outreach.psc.edu.