NCCS Holds First Users Forum

On June 6, staff held the first NCCS Users Forum to introduce the new Linux Networx Custom Supersystem to the NASA community. The live portion of the meeting occurred in GSFC’s Earth System Science Building, which is home to the Earth-Sun Exploration Division and the largest group of NCCS users. Remote users accessed the meeting through the Internet and a teleconference. The forum will be a quarterly event held in various locations at GSFC.

Phil Webster, CISTO’s Lead for High-Performance Computing, emphasized that the forum is designed to facilitate dialogue with users. He also presented the near-term technical direction for the NCCS, which includes the centrality of data to scientific success. Dan Duffy of CSC gave two presentations, the first providing an overview of the cluster architecture and software environment and the second detailing best practices for using the NCCS mass storage system. Tom Clune of GSFC's SIVO spoke about the training, porting, and optimization services offered by SIVO’s Advanced Software Technology Group. Sadie Duffy of CSC informed users of the processes for moving their work to the new cluster and the variety of user services available, including a new weekly user teleconference. A discussion period gave attendees the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. The NCCS Users Forum presentations are available at:

http://nccs.nasa.gov/user_forum.html