UK’s leading government lab, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) has introduced a new high performance computing (HPC) facility, featuring Gnodal GS-Series switches utilising the Gnodal Ethernet Fabric.
The HPC facility integrates a tiered storage application, combining a large scale network- attached parallel storage system together with an iSCSI secondary storage capacity, embracing a virtualised computational system.
The facility satisfies the RAL’s substantial scalability, congestion-free performance and value for money requirements, expanding lab’s global climate research capabilities.
Gnodal GS-Series switches includes: 4 x GS4008 systems are deployed at RAL comprising a total of 160 10GbE Edge ports and 32 40Gbps Gnodal Fabric ports in a single spanning system; single GS4008 switches are deployed at University of Reading, University of Leeds and a fourth site, the International Space and Innovation Centre (ISIC).
The integrated NCAS and ISIC systems represents one of the largest virtualised HPC storage deployments in the UK.
National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) Models and Data director and University of Reading Weather and Climate Computing professor Bryan Lawrence said the Gnodal Ethernet sub-system establishes the core network for the HPC facility providing access to multiple storage sub-systems at scale and the direct and parallel access to the storage pool.
"The Gnodal solution, in conjunction with other technologies, gives us powerful HPC capabilities to help leverage our massive datasets to advance essential scientific discovery," said Lawrence.
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The deployment cost was funded by the UK government Department for Business, Innovation and Skill which had earmarked £145m for e-infrastructure in 2011.
