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Biomedical Research Computing Facility (BRCF) "PODs" are small compute clusters that provide a standard hardware, software and storage architecture, suitable for local (especially interactive) biomedical research computing, that can be efficiently managed.
If you are associated with a lab or organization that already has a BRCF pod (Available BRCF PODs), just create a BRCF account (Obtaining a BRCF Account) with the appropriate Affiliation specified and we will give you access to that POD.
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- POD equipment ownership – One or more labs or organizations purchase initial equipment for a POD, then pay a monthly maintenance fee.
- The Rental POD – A lab can request access to our Rental POD, which does not require equipment purchase but charges a higher monthly maintenance fee based on desired disk storage.
This page outlines these offerings. Interested parties should contact Anna Battenhouse (abattenhouse@utexas.edu), BRCF manager.
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POD equipment ownership offering
This option is appropriate for those who expect to do heavy computing and/or have large storage requirements, and prefer to have more control over the resources in their computing environment.
In our "POD Equipment Ownership" offering, one or more groups buy the initial POD servers then pay a monthly maintenance feemaintenance fee, which is currently $510 $609/month for a full POD as of February 1, 2023. PODs can be shared among participants, in which case they share in both initial equipment and monthly maintenance costs (e.g. $304. $25550/mo for a 2-PI PODPOD shared by two PIs). We can assist in finding a suitable partner if you select this option. (Note: monthly maintenance is likely to increase as of 9/1/2024; current estimate is $684/mo.)
A POD consists of one or more compute servers that share a storage server; thus there are three components ton consider:
- Compute server(s) – how many, and how configured for RAM and cores
- The storage server – our standard is an empty 36-bay ThinkMate server
- Disks for the storage server – quantity/size depending on needs
Typical equipment costs for this offering are in the $18,000 - $45,00000+ range depending on your desired compute and storage configurations, and current server pricing.
Compute servers
You can purchase one or more compute servers. Prices, with the UT Dell discount, vary considerably, from ~$7,000 for 36 cores/256GB RAM to ~$15,000 for 52 cores/768GB RAM. Again, prices vary considerably, and are particularly high right now due to supply chain shortages. We vary considerably. Some recent (April 2024) examples:
- Dell R660xs; 256 RAM; 56 cores - $8,000
- Dell R660xs; 512 RAM; 56 cores - $10,000
- Dell R660xs; 768 RAM; 56 cores - $14,250
- Dell R7625: 768 RAM; 128 cores - $24,250
GPU-enabled servers are available from other vendors, but typically start around $40,000+.
We can work with our UT Dell representative to help you order a suitable configuration. Our standard compute server requirements are as follows:
- Dual power supplies
- Dual 10Gbit network interfaces
- Enterprise iDRAC or equivalent out of band management
- 5 years technical support (but not next-day)
Storage server
Our standard storage server is an empty 36-bay ThinkMate, with 96 to 192 GB RAM depending on configured storage (more TB of storage requires more GB of RAM). The cost is around $7,500 - $8,000. We will obtain a quote for you for your desired RAM configuration.
Disks
The storage server has 36 bays, and we populate them in groups of 6 (a "vdev"), so up to 6 vdevs can be populated. It is generally best to start with at least 2 vdevs (12 disks) and we , although having just one vdev is acceptable. We also require that you purchase extra disks as spares (e.g. 1 extra for 1-2 vdevs, 2 extra for 3+ vdevs).
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per vdev (6 disks) available = <individual disk capacity> * 4 * 0.85875
So, for example:
- 1 vdev of 16 TB disks is ~54 ~56 TB = 16 * 4 * 0.85875
- 2 vdevs of 16 TB disks is 108 ~112 TB
- 3 vdevs of 16TB disks is 162 ~168 TB
Additional storage Additional storage can be added later, in groups of 6, so folks often start with just 2 or 3 vdevs. Note However, note that additional vdevs must be populated with the same capacity disks.
We recommend Amazon for disk purchases (see this Seagate Exos disks link). As of 2/11/2022, 16TB disks cost $292 each ($18.2/TB), and 18TB disks are $320 ($17.8/TB). Some recent (May 30, 2024) prices are shown below. Disk prices often go up and down, so be sure to check the latest!
| Disk model | Cost per disk | Cost per TB | Cost per vdev (6 disks + 1 spare) | Available storage per vdev |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $279 | $17.4 | $1,951 | ~56 TB | |
| $329 | $18.3 | $2,303 | ~63 TB | |
| $356 (5-pack) | $17.8 | $2,493 | ~70 TB |
Rental POD offering
This option is appropriate for those with less demanding computational requirements, need less storage initially, or cannot fund the initial POD equipment purchase.
In this "Rental POD" offering, participants have no initial equipment buy-in but instead pay a larger per-TB/month maintenance fee are shown below, as of February 1, 2023. Note that allocations can be increased at any time, and all we need from you to get started is an account number for monthly billing.
| Rental % | Rental fraction | Monthly fee | Storage (TB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50% | 1/2 | $662 | 128 |
| 25% | 1/4 | $331 | 64 |
| 20% | 1/5 | $265 | 51 |
| 15% | 1/6.5 | $199 | 38 |
| 12.5% | 1/8 | $166 | 32 |
| 10% | 1/10 | $132 | 26 |
| 5% | 1/20 | $66 | 13 |
Note that these rates are likely to increase as of 9/1/2024; current estimate is ~12%.
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As described in Available BRCF PODs, the Rental pod consists of two Dell PowerEdge R640 servers, both with dual 18-core/36-hyperthread CPUs (for a total of 26 cores/72 hyperthreads each). RentComp01 has 768 GB of RAM and a 900 GB local SSD for fast local I/O, while RentComp02 has 256 GB RAM and a 450 GB local SSD.
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