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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 small-scale, interactive research computing,​ ​that can be efficiently managed.​

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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 purchase the initial POD servers then pay a monthly maintenance fee. PODs can be shared among participants, in which case they share in both initial equipment and monthly maintenance costs. As of December 1, 2024, BRCF monthly maintenance is $681/month for a full pod, or, for example, $340.50/month for a pod shared by two PIs. We can assist in finding a suitable partner if you select this option. (Note that the 12/2/2024 $72/mo, 11.8% increase, the first in two years, was needed to cover higher costs for both support personnel and equpment.)

A POD consists of one or more compute servers that share a storage server; thus there are three components to 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 - $45,000+ 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. 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 cost $40,000+. We can work with our UT Dell and ThinkMate representatives 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 (OOBM)
  
• 5 years technical support (but not next-day)

Storage server

Our standard storage server is an empty 36-bay ThinkMate, with 192 GB RAM or more, depending on configured storage (more TB of storage requires more GB of RAM). The cost is around $8,100. 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), although having just one vdev is acceptable. We also require that you purchase extra disks as spares (e.g. 1 extra for each vdev).

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Additional storage can be added later, in groups of 6 (plus 1 spare), so folks often start with just 2 or 3 vdevs. However, note that additional vdevs must be populated with the same capacity disks.

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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 December 1, 2024. Allocations can be increased at any time, and all we need from you to get started is an account number for monthly billing.

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