The IRMACS Centre’s Infrastructure- Computers

The IRMACS Centre provides advanced computing and wireless infrastructure throughout its labs and meeting rooms.

Software

The IRMACS Centre provides a wide range of commercial, open source and freeware software in the following fields: Programming and Modelling, Bioinformatics, Statistics and Mathematics, Multimedia, and Productivity and Utilities. These software packages run on a range of operating systems, including OS X, Windows, and Linux. The IRMACS Technical Staff is willing to install or configure any open source or freeware software to meet researcher's needs.

Computers

The IRMACS computing environment consists of more than 90 desktop computers. The computing environment also consists of a 5 TB high-performance Network Appliance F940 fileserver on which researcher's data resides.

All of the desktop computers are centrally configured providing IRMACS users with consistent access to software and their data. Each computer has research-oriented software that has uses in such diverse areas as: mathematics, statistics, bioinformatics, engineering, and computer science. In addition to these research tools each computer has a full suite of software development tools.

Networking

A high-performance Gigabit per second, non-blocking Ethernet network connects the entire IRMACS computing infrastructure. A single Cisco Systems 6509 high performance switch is the core of the IRMACS networks. IRMACS has multiple gigabit Ethernet connections to the campus backbone, one for traditional connectivity and one a dedicated gigabit network connection to the WestGrid high performance computing facilities. IRMACS maintains dedicated fibre optic lightpaths for researchers who require long-haul connectivity to remote facilities through the CANARIE research network and user controlled light paths (UCLP).

Printing

IRMACS provides a both a high-speed black & white laser with document finishing capabilities and a colour laser printer. There is a wide bed plotter available for making posters.

Security

The entire IRMACS network is secured by a firewall. This configuration protects researchers and their data from intruders and hackers. The usual host based mechanisms such as virus scanners and security patches are also employed to ensure researchers enjoy a reliable and secure environment. A VPN service ensures that external researchers are both authenticated and authorized to use the computing infrastructure. Since the VPN provides a high degree of certainty on authentication of users the infrastructure can be made securely available to users of the VPN service.

Integration with Existing HPC Facilities

The IRMACS proposal was premised on the notion that it would make the fullest use possible of previously funded and established computing facilities. WestGrid should be the first choice of IRMACS researchers needing larger computational resources than can not be provided by IRMACS directly. Accordingly the IRMACS Centre's computational facilities are targeted at niche uses that WestGrid has difficulty meeting. In particular, the IRMACS cluster is targeted at computational jobs that have short turn around times and are interactive in nature. To the greatest extent possible the IRMACS Centre will be tightly coupled with the WestGrid infrastructure. Currently, this includes both the hosting of WestGrid equipment within the IRMACS facility (see the IRMACS Visualization page) and the provisioning of a dedicated gigabit network connection between IRMACS and the WestGrid core network.

Single Default User Platform

Reducing the complexity of the environment by focusing most effort on a single platform permits the IT staff to provide the greatest level of added value to the IRMACS researchers. Apple's Mac OS X Operating System is the default platform. The OS X operating system, already widely used for software development and research computing, combines UNIX capabilities with traditional Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, and Power Point.

Alternative Platform Support and Software Hosting

While a single default platform exists across the IRMACS labs, an individual researcher's needs might require a specific computing platform. These needs are supported through remote access technologies and virtualization. The IRMACS Centre runs a number of servers (Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux) on which researchers can run a wide range of scientific applications. In addition, IRMACS can install software provided by its research members on these servers. This allows research groups to purchase specialized software but not necessitate the need for each research groups to purchase servers to run that software.

Access to these servers and the applications are provided through the use of remote windowing/desktop tools. IRMACS uses Apple Remote Desktop on OS X, Windows Remote Desktop on Windows, and X Windows on Linux to provide remote access to these servers. Users can connect to these servers and take advantage of the wide range of installed software tools from their desktop. Using the IRMACS Virtual Private Network capabilities, users can connect to and use these services from their laptops at any location that provides them with an internet connection.

Infrastructure Designed for Pluggable Research Equipment Needs (Virtualization)

The base infrastructure is designed so that individual research groups can either provide, install, and maintain their own specialized equipment or utilize IRMACS servers (using virtualization) to run their own servers and services within a protected virtual hosting environment. Such equipment and services can, if desired, share authentication and file-systems with the IRMACS infrastructure. Individual research groups will be able to contract with IRMACS for support of their computing equipment or hire their own staff as they choose. Individual research groups may contract various services from IRMACS to meet their needs: simple backup and network services through to full administration of specialized equipment, for example. Constraints/requirements may be imposed on research groups that operate their own equipment so that efficient and secure operation of the entire facility is maintained.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)-Like Services

Researchers and/or project groups can contract with IRMACS to provide a virtual web server and mail server so that individuals or groups can provide and maintain a web presence.

Technical Support

Desktop support documents offer step-by-step directions for using the computing infrastructure.

If you have any technical questions, contact the IRMACS Centre.