DataDirect Networks Case Studies ACCELERATE: NATIONAL LABORATORIES North German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN) Accelerates Scientific Breakthroughs with Peta-Scale Computing and DataDirect Networks High-Performance Storage

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	ACCELERATE: NATIONAL LABORATORIES North German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN) Accelerates Scientific Breakthroughs with Peta-Scale Computing and DataDirect Networks High-Performance Storage DataDirect Networks

ACCELERATE: NATIONAL LABORATORIES North German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN) Accelerates Scientific Breakthroughs with Peta-Scale Computing and DataDirect Networks High-Performance Storage

DataDirect Networks

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Applicable Industries	Education Life Sciences
Applicable Functions	Discrete Manufacturing Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Edge Computing & Edge Intelligence Predictive Maintenance Process Control & Optimization
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services Data Science Services System Integration
Challenge	The North German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN) provides scientists across seven North-German states with state-of-the-art storage and compute resources to accelerate scientific breakthroughs in the fields of physics, chemistry, fluid dynamics, engineering and the environment. The scientists, many of whom come from North German universities and other scientific institutions, have combined resources and funding from their respective states and the German federal government to create a powerful, distributed supercomputer system. HLRN’s ability to drive advanced scientific research requires the highest levels of compute power as well as high-bandwidth storage capacity. Given the wide range of data-intensive applications supported by the institute, HLRN sought a Big Data solution that could deliver a significant increase in storage capacity while scaling bandwidth and performance as needed. HLRN also needed to ensure that data could be accessed easily from different geographic locations. Read More
About Customer	The North German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN) is a collaboration of scientists across seven North-German states, providing state-of-the-art storage and compute resources to accelerate scientific breakthroughs in various fields. Established in 2001, the alliance currently supports scientists and researchers from Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen and Schleswig-Holstein. The scientists, many of whom come from North German universities and other scientific institutions, have combined resources and funding from their respective states and the German federal government to create a powerful, distributed supercomputer system. The system is operated by a team of experts at Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) and at the High Performance Computing Center at Leibniz University in Hannover (RRZN). Read More
Solution	HLRN sought an ideal balance between compute power and storage capacity, along with matching bandwidth to facilitate fast and reliable access to all data on disk in a distributed fashion. So, the team included a benchmark to measure I/O performance of compute and storage resources, like bandwidth and metered data performance. In measuring the results of the I/O performance, the team determined that high-performance storage from DataDirect Networks (DDN), in partnership with Cray Inc., would provide the optimal foundation for the alliance’s peta-scale supercomputer environment. HLRN teamed with Cray and DDN to design and deploy a distributed supercomputing system based on Cray XC30 and DDN’s SFA12K-40 with Lustre and DDN’s GRIDScaler file system appliance with IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) for their “Work” file system that handles computationally intensive workloads. Additionally, HLRN took advantage of its DDN system to support a GPFS for “home” storage, where scientists can store their programs and most important data. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services

Applicable Industries

Education

Life Sciences

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Edge Computing & Edge Intelligence

Predictive Maintenance

Process Control & Optimization

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Data Science Services

System Integration

Challenge

The North German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN) provides scientists across seven North-German states with state-of-the-art storage and compute resources to accelerate scientific breakthroughs in the fields of physics, chemistry, fluid dynamics, engineering and the environment. The scientists, many of whom come from North German universities and other scientific institutions, have combined resources and funding from their respective states and the German federal government to create a powerful, distributed supercomputer system. HLRN’s ability to drive advanced scientific research requires the highest levels of compute power as well as high-bandwidth storage capacity. Given the wide range of data-intensive applications supported by the institute, HLRN sought a Big Data solution that could deliver a significant increase in storage capacity while scaling bandwidth and performance as needed. HLRN also needed to ensure that data could be accessed easily from different geographic locations.

About Customer

The North German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN) is a collaboration of scientists across seven North-German states, providing state-of-the-art storage and compute resources to accelerate scientific breakthroughs in various fields. Established in 2001, the alliance currently supports scientists and researchers from Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen and Schleswig-Holstein. The scientists, many of whom come from North German universities and other scientific institutions, have combined resources and funding from their respective states and the German federal government to create a powerful, distributed supercomputer system. The system is operated by a team of experts at Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) and at the High Performance Computing Center at Leibniz University in Hannover (RRZN).

Solution

HLRN sought an ideal balance between compute power and storage capacity, along with matching bandwidth to facilitate fast and reliable access to all data on disk in a distributed fashion. So, the team included a benchmark to measure I/O performance of compute and storage resources, like bandwidth and metered data performance. In measuring the results of the I/O performance, the team determined that high-performance storage from DataDirect Networks (DDN), in partnership with Cray Inc., would provide the optimal foundation for the alliance’s peta-scale supercomputer environment. HLRN teamed with Cray and DDN to design and deploy a distributed supercomputing system based on Cray XC30 and DDN’s SFA12K-40 with Lustre and DDN’s GRIDScaler file system appliance with IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) for their “Work” file system that handles computationally intensive workloads. Additionally, HLRN took advantage of its DDN system to support a GPFS for “home” storage, where scientists can store their programs and most important data.

Impact #1	Crucial balance of storage I/O for peta-scale compute was achieved
Impact #2	Long-lasting improvement of return on compute to support more science, from developing new molecular modeling techniques to expediting the design of new drugs or creating wind stream simulations
Impact #3	High-density, scalable storage enables HLRN to increase research support while reducing energy consumption for lowered TCO

Impact #1

Crucial balance of storage I/O for peta-scale compute was achieved

Impact #2

Long-lasting improvement of return on compute to support more science, from developing new molecular modeling techniques to expediting the design of new drugs or creating wind stream simulations

Impact #3

High-density, scalable storage enables HLRN to increase research support while reducing energy consumption for lowered TCO

Benefit #1	DDN delivered nearly four times greater bandwidth performance than the previous storage system
Benefit #2	HLRN has 4PBs of storage to support its RRZN site, with plans to scale to 10PB within two years
Benefit #3	At ZIB, DDN has helped the team migrate 1.6PBs of vital project data onto the new storage with

Benefit #1

DDN delivered nearly four times greater bandwidth performance than the previous storage system

Benefit #2

HLRN has 4PBs of storage to support its RRZN site, with plans to scale to 10PB within two years

Benefit #3

At ZIB, DDN has helped the team migrate 1.6PBs of vital project data onto the new storage with

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Overview

ACCELERATE: NATIONAL LABORATORIES North German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN) Accelerates Scientific Breakthroughs with Peta-Scale Computing and DataDirect Networks High-Performance Storage

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit