LRZ Supercomputer Backs Up Big Data With IBM Tape System

Leibniz Supercomputing Centre’s famed SuperMUC supercomputer gets innovative storage infrastructure to back up and archive up to 16.5 petabytes of scientific data

IBM announced today that the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) has implemented an innovative IBM tape storage system to provide up to 16.5 petabytes of scientific data archiving and backup for the center’s SuperMUC supercomputer. A petabyte is roughly the equivalent of all the content in the U.S. Library of Congress – times 100.

Designed by IBM in 2010 for the LRZ of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the SuperMUC combines 155,000 general purpose core processors with 320 terabytes of main memory to help scientists from across Europe study all fields of science, from the simulation of the evolution of the universe under the influence of dark matter, to the propagation of earthquakes, and much more. Unique to the design, is the SuperMUC’s innovative “High Temperature Liquid Cooling” system that uses hot water to cool the system processors rather than compressed air and fans. As a result, the multicore computer consumes 40 percent less energy than the LRZ’s previous supercomputers, dramatically reducing the organization’s energy costs.  .

In addition to the innovative processing and cooling, the SuperMUC features 12 petabytes of permanent disk storage. To provide archiving and backup storage for the center’s primary and secondary scientific data, IBM teamed with Business Partner SVA System Vertrieb Alexander GmbH, to create a high-capacity, highly-scalable storage system that consists of computers, disk systems and two massive tape libraries in a storage area network.

“What we needed was a system that could store the data streams of one of the fastest computers in Europe, using standard components to keep costs low,” said Werner Baur, director of the Storage Group at LRZ. “It had to be scalable so that it is able to keep up with the development stages of the SuperMUC and it had to be able to integrate with our IT environment. That’s exactly what we’ve got.”

High-performance solution with flexible components

The intelligent archiving solution consists of two highly scalable IBM System Storage TS3500 Tape Library systems equipped with 22 LTO 5 drives and 11,000 tape cartridges. All told, the solution has a storage capacity of 16.5 petabytes and is scalable to 40 petabytes.

An IBM System x3850 acts as the archive server and is responsible for the management of metadata, the control of the mass storage device, and the control of the data flow. To ensure fast access to archived data, IBM System Storage DS3500 and IBM Storwize V7000 systems are used as high capacity disks, along with 6 terabytes of solid state drive (SSD) memory.

“The project at LRZ achieves the tremendous possibilities of IBM Storage technology for a challenging IT environment,” said IBM Storage Manager, Michael Achtelik. “Through its expandability, the system also provides a long-term solution.”

About the LRZ

The LRZ is a joint data center of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, the Technical University of Munich and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and is one of the biggest supercomputing centers in Europe. It operates high-performance computing systems for all Bavarian universities and a federal high performance computer, which is available for scientific research at German universities. LRZ provides more than 100,000 users at the universities of Munich and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and operates with general IT services. It runs an extensive communication infrastructure with disk and automated magnetic tape storage for backing up large amounts of data. Since July 2012, it is also the home of the supercomputer SuperMUC, currently one of the fastest computers in Europe. SuperMUC is an IBM System x iDataPlex with a total of more than 155,000 cores. It is distinguished by the fact that it is being cooled with hot water. This cooling concept was developed by IBM and is being used on a large scale the first time with SuperMUC.

More information about LRZ: http://www.lrz.de/

More information boutSVA: www.sva.de/

More informationen about IBM Storage solutions: www.ibm.com/storage

128TB tape cartridges key to kilometer-size telescope

Good post by Lucas Mearian (thank you)

IBM has already demonstrated it can shrink areal tape density by a factor of 10

Astronomers building a kilometer-sized radio telescope are depending on 60-year-old magnetic tape technology to store the 1 million GB of data per day they plan to generate.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a radio telescope being built by the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) in Australia and South Africa. The telescope arrays will consist of 3,000 dishes, each 15 meters in diameter and is expected to cost about $2 billion.

Read on here

Atape Device Driver 12.5.9.0 for AIX Platform

ibm-maintenance

Atape_Driver_for_AIX_12.5.9.0 – Atape Device Driver 12.5.9.0 for AIX Platform

Get the Driver here

If My Dog Were to be a Storage Device, She Would be a Tape Drive

Good and fun post by Sondra Ashmore (thank you)

Today as I was drinking my morning coffee, I looked over and saw two of my passions juxtaposed next to one another. The first was my model TS3500 sitting prominently on my desk, the second was my chocolate Labrador Retriever, Dandy. I started thinking about both and began to realize that maybe there is a theme to my life passions.

Read on here

IBM Ultrium 6 2.5 TB Data Cartridge models 550, 650, 570, and 670 nearly double the capacity of previous generation IBM LTO Ultrium cartridges

https://i0.wp.com/www.lto-tape.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/lto-6.gif

The IBM Ultrium 6 2.5 TB Data Cartridge allows flexibility in the specification and ordering of prelabeled and bulk packaged data cartridges for the IBM LTO™ Ultrium family of products. Shipping with or without jewel cases can also be specified when prelabeled cartridges are ordered.

The Ultrium tape format is the implementation of the Linear Tape-Open™ ( LTO ) technology that is designed to provide high capacity and performance with exceptional reliability in either a stand-alone or an automated environment. It uses a single-reel cartridge and is ideally suited for large volume backup, restore, and archive applications.

New models of the 3589 are available to be ordered with the IBM Ultrium 6 2.5 TB Data Cartridge . The Ultrium 6 2.5 TB format, based on LTO technology, provides a tape cartridge capacity up to 2.5 TB native physical capacity (6.25 TB with 2.5:1 compression). These cartridges can be used in IBM Ultrium 6 Tape Drives , the sixth generation LTO Ultrium Tape Drive in the IBM System Storage® LTO Ultrium family of products. You can choose from the following models:

  • Model 550 – IBM Ultrium 6 2.5 TB Data Cartridge, labeled with starting volume serial information and optionally packed in individual jewel cases
  • Model 650 – IBM Ultrium 6 2.5 TB Data Cartridge, packed in individual jewel cases with two non-attached blank labels
  • Model 570 – IBM Ultrium 6 2.5 TB Data Cartridge, labeled with starting volume serial information and optionally packed in jewel cases, are designed to provide WORM storage on a 2.5 TB capacity cartridge
  • Model 670 – IBM Ultrium 6 2.5 TB Data Cartridge, packed in jewel cases with two non-attached blank labels, are also designed to provide WORM storage on a 2.5 TB capacity cartridge

RFID labeled Ultrium 6 media is available as optional feature codes.

See more details here

LTFS Introduction Video

Thanks to Bruce Master for the hint.

A 2-minute animation video introducing the Linear Tape File System is now available for viewing at the LTO Program website (aka consortium) here. LTFS user stories, articles and more are also accessible at the site

IBM Tape driver upgrades – Linux

lin_tape-1.74.0-rhel5.x86_64 – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.x86_64 with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-rhel6.i686 – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.i386 with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

in_tape-1.74.0-rhel6.ppc64 – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.ppc64 with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-rhel6.s390x – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.s390x with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-rhel6.x86_64 – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.x86_64 with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-sles10.i586 – Latest Linux daemon for sles10.i586 with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-sles10.ppc64 – Latest Linux daemon for sles10.ppc64 with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-sles10.s390x – Latest Linux daemon for sles10.s390x with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-sles10.x86_64 – Latest Linux daemon for sles10.x86_64 with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-sles11.i586 – Latest Linux daemon for sles11.i586 with the source rpm included. – Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-sles11.ppc64 – Latest Linux daemon for sles11.ppc64 with the source rpm included. Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.76.0-rhel6.i686 – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.i386 with the source rpm included. Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.76.0-rhel6.ppc64 – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.ppc64 with the source rpm included. Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.76.0-rhel6.s390x – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.s390x with the source rpm included. Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.76.0-rhel6.x86_64 – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.x86_64 with the source rpm included. Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.76.0-sles10.i586 – Latest Linux daemon for sles10.i586 with the source rpm included. Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-sles11.s390x – Latest Linux daemon for sles11.s390x with the source rpm included. Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.76.0-sles10.ppc64 – Latest Linux daemon for sles10.ppc64 with the source rpm included. Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-sles11.x86_64 – Latest Linux daemon for sles11.x86_64 with the source rpm included. Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-rhel5.s390x

lin_tape-1.74.0-rhel5.s390x – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.s390x with the source rpm included.

Get the driver here

lin_tape-1.74.0-rhel5.ppc64

lin_tape-1.74.0-rhel5.ppc64 – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.ppc64 with the source rpm included.

Get the driver here

in_tape-1.74.0-rhel5.i386

in_tape-1.74.0-rhel5.i386 – Latest Linux daemon for rhel5.i386 with the source rpm included.

Get the driver here