Enhancing Student Learning Experience by Upgrading CS File Service System

Transcription

1 Enhancing Student Learning Experience by Upgrading CS File Service System Project description The Computer Science department offers about 60 courses and 200 course sections (excluding Computer Literacy) each semester. Total undergraduate and graduate enrollment in Computer Science courses each academic year is about The department provides computing resources to 30 faculty members and 1500 students. Among 1500 students, approximately 900 are undergraduate CS major students, 350 are graduate students, and 260 are non-major students. All students have CS accounts to access specially designed computing resources and programming environments, such as C, C++, and Java compilers, high performance computing GPU programming, website design, and database design. Students create and compile class projects using various programming servers. Their projects are saved to a dedicated file server. The file server serves user files through Network File System (NFS) services. The NFS server hosts all user files. Students can access their files through general purpose servers, programming servers, and lab computers that have both Windows and Linux operating systems installed. Students can program and compile their course projects using programming servers, and then use lab computers to document their project and the general servers to submit their projects to professors. There are three main problems with our file service: too little disk space, the backups run too slowly, and we only have one NFS server (so if it dies then we have major issues). NFS allows files to be stored on one server, yet used on many other servers as if those files existed on each. Because we have several servers available to our students, we use NFS to allow students to conveniently access their files from any server. Instead of having to manually copy files back and forth from server to server, any new files or changes to files are immediately visible across all servers. Our NFS server has a disk capacity of 1 TB. Divided by the 1500 students with Computer Science accounts, that leaves 700 MB per student. However, faculty also store their data on our server, and because they have much more data to store from their teaching and research than students do, we don't limit how much they can store. Once the faculty have taken their chunk, we are left with much less space, and have to place disk usage limits (known as disk quotas) on students so that our server doesn't run out of space. Graduate CS majors get 300 MB, undergraduate CS majors get 200 MB, and non-majors who are taking CS classes get 100 MB. This is an extremely small amount of space, and students are always running into their disk quota because they work on uncompressed images for the Computer Graphics class, or OpenStreetMaps data for Advanced Algorithms, or record their own video presentations for class. It's accepted by now that most student data has to be stored off the server, because there just isn't enough space. But then they're back to copying the data back and forth between their computers because they don't have NFS, and they don't have the automatic backups that we provide. Also, if they run over the disk quota, they risk losing any open file 1

2 because the file server refuses to save a file if the user has exceeded his/her disk quota. Usually the result is that the file is corrupted or deleted. Losing up to a day of work (since the last backup) is obviously extremely frustrating. While we could buy more disks, there's another problem. Our current backup rate is 8 MB/s, so backing up the 650 GB used on our NFS server (not including the other servers we have to backup) at 8 MB/s takes about 23 hours. Backups make accessing files very slow, so we can only run them for a few hours in the middle of the night when very few people are working. Even if we had more disk space on the server, we still might not be able to backup files fast enough and our backup jobs would get further and further behind. So it really is important that we get a faster backup system, but with a faster backup system we could take advantage of more disk space (that we don't have). We have only one server for our NFS file service. In addition to the disk space issue, having one server means that its failure would bring down the whole file service. Although the server has some redundant parts (meaning that if a hard disk fails, it still has another one to use), the server's motherboard failed last month and it has no redundant motherboard. Since the server is out of warranty, we had to order a motherboard from the manufacturer, but it has been over a month now and the motherboard is still on back order. We had to temporarily convert our database server to host both our file service and our database service, but this double-duty is hurting database performance for our Databases class and increasing the risk that the database server will fail from the extra load. The two tape autoloaders (used for our backup system) have been discontinued by the manufacturers and have been out of warranty for three years. One of the tape devices had its power supply fail last month. The manufacturer no longer carries the power supply, so, as a makeshift solution, we hung a regular PC power supply out the side of the device and propped it up. Needless to say, this strategy isn't sustainable in the long-term. This project seeks funding to upgrade the file system and the backup system. Impact of this project All students taking Computer Science courses are provided with file and backup services. In the Spring and Fall semesters the student enrollment in Computer Science undergraduate courses (excluding Computer Literacy) is around 1500 in 200 class sections. Summer semesters enrollment is about 600. Total undergraduate and graduate enrollment in Computer Science courses each academic year is about All Computer Science courses have multiple individual or group project assignments throughout a semester. Hundreds of undergraduate students taking Computer Science courses use the file server to complete individual and group class projects. The availability of the file service is critical to all students. 2

3 We plan to implement high capacity, high availability NFS servers and disk storage for our file service system. The proposed file system consists of two PowerEdge R710 servers and one PowerVault MD3200i disk storage. Total effective disk capacity will be 10 TB. The backup system consists of one Dell PowerEdge R910 server and one PowerVault TL4000 tape autoloader. The R910 server has total 10 TB effective disk space and autoloader has 72 TB tape space with LTO5 technology. Backup speed will be 100 MB/s. With significantly improved disk capacity and backup speed, we plan to raise disk quota for undergrads from 200 MB to 1 GB and for graduate students from 300 MB to 2 GB. The mailbox quota will be increased to 1 GB. Having two servers for our file system will also improve reliability because there will be a backup if one of the servers goes down. We believe that this project will open up several new opportunities for students because they can do work in computer graphics, animation, and advanced algorithms on large images, videos, and datasets that were previously too large to store on our file server. Project plan The Department of Computer Science would like to use a portion of the Students Technology Fee to purchase: 1. Two file servers and one disk storage: The two file servers are Dell PowerEdge R710 servers with two Intel Xeon x5650 processors and 12 GB RAM. The disk storage is Dell PowerVault MD3200i. It has 12 disk slots with effective disk capacity of 10 TB. PowerVault MD3200i has two hot pluggable controllers, two hot pluggable power supplies, four tape drives, and RAID6 disk redundancy. The dual controllers minimize the possible downtime that a failed motherboard would bring. The disk storage also allows us to move mailboxes and other file systems such as Windows file system into the array to maximize the backup efficiency. The disk storage is managed by a management server. The CS department will provide the management server. 2. Backup server and tape autoloader: The backup system consists of one Dell PowerEdge R910 server and one Power Vault TL4000 tape autoloader. The R910 server has total 10TB effective disk space and autoloader has 72 TB tape space with LTO5 technology. This will give us three weeks full backup rotation space and two backup media. We plan to configure two file servers using High Availability (HA) technology. With HA, one server serves NFS to client computers. The other server stands by and constantly syncs data changes from the master server. If the master server goes down, the standby server takes over immediately, providing nonstop file services. For the backup system, we will install Windows Server 2008 and Backup Exec version 12 software on the backup server. The backup server drives the tape autoloader, communicates 3

4 with the backup agents installed on the NFS file servers, web servers, and mail servers to perform backup jobs to the tapes. The tape autoloader has four tape drives and can perform four concurrent backup jobs at same time. Once the funds become available, we will start to purchase servers, disk storage, tape autoloader, and the software. It takes two to four weeks to receive the hardware and software. We will set up file servers and disk storage and then migrate all user data onto the new system. We will select a least busy time to switch over to the new NFS system. At the same time, we will configure backup server and tape autoloader. When systems are tested and ready, we will update backup agents on client servers and roll in the new backup system. The estimated time to finish the project will be around 60 days. Relationship of this project to other university activities Computer Science Department has guest accounts from Mathematics, Physics, Meteorology, and various Engineering departments. The improved file system and backup system will benefit them as well. All students from other majors taking CS courses will also benefit from the new file and backup system. Ongoing support Each file server costs $6,230 and the disk storage costs $11,700. The backup server costs $13,745 and the tape autoloader costs $24,060. The backup software costs $7,350. The project costs $69,315 total. Hardware installation and technical support will be provided by the Computer Science Department. There will be no recurring costs or technical support costs for this project. Description of the project team The project team consists of the Systems Group led by Randolph Langley and Yu Wang. Both have Master's Degrees in Computer Science and years of experience administering large complex computer systems. Budget justification Please see Student Technology Fee Budget Template for Fall 2011 Project Funding Proposal in Supporting documents section. Supporting documents 1. Photos of the current backup system with patched power supply 4

5 A PC power supply attached externally to the tape autoloader in place a failed internal mini power supply Price quotes on file servers and disk storage Price quotes on backup server and tape autoloader Price quotes on backup software Student Technology Fee Budget Template for Fall 2011 Project Funding Proposal 5

6 Find a Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server, Printer, Software, Service, Monitor or TV at... Page 1 of 2 11/23/2011 Dell recommends Windows 7. Print Page Florida State University [Buyer] E-quote Number: E-quote Name Storage + NFS servers E-Quote Description MD3200i + PE R710 Saved By: Yu Wang Phone Number: (850) yuwang@cs.fsu.edu Purchasing Agent: Saved On: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 Notes/Comments: Expires On: Saturday, January 07, 2012 Additional Comments: Premier Page Name Florida State University [Buyer] Description Dell PowerEdge R710 - Enhanced Date & Time: November 23, :45 PM CST SYSTEM COMPONENTS Dell PowerEdge R710 - Enhanced Qty 2 Chassis for Up to 6, 3.5-Inch Hard Drives, No Operating System Unit Price $6, Catalog Number: 25 E1481 Module Description Show Details PowerEdge R710 Operating System SHIP Memory Feature Upgrades for Embedded NIC Ports Processor Additional Processor 1st Hard Drive Internal Controller BIOS Setting Network Adapter Embedded Management Internal Optical Drive Bezel Riser Card System Documentation Hard Drive Configuration Rails Chassis for Up to 6, 3.5-Inch Hard Drives No Operating System PowerEdge R710 Shipping 12GB Memory (6x2GB), 1333MHz Single Ranked LV RDIMMs for 2 Procs, Optimized Embedded NICs are TOE Ready with iscsi Offload Enabled Intel Xeon X5650, 2.66Ghz, 12M Cache,Turbo, HT, 1333MHz Max Mem Intel Xeon X5650, 2.66Ghz, 12M Cache,Turbo, HT, 1333MHz Max Mem HD Multi-Select PERC H700 Integrated RAID Controller, 512MB NV Cache, x6 Power Saving BIOS Setting 2x Broadcom 5709 Dual Port 1GbE NIC w/toe iscsi, PCIe-4 idrac6 Enterprise DVD+/-RW, SATA, Internal Bezel Riser with 1 PCIe x PCIe x4 Slot Electronic System Documentation and OpenManage DVD Kit RAID 1 for H700, PERC 6/i, H200 or SAS 6/iR Controllers ReadyRails Sliding Rails Without Cable Management Arm

7 Find a Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server, Printer, Software, Service, Monitor or TV at... Page 2 of 2 11/23/2011 Hardware Support Services Installation Services Power Supply Power Cords Power Cords Power Cords Hard Drives 5Yr Basic HW Warranty Repair with SATA Ext: 5x10 HW-Only, 5x10 NBD Onsite No Installation High Output Power Supply, Redundant, 870W No Additional Power Cords NEMA 5-15P to C13 Wall Plug, 125 Volt, 15 AMP, 10 Feet (3m), Power Cord 2x 10 feet (3m) Power Cords, 125 volt 15 AMP NEMA 5-15P to C13 Wall Plug (2) 600GB 15K RPM Serial-Attach SCSI 6Gbps 3.5in Hotplug Hard Drive TOTAL: $12, Dell PowerVault MD3200I - New! Date & Time: November 23, :45 PM CST SYSTEM COMPONENTS Dell PowerVault MD3200I - New! Qty 1 PV MD3200i,RKMNT,iSCSI, 12 Bay, Dual Controller Unit Price $11, Catalog Number: 25 E1691 Module Description Show Details PowerVault MD3200I Hard Drives Bezel Software Data Protection and Performance Features Rails Hardware Support Services Installation Services Proactive Maintenance Power Cords PV MD3200i,RKMNT,iSCSI, 12 Bay, Dual Controller HD Multi-Select Bezel Option, MD3200i No data protection software Rapid Rails for Dell Rack 5Yr Basic Hardware Warranty Repair: 5x10 HW-Only, 5x10 NBD Onsite No Installation ProActive Maintenance Declined 2x Power Cord, NEMA 5-15P to C14, 15 amp, wall plug, 6 feet / 2 meter Hard Drives (12) 1TB NLSAS 6GB, 7.2K, 3.5 HDD TOTAL: $11, Total Price Sub-total $24, Tax Dell For customers of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia only. Site Terms Terms of Sale Privacy Feedback Large Text sncm55

8 Find a Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server, Printer, Software, Service, Monitor or TV at... Page 1 of 2 11/23/2011 Dell recommends Windows 7. Print Page Florida State University [Buyer] E-quote Number: E-quote Name Backup server and tape loader E-Quote Description Saved By: Yu Wang Phone Number: (850) yuwang@cs.fsu.edu Purchasing Agent: Wednesday, November 23, Saved On: Notes/Comments: 2011 Saturday, January 07, Additional Expires On: 2012 Comments: Premier Page Name Description Florida State University [Buyer] Dell PowerEdge R910 Date & Time: November 23, :29 PM CST Proposed backup system for CS with tape loader and server SYSTEM COMPONENTS Dell PowerEdge R910 Qty 1 R910 Chassis for up to Sixteen 2.5-Inch Hard Drives, No Operating System Unit Price $13, Catalog Number: 25 E1285 Module Description Show Details PowerEdge R910 Operating System SHIP Memory Embedded NIC with ISOE Processor Additional Processor Hard Drives Internal Controller BIOS Setting Embedded Management Optional Optical Drive Bezel System Documentation External Controller and PCIE Solid State Storage RAID Configuration R910 Chassis for up to Sixteen 2.5-Inch Hard Drives No Operating System PowerEdge R910 Shipping 16GB Memory (4x4GB), 1066MHz, Dual Ranked LV RDIMMs for 2 Processors, Power Optimized Dual Two-Port Embedded Broadcom NetXtreme II 5709 Gigabit Ethernet Controllers 2x Intel Xeon E GHz, 18M cache, 6.40 GT/s QPI, Turbo, HT, 6C, 1066MHz Max mem Dual Processors Only HD Multi-Select PERC H700 Integrated RAID Controller, 512MB Cache Performance BIOS Setting idrac6 Enterprise DVD-ROM Drive, Internal PowerEdge R910 Bezel Electronic System Documentation and OpenManage DVD Kit SAS 6Gbps HBA External Controller RAID 6 for PERC H700 Controller (Non-Mixed Drives)

9 Find a Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server, Printer, Software, Service, Monitor or TV at... Page 2 of 2 11/23/2011 Rails Hardware Support Services Installation Services ReadyRails Sliding Rails Without Cable Management Arm 5Yr Basic HW Warranty Repair with SATA Ext: 5x10 HW-Only, 5x10 NBD Onsite No Installation Power Supply High Output Power Supply (1100W), Fail-over configuration (2+1) Power Cords Uninterruptible Power Supplies and Accessories Hard Drives (3) NEMA 5-15P to C13 Wall Plug, 125 Volt, 15 AMP, 10 Feet (3m), Power Cord Dell UPS,Rack/Tower,2700W,3U,120V,with L5-30P,2m cord & 3U 96V EBM (12) 1TB 7.2K RPM SATA 2.5in HotPlug Hard Drive TOTAL: $13, Power Vault TL4000 Date & Time: November 23, :29 PM CST SYSTEM COMPONENTS Power Vault TL4000 Qty 1 PVTL4000,4U,LTO5-140,4 SAS Unit Price $24, Catalog Number: 25 E1886 Module Description Show Details TL4000 Controllers Cables Hardware Support Services Installation Services Tape Media PVTL4000,4U,LTO5-140,4 SAS 6Gb SAS HBA, Dual Port Qty 4 6Gb SAS 2M Cable 5 Year ProSupport for your Enterprise: Mission Critical 4HR 7x24 Pack PowerVault Installation Declined LTO5 Media 50PK TOTAL: $24, Total Price Sub-total $37, Tax Dell For customers of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia only. Site Terms Terms of Sale Privacy Feedback Large Text sncm56

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12 Student Technology Fee Budget Template for Project Funding Proposal Project Title: Organization or College: Department or Unit: File and backup system upgrade for Computer Science Department Arts and Sciences Computer Science Project Period Start Date: 4/15/2012 End Date: 6/15/2012 I. Senior/Key Personnel List senior and / or key personnel whose compensation will be funded through project non-recurring funds Requested First Name Middle Name Last Name Project Role Salary Fringe Benefits Funds Requested A. B. C. D. Total Funds Requested for Senior/Key Personnel $ - II. Student & Other Personnel Graduate Students Undergraduate Students Other Personnel Total Funds Requested for Students & Other Personnel Requested Salary Fringe Benefits FTE Funds Requested $ - Total Salaries, Wages & Benefits $ -

13 Student Technology Fee Budget Template for Project Funding Proposal III. Equipment List items and dollar amounts for each item, including software, (or multiple items of the same type with a total cost of) over $2,000 - add lines as needed Item Description Funds Requested A. Dell PowerEdge R710 and R910 servers $ 26, B. Dell PowerVault MD3200i disk storage $ 11, C. Dell PowerVault TL4000 tape autoloader $ 24, D. Beckup Exec software $ 7, Total for items over $2,000 $ 69, Total for Additional items (less that $2,000 each) Total Equipment Costs $ 69, IV. Other Costs Materials & Supplies Consultant Services Equipment or Facility Rental/Use Fees Additional Project Costs (describe in budget justification) Total for Others Costs Funds Requested $ - Total Project Cost $ 69,306.27