ComputeFarm Advantage Software
Strategy
Blackstone performs an upfront strategy
audit to ensure that the compute
farm will provide the power and
architecture needed to support the
customer's business objectives.
During this phase, Blackstone establishes
the return-on-investment
objectives of an optimized compute
farm. These objectives are stated in
terms of increased resource utilization,
increased functionality and quality,
increased and more equitable
quality of service levels to engineering/
scientific departments, and
shorter time-to-market/-discovery.
Methodology
Blackstone's vertical-industry
methodology and technology experts
conduct a methodology audit, working
with key end users, managers, and
system administrators to understand
their environment, applications, and
computing practices as well as to
identify computational bottlenecks.
The audit includes installation of
Blackstone's monitoring software,
SmartWatch SQL, which gathers
data to measure resource utilization
of the compute farm -- data that
includes host utilization, license utilization,
and queue performance. As
an optional extension to this audit,
Blackstone recommends the specifications
for a high performance, highly
scalable application-specific compute
farm for customers. Blackstone also
helps develop application and site-specific
policies to ensure maximum
utilization of compute farm resources
and reduce system administration
costs.
Technology Delivery
Following the methodology audit,
Blackstone delivers a complete technology
solution that augments the
existing environment with the most
effective mix of hardware, networking
and storage components, as well as
optimal configuration of load-sharing
software. This phase includes installation,
integration, and best practices
documentation for technology, management,
and administration.
BTG Software Tools
SmartWatch SQL
SmartWatch SQL is a monitoring
and metering solution that generates
information to effectively monitor
compute farm status, performance,
and utilization. With this information,
reports can be generated to proactively
debug, configure, and optimize
a compute farm. SmartWatch SQL
takes the guesswork out of resource
requirements and resource allocation;
answers to bottlenecks of
shared and non-shared resources are
made available to the administrator.
SmartWatch SQL metering functionality
provides the foundation for
establishing usage and charge-back
policies by capturing the compute
farm utilization by user-specified
parameters.
SmartCache
SmartCache is a data distribution tool
for compute farms that enables fast,
reliable data access. Using a unique
peering-based distribution technology,
SmartCache makes data highly
available to the entire compute farm.
SmartCache was invented to enable
data intensive applications on compute
farm architectures. It specifically
addresses the various sources of I/O
bottlenecks incurred in single or multiple
file server based architectures
for data distribution. It is directly
applicable to the data intensive class
of genomic sequence analysis applications.
SmartCache works as an
enhancement to load management
systems in order to provide data
locality based scheduling policies.
Data are replicated and managed
across the compute farm based upon
demand and maximizing computational
resources. The net result of a
SmartCache-enabled compute farm
is improved job throughput, minimization
of load on file servers,
increased job completion reliability,
and improved scalability.
Blackstone Computing, 100 Grove Street, Worcester, MA 01605. Tel: 508-793-2162; Fax: 508-793-2972.