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Pacific Research Platform: FIONA Workshop

March 16-17, 2019 in San Diego, California

Sponsors: PRP, and CENIC


Overview

This workshop provides working cyberinfrastructure engineers with the knowledge and skills necessary to plan, implement, and manage deployments of Data Transfer Nodes (DTNs), including measuring and analyzing performance.

Basic network engineering and UNIX/Linux system administration skills and familiarity with Linux PC server hardware builds are assumed of all participants.

FIONettes will be supplied as the hands-on platform for the workshop. FIONettes are low-cost ($275), 1Gbps-connected variants of PRP’s FIONA (Flash I/O Network Appliance) developed from commodity hardware components.

Each participant will work with their own FIONette to explore data movement toolsets and visualization, as well as performance tuning and troubleshooting. Upon completion of the workshop, each participant may keep the FIONette to take home to deploy it in support of research and education activities on their campus.

To Participate in the Workshop

Space in the workshop will be limited to 20 participants. Participants will be nominated by their campus CIO who will email Kao Saefong, Executive Assistant to Louis Fox at ksaefong@cenic.org<mailto:ksaefong@cenic.org>. Each campus CIO may nominate one participant from their institution. The first 20 nominations will be enrolled in the workshop; a short waiting list (5 additional participants) will be kept, as well. Participants will be contacted to confirm enrollment, logistics, and other workshop details.

Topics and Objectives

By the end of this workshop the participant will be able to:

Understand selected use-cases for deploying a FIONA as a Data Transfer Node or Data Access Node

  • Be able to deploy a FIONA at their institution
  • (Optional) Install OS on FIONA device from scratch, including updates to BIOS and OS setup
  • Install and configure the perfSONAR (pS) toolset for network testing
  • Plan and implement a Measurement Archive and MaDDash
  • Troubleshoot selected network issues using the pS toolkit
  • Analyze data movement performance
  • Understand scaling and tuning options for optimal data flow, including
    • BIOS / OS / FileSystem
    • TCP/UDP network stack
    • Single-stream vs Multiple-streams
    • Larger flows
    • Longer paths (with high Bandwidth Delay Products)
  • Properly secure FIONA devices

Target Audience

  • Operational staff with responsibility for science engagement, e.g.:
    • Cyberinfrastructure Engineers
    • High-Performance Computing Specialists
    • Research Systems Administrators
    • System Integration Engineers

Prerequisites

  • Experience with a UNIX/Linux command line environment
  • Basic understanding of TCP/IP and UDP protocols
  • Basic UNIX/Linux System Administration skills and familiarity with Linux PC server hardware
  • Basic Network Engineering skills and familiarity with modern routing and switching technologies
  • Please note: participants are required to bring a laptop computer

Useful Links

Workshop Program

NOTE: Particularly as the PRP FIONA Workshop is itself a collaborative development effort, the program content, session/lab schedule, and instructors are subject to change.
We expect the general flow and cadence of the workshop to be as described in the program document here. Download the PRP FIONA WORKSHOP PROGRAM here >

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