Information Systems Group

The Information Systems Group provides support and data storage for both real-world data acquisition and model forecasting, as well as for the generation of high-resolution model and real-time data images utilized in visualizations.

The computational environment comprises more than two dozen computers running on Red Hat & Fedora Linux Operating Systems, ranging from single to 8-core systems. Access is available to supercomputing facilities at Department of Defense HPC centers. Data storage is provided by a series of MySQL relational database servers with a combined storage capability of more than 20 Terabytes of redundant storage. Data security is provided by 6 terabytes of external fire- and water-protected storage. We provide continuous access to real-time hydrological and meteorological data and 48-hour forecasts, and our websites are utilized by a wide range of private and public sector users.

Hyper-Scale Computing Center

Davidson Laboratory’s Hyper-Scale Computing Center is located on campus and managed by the school’s information technology office.

The center is supported by Stevens' High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster consisting of 70 general computing nodes, which contains 1448 cores, 2 head nodes, and 2.2 PB of Seagate CS6000 Lustre parallel file system. The CS6000 storage system is built on RAID6 technology. All storage servers are configured in high availability (HA) pairs. The two head nodes also support redundancy.

In an initiative currently underway, we are working with our technology partners to enhance the automatic failover process to further increase fault tolerance. The computer cluster incorporates fault tolerance as well by using the advanced MOAB management system. The cluster is connected with both FDR InfiniBand (IB) network and internal Giga Ethernet communication systems. The Ethernet switches are installed in pairs and the IB switches have built in redundancy within the network layer.

Beyond the hardware and OS redundancy, the HPC cluster is supported by our technology partners with a Silver-level support agreement, and Next Business Day hardware replacement of parts. This service delivery is through our technology partners HP and Seagate. Finally, our IT support team has two system administrators who manage and administer the HPC cluster, and who actively work to improve its function and capabilities.