White Papers

Panasas-NVIDIA-HPC-Reference-Architecture

The High-Performance Computing (HPC) market continues to grow as it expands further into enterprise data centers, edge locations, and public clouds. The five-year 2021–2026 on-premises HPC server forecast from Hyperion Research predicts 6.9% growth, with storage historically the highest growth HPC component at an 8.6% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR).

The Panasas^® + NVIDIA^® HPC Reference Architecture, referred to in the document as the “HPC Reference Architecture”, was developed to address and mitigate the challenges that arise when piecing together components to build HPC systems of any scale, anywhere. This document includes a prescriptive full-rack reference design based on an integrated, tested, and supported configuration.

The PanFS Data Engine Architecture

Used in manufacturing, life sciences, energy, research, financial services, semiconductor design and media & entertainment, the Panasas^® PanFS^® is the data storage solution of choice for unlimited scalability and performance, enterprise reliability, and ease of use. An integrated portable storage platform that combines a high-performance distributed and clustered parallel file system, volume manager, and software-based erasure-coding data protection, PanFS delivers datasets of the size and complexity required in scientific computing, modeling and simulations, high-performance data analytics, and AI/ML workloads. Built on a foundation laid over 20 years ago as the first parallel file system for Linux and now in its ninth generation of commercial deployment, the newly released PanFS 9.2 powers a portfolio of ActiveStor all-NVMe flash, hybrid and massive capacity data storage appliances.

We invite you to download the PanFS 9: Architectural Overview white paper, to learn more about PanFS including:

• Details of its control and data planes
• DirectFlow client driver
• Full POSIX semantics with cache coherency, data management and security, erasure coding
• Prevention of hot spots, single-tier solution, and patented technology for per-file object RAID

ActiveStor Ultra: Encryption of Data at Rest

Panasas PanFS Encryption@Rest for Secure HPC and Classified Programs

SED functionality on Panasas^® ActiveStor^® Ultra offers:

• Zero performance difference between encrypted and non-encrypted bladesets
• Instant secure erasure regardless of disk size and amount of data on a drive
• Fast rotation of drive authentication keys regardless of disk size
• Preservation of all existing data when Encryption@Rest is enabled or disabled
• Transparency to client operating systems and applications
• Standardized processes to enable, disable, and monitor SED capable components

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Terabytes: Image Generators in Life Sciences

Installed infrastructures from the past decade can’t handle today’s image analysis requirements. Current infrastructures were mostly built for next-generation sequencing (NGS), and few could predict advances like these:

• Cryogenic Electron Microscopy (CryoEM)—Although around since the 1980s, better detector technology and software has recently led to massive usage that generates terabytes of data every day.
• Lattice Light Sheet (LLS) Microscopy—This relatively new technology enables long timescale, 3D imaging of dynamic biological processes. Like CryoEM, LLS gobbles up storage space.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)—Instead of being mired in manual image analysis, AI and ML let researchers quickly derive insights from the data generated. But AI demands significant processing and storage capacity.

These and other emerging technologies have made it imperative to rethink storage infrastructure. Fortunately, Panasas’ ActiveStor Ultra was engineered to keep you ahead of the curve.

Learn more about these technologies and how mixed workloads will change the way you implement and use HPC storage.

HPC Data Storage Enables Microbiome Research and Understanding of COVID-19 and Other Diseases

Microbiome research has rapidly accelerated in the past few years. That is certainly the case at the UC San Diego Center for Microbiome Innovation (CMI), which leverages the university’s strengths in clinical medicine, bioengineering, computer science, the biological and physical sciences, data sciences, and more to coordinate and accelerate microbiome research.

Read the white paper to see how Panasas solutions helped researchers achieve faster and more efficient results.

Designing Storage for Commercial HPC

There is little doubt that commercial HPC is here to stay and on the rise. The problem is that the storage systems, both from traditional enterprise vendors and traditional HPC vendors fall well short. IT needs an HPC class system that is also enterprise class. That system needs to deliver on the demands of the legacy HPC workload profile and also the new emerging, small file IO profile.

This white paper contain concepts of:

• Commercial HPC Use Cases
• HPC as a Service (HPCaaS)
• Understanding the HPC Architecture
• Commercial HPC Storage Challenge
• HPC Storage Challenge
• Designing Storage for Commercial HPC

Download this white paper to learn how a commercial HPC solution need to take the right attributes to create a single system that is built to last.