That’s RefreshingDell Asset Recovery Services supports the research endeavors at the Center for Computational Research by helping to make a cluster upgrade easy and economically attractive

J ust as there are clusters of stars and then there are galaxies, in the universe of computing

there are small clusters and then there are Milky Way–sized clusters that support data-

intensive research. The Center for Computational Research at the University at Buffalo,

State University of New York, runs a galactic-scale cluster with a life-saving higher calling. Founded

in 1998, the Center for Computational Research operates within the New York State Center of

Excellence in Bioinformatics and the Life Sciences. The Center of Excellence, which is comprised of

the University at Buffalo, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical

Research Institute, pursues a tri-fold mission. First, it strives to facilitate research and scholarship

through the use of bioinformatics technology. Second, the Center works to develop treatments and

cures for diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s. Lastly, the Center serves as

an economic catalyst for the Western New York region by working with local and national biotech

companies to further business development and boost the local economy.

To help fulfill its mission, the Center for Computational Research runs a large compute cluster that

must be able to support a variety of diverse applications and workloads. “I like to tell people that

we are a full-service computing center,” explains Furlani, director of the center for computational

research. “We support all sorts of computation—from fluid dynamics to chemistry to medical

CUSTOMER OVERVIEW

The Center for Computational Research at

the University of Buffalo, State University of

New York, supports research and scholarship

with the help of super computing resources

to provide education, outreach, training,

and technology transfer to local industries

requiring high-end computing.www.ccr.buffalo.edu

CHALLENGE

Before the center could augment its existing

800-node cluster with 512 additional nodes,

it had to remove and remarket 2,300 used

high-performance servers in preparation for

the upgrade

SOLUTION

Dell Asset Recovery Services (ARS) cus-

tomized a solution for the rapid, easy, and

secure recovery—and timely resale—of

2,300 used servers and related equipment

BENEFIT

By devising a way for the servers to remain

in their racks during the de-installation

process, Dell ARS helped ensure as little

downtime and inconvenience for the customer

as possible; in the process, Dell ARS also

provided extremely high levels of data

security and environmental compliance

CenterforComputationalResearchattheUniversityofBuffalo,StateUniversityofNewYork Education

backup/recovery/archiving n clustering n consolidation n database n management/utilities n messaging n virtualiZation n

imaging. Plus, we support research in data mining, including analyzing

retail shopping trends. And we render animation. So, needless to say, we

run a variety of applications on the cluster. In addition to the computa-

tional resources, our support staff also provides software engineering,

database administration, scientific computing, and visualization support

to researchers throughout the university.”

Expanding research necessitates a cluster upgradeFor the past several years, the Center for Computional Research used a

high-bandwidth cluster built around Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers to crunch

data for its many workloads, but as life sciences research assumed

increasing importance, the center began to investigate expanding the

cluster. “As we discovered, much of life sciences research does not

involve large parallel jobs where a single big problem is solved by multiple

processors working simultaneously,” explains Furlani. “Instead, many of

the applications in life sciences run effectively on only one or few

processors but are RAM- or disk-intensive. It is a bit of overkill to utilize a

large cluster with a high-bandwidth interconnect to solve these types of

problems. We didn’t want to tie up the resources of our high-bandwidth

cluster unnecessarily, but we still needed to address the research needs

of this important segment of our customer base, so we began evaluating

new potential cluster solutions.”

Ultimately, the Center for Computational Research decided to upgrade

the cluster and the PowerEdge servers that comprise it. “We made the

decision to add to the existing system and to replace some of the old,

off-warranty servers,” explains Furlani. “Recently, we installed 256

dual-processor Dell PowerEdge SC1425 servers. The additional 512

processors do not use a high-bandwidth interconnect, but rather utilize

a standard Gigabit Ethernet interconnect. In addition to sequential jobs,

this interconnect is fine for many of our small 2–16 processor jobs. An

added advantage is that the cost savings realized by going with a Gigabit

Ethernet interconnect can be used to purchase additional compute

nodes, thereby increasing the overall computing capacity we can

provide our users. The new 256-node cluster was merged with the older

800-node high-bandwidth cluster to form a single large cluster that is

designed to meet the computing needs of the center’s researchers and

business partners.”

As a consequence of the decision to install new PowerEdge servers, the

Center for Computational Research needed to remove and remarket 2,300

used high-performance servers in preparation for the upgrade. Furthermore,

the removal of the old equipment needed to be seamless—creating little

disruption to ongoing research. And the Center for Computational Research

wanted to maximize the value it received in return for its used servers.

Dell Asset Recovery Services offers easy disposition of used IT equipmentIn order to meet the needs of the Center for Computational Research, Dell

ARS designed a customized solution that delivered the rapid, easy, and

secure recovery of 2,300 servers. All told, Dell ARS made four pickups of

about 60 racks per pickup, utilizing 79 custom-made pallets to recover the

2,300 servers. The solution allowed the servers to remain in their racks

while they were rolled into a convenient loading area, screwed into the

custom-made pallets, and surrounded in foam—helping to ensure maxi-

mum protection of the assets for a high resale value.

The custom nature of the recovery helped ensure an easy and problem-

free upgrade for the Center for Computational Research. “At some point,

the old equipment doesn’t have that much value in terms of computing

throughput,” Furlani explains. “So what do you do? Dell Asset Recovery

Services makes a very compelling case for trading in the old servers for

new equipment. That solves two problems for us: it helps get rid of the

old equipment in a cost-effective way, and it allows us to get new, faster

equipment that is under warranty.”

Dell ARS delivers data security and environmental complianceAside from the custom nature of the Center for Computational Research

recovery, Dell ARS engagements appeal to customers because Dell ARS

solutions feature intense data-security protection. During the engage-

ments, all systems are prepared for remarketing or recycling through a

closed-loop batch process, meaning that the systems are tracked and

reconciled one customer at a time throughout the entire process. In

addition, Dell ARS ensures hard drive data is destroyed by performing

a three-pass hard drive overwrite in accordance with U.S. Department

of Defense standard 5220.22M. Going a step further, Dell ARS performs

dellassetrecoveryservicesmakesaverycompellingcasefortradingintheoldserversfornewequipment.thatsolvestwoproblemsforus:ithelpsgetridoftheoldequipmentinacost-effectiveway,anditallowsustogetnew,fasterequipmentthatisunderwarranty.”

— Tom Furlani, Director at the Center for Computational Research, SUNY

HOW IT WORkS

HARDWARE

Dell™ PowerEdge™ SC1425 servers with 64-bit Intel®

Xeon® processors

SERVICES

Dell Asset Recovery Services

•

•

sector verification of the hard-drive wipe to further confirm all data

removal was successful.

Dell ARS also complies with all local, state, and federal environmental

regulations and strives to achieve peak environmental stewardship in the

recycling industry. Dell ARS maintains a zero landfill policy—meaning that

all equipment that is unable to be resold is broken down into component

parts and re-distributed back into the primary materials manufacturing

market. Dell ARS also holds to a zero trash export policy, so no equipment

ends up in landfills inside or outside the United States. And Dell ARS

delivers five-layer auditing of recycled material to ensure partner adherence

with its commitments to environmental responsibility.

The Center for Computational Research enjoys a big windfallFor the Center for Computational Research, the benefits of the Dell ARS

approach to asset recovery are many. Because the center didn’t want to

incur additional de-installation costs, Dell designed a customized process

that allowed the center’s staff to roll the servers in their racks directly

onto custom-built pallets. Due to Dell’s global reach and impressive

resources, Dell ARS was able to scale its logistics to pick up 79 server

racks in only four visits—thereby minimizing customer oversight hassles

and downtime.

The Center for Computational Research is not alone in enjoying

the benefits of Dell ARS. A 2006 survey of customers confirms a 93

percent satisfaction level with Dell ARS, as well as the fact that 99

percent of Dell ARS customers plan to repurchase the services.

While listening to the voice and needs of its customers helps set Dell

ARS apart from the competition, from a customer perspective, the

financial benefits Dell ARS delivers are probably even more persuasive.

To wit: Dell was able to identify buyers for the 2,300 servers and related

equipment, defraying US$600,000 of the cost of the new cluster for the

Center for Computational Research. “Dell ARS helped us get rid of our old

equipment, which was out of warranty and had a diminished computing

throughput, and the financial benefits of using the services allow us to

expand our cluster with faster, more energy-efficient nodes,” Furlani

concludes. “That helps us provide even more compute power for vital

medical research and local business purposes at a lower operating cost.”

November 2006

Printed in the U.S.A.

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