Transition Costs Associated with the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer Center (NWSC) Facility

NCAR的计算和信息系统实验室（CISL）将把其主要的超级计算业务从位于科罗拉多州博尔德的NCAR梅萨实验室（ML）转移到位于怀俄明州夏延附近新建的NCAR-怀俄明超级计算机中心（NWSC）。该项目的目标是在过渡期间最大限度地提高科学生产力和效率，将NWSC无缝集成到NCAR现有的网络基础设施（CI）和更广泛的NSF CI中，并显着提高NCAR为研究社区提供的所有超级计算操作的服务和安全性。实现这些目标需要NCAR和CISL工作人员进行仔细和详细的规划。为了避免中断，在过渡期间，NWSC和ML设施必须重复提供某些服务。为了降低成本，NCAR计划将一些ML设备重新安置到NWSC，而其他设备将继续在ML服务或退役。根据该奖项资助的活动包括为新中心配备人员和将设备搬迁到夏安。此外，还将购买设施监控软件，使博尔德和夏安的设施能够由怀俄明州的一个团队运营。该合同的剩余资金将用于在过渡期间同时运行两个系统的额外公用事业成本，以及购买将NCAR的大量数据（约10pb）转移到NWSC所需的服务器和相关设备。顺利、执行良好的向NWSC的过渡将有助于确保对依赖这一关键计算设施的科学界的不间断支持。对NCAR当前计算设施的需求表明，该社区迫切需要千万亿级计算机和相关的网络基础设施。无缝的操作过渡将支持这一科学势头，使研究人员能够实现模型分辨率的显着改进，更好的物理过程表示，更长的模拟长度，以及为广泛的重要地球系统科学应用提供更好的统计数据。

The Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at NCAR will transfer its principal supercomputing operations from the NCAR Mesa Laboratory (ML) in Boulder, Colorado to the newly-constructed NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer Center (NWSC), located near Cheyenne, Wyoming. The goals of this project are to maximize scientific productivity and efficiency during the transition, seamlessly integrate NWSC into NCAR's existing cyberinfrastructure (CI) and the broader NSF CI, and significantly increase the service and security of all supercomputing operations that NCAR provides for the research community. Meeting these goals requires careful and detailed planning by NCAR and CISL staff. To avoid disruptions, certain services will have to be duplicated at the NWSC and ML facilities during the transition. To hold down costs, NCAR plans to relocate some ML equipment to NWSC, while other equipment will continue in service at ML or be decommissioned. Activities funded under this award include staffing the new center and relocating equipment to Cheyenne. In addition, facility monitoring software will be purchased that would enable both the Boulder and Cheyenne facilities to be operated by a single team in Wyoming. The remainder of the award would fund the additional utility costs of running both systems concurrently during the transition and the purchase of servers and related equipment needed for the transfer of NCAR's considerable data holdings (~10s of petabytes) to the NWSC.A smooth, well-executed transition to the NWSC will help to ensure uninterrupted support for the scientific community that depends upon this crucial computing facility. The demand for NCAR's current computing facility demonstrates the community's urgent need for petascale computers and associated cyberinfrastructure. A seamless operational transition will support this scientific momentum by enabling investigators to achieve dramatic improvements in model resolution, better physical process representations, longer simulation lengths, and better statistics for a wide range of important Earth System science applications.