Next Generation Sonic HPC/AI Implementation
The Next Generation Sonic HPC/AI Implementation was set up to replace "end of life" infrastructure on our existing "Sonic" HPC and to bring increased resources to the UCD research community. HEA funding was secured through the UCD Research Office.
Project Phases
Design and Procurement
Installation and User Testing
User Migration and Golive
Project Update
Nov 2024
We received and installed the dell hardware that will form the backbone of the new Sonic cluster into the Daedalus Data Centre . This hardware includes 4 Storage servers and shelves to make up the new /scratch providing ~ 750TB of scrath space . 6 CPU machines with 48 cores and 512GB of RAM, 2 CPU machines with 48 cores and 2TB of RAM. 8 GPU servers containting 2 Nvidia L40s cards and 3 GPU servers with 2 H100 cards as well as infrastructure servers such as login and monitoring servers . We are still waiting on infiniband switches for the node and storage interconnect. Our next step is to make configure this hardware into a working cluster .
July 2024
After our project proposal was submitted to UMT, we have been awarded funding to replace the core infrastructure of Sonic. This HEA funding was secured through the UCD Research Office.
Hardware Specification
After meeting with key stakeholders and incorporating information from the user survey (Dec 2023) a hardware specification list is to be drawn up and sent to the supplier awarded the HEAnet single supplier framework for Servers and Storage for procurement
What is Sonic HPC?
"Sonic" is the name of the campus HPC system in UCD . It is available to all researchers on campus and is accessible on campus or through the UCD Staff/Research* VPN's.
The HPC system consists of compute nodes (equipped with up to two 48 cores CPUS) and GPU nodes (equipped with V100s A100s and a H100). These nodes are networked together using a high speed Infiniband interconnect and connect to a parallel filesystem which provides low latency storage to the cluster.
Researchers can install their own software or use centrally installed software . Requests for software to be installed centrally can be logged to the group using the IT Service Support Portal https://www.ucd.ie/ithelp
* The Research VPN is only available to research postgraduate students . More details can be found here.
Next Generation HPC/AI Platform Timelines
The below graphic provides an overview of the expected milestones within this project. These dates are provisional and subject to change depending on how the project processes.
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Q3 2023 - Q1 2024
Complete - Engage user base. Form Working group of PI’s. Gather Requirements
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Q1 2024
Complete - Engage business owner and submit for funding approval
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Q2 2024
In Progress - Finalise specification and procurement channel
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Q3 2024
Complete - Secure funding. This was provided by HEA through UCD Research
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Q4 2024 - Q1 2025
Planning - Purchase, Hardware, OS and software install
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Q2 2025
Planning - Migrate users to new cluster
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Q3 2025
Planning - Power off old Sonic
UCD IT Services
Computer Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.Contact us via the UCD IT Support Hub: www.ucd.ie/ithelp