AEROSPACE

Scali Manage Ensures Availability and Performance of Cluster Dedicated to Analyzing the Earth’s Atmosphere Based on Spaceborne Satellite Observations -- The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has selected Scali Manage 5 to manage a cluster configured to analyze complex data on atmospheric constituents. The cluster, which is accessed by researchers in the Atmospheric Processors department of DLR’s Remote Sensing Technology Institute, is tasked with monitoring and analyzing the Earth’s atmospheric composition to further understand the threats caused by global warming. A key research area for the department is the monitoring of ozone degradation and of changes in atmospheric trace gas composition in relation to their impact on global warming. The department leverages performance Linux clusters to analyze observations made by the SCIAMACHY instrument, a grating spectrometer flying aboard the ENVISAT satellite of the European Space Agency since March 2002, in order to monitor the trace gas composition of our Earth’s atmosphere. Collecting and analyzing this information is key to understanding the global warming phenomenon and vital for any corrective actions that might be considered. “Analyzing atmospheric conditions requires considerable compute power,” said Bernd Aberle, software engineer and system administrator from DLR. “The cluster processes 1.7 GB of data on a daily basis and we rely on that analysis to satisfy the goals of our department. As a result, we sought professional cluster management software that would maximize the performance and availability of the cluster. We also needed an easy way to maintain the required configuration as the cluster is expanded.” DLR needed the high performance cluster to be installed and operational in a short time period. The solution, which included servers from Dell, system design and installation from Unisys and Scali’s cluster management solution satisfied this requirement and was immediately operational with the required performance and reliability. “In order to concentrate on our research, we strive to establish computer systems that are optimized for performance while needing little oversight. The dashboard view provided by Scali Manage allows us to instantly view and drill-down to a host of important parameters like CPU temperatures, network traffic, disk IO and other necessary metrics that helps us maintain and maximize the effectiveness of the cluster. In addition, Scali Manage has made it easier for us to manage and update our software applications and operating system.” “Aerospace centers such as the DLR maintain strict requirements regarding the stability and performance output of their high-end Linux clusters,” said Hakon Bugge, Chief Technical Officer of Scali. “Scali Manage helps ease the burden of managing large clusters and provides instant access to the performance metrics that allow organizations to address any potential problems, thereby reducing downtime and maximizing performance and efficiency. This is particularly important in organizations like DLR that process large amounts of data on a daily basis.” The cluster at DLR consists of a Dell Power Edge 2850 functioning as a server and frontend and 20 Dell Power Edge SC1425 compute nodes. Disk space is provided by a Dell PowerVault 221S SCSI-RAID-array with a total capacity of 1.4 TB.