| Theoretical peak speed: (36 cores) * (2.3 Gcycles/s/core) * (8 DP flop/cycle) = 660 Gflop/s, double precision |
| Assumes one AVX-2 FMA (fused multiply-add with 4 DP additions and 4 DP multiplications) every cycle |
| Does not account for memory bandwidth limitations, or dynamic frequency scaling due to AVX2 instructions |
| Timeline | |
| Jun. 2017: | Purchased from Red Barn Computers with CentOS 7.3 and selected applications preinstalled |
| Jul. 2017: | Did additional installations in CentOS 7.3 |
| Feb./Mar. 2018: | CentOS 7.4 became the default OS, files from Perseus were recovered |
| Aug.-Oct. 2018: | Remaining files from Perseus were recovered, CentOS and Intel Fortran were updated |
| Jul. 2019: | CentOS 7.6 became the default OS |
| Aug. 2020: | CentOS 7.8 became the default OS |
| Aug.-Oct. 2021: | CentOS 7.9 became the default OS |
| Aug.-Oct. 2022: | Mathematica 13.1 was installed, CentOS 7.9 was updated (twice), Hermes was relocated |
| Apr./May 2023: | Various software installations were performed |
| Aug. 2023: | Mathematica 13.3 was installed |
| Nov. 2023: | Hermes was relocated (again), CentOS 7.9 was updated (again) |
| Hardware Configuration | |
| Server Type: | Supermicro SuperWorkstation 7048A-T - 4U tower - serial no. C7430FF42MC0224 (1120280 on back) |
| Processors: | 36 cores, 2x Eighteen-Core Intel Xeon "Broadwell-EP" Processors*, E5-2697 v4, 45MB Cache, 2.30GHz |
| *Sockets for this processor are LGA 2011-v3 or "Socket R3" | |
| Memory: | 128GB, 8x 16GB ECC Registered DDR4 SDRAM DIMMs*, 2667MHz but configured as 2400MHz |
| *Expandable to 512GB (16x32GB) or 2TB (16x128GB 3DS LRDIMMs); 2400MHz is highest speed possible | |
| Bootable Hard Drive: | 800GB, Intel DC S3510 Enterprise SSD, SATA3 6.0Gbps 2.5" |
| Additional Hard Drives: | 8TB, 2x Seagate Constellation ST4000NM0033 (each 4TB), 7200RPM SATA3 6.0Gbps, 3.5" |
| Chipset: | Intel C612 ("Wellsburg"), 10 SATA3 ports |
| Network Interface Controller: | Dual Intel Corporation I210 Gigabit Network Connections |
| Motherboard and BIOS: | Supermicro X10DAi; American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) BIOS |
| Property | Drive Maker and Size | |||||||
| Intel SSD, 800GB | Seagate HDD, 4TB | Seagate HDD, 4TB | ||||||
| Partition Names | /dev/sda1 | /dev/sda2 | /dev/sda3 | /dev/sdb1 | /dev/sdc1 | |||
| Mount Points in CentOS | /boot | /home | / (root) | /data1 | /data2 | |||
| Multi-Boot Instructions | |
| From GRUB Menu: | After the setup phase, when the GRUB menu appears, use the up/down arrows to select the desired OS, then hit <CR>. |
| This selection is not remembered on the next boot. To make the change permanent, you have to alter the grub.cfg file. | |
| From Boot Menu: | Scroll past the end of the page and select the option "Hard Drive BBS Priorities" that appears. (Scrolling up works too.) |
| The pop-up will show all available "legacy" drives, not just one. Scroll to the desired drive and move it to the top with "+". | |
| (This is NOT documented in the manual, pp. 4-31 to 4-32!!) Use Esc and arrows to reach Save Configuration and Exit. | |
| Hardware Interrogation Commands | |
| Processors: | more /proc/cpuinfo |
| Memory: | more /proc/meminfo; top; sudo dmidecode --type memory #grep for Size or Speed |
| Bootable Hard Drives: | sudo fdisk -l | grep dev #bootable partitions are marked * |
| Additional Hard Drives: | lsblk; sudo blkid; sudo gparted (Device Information panel in GParted GUI) |
| RAID-0 Hard Drives (N/A): | lspci | grep -i raid; dmraid -r; cat /proc/mdstat #the last one detects software RAID |
| I/O Controller Hub (N/A): | lspci | grep SATA; sudo dmidecode --type 8 | grep SATA |
| Network Interface Controller: | lspci | grep -i ether |
The links below lead to separate pages that give precise, step-by-step descriptions of what was done in each year.
Jul. 2017: Did additional installations in CentOS 7.3
Feb./Mar. 2018: CentOS 7.4 became the default OS, files from Perseus were recovered
Aug.-Oct. 2018: Remaining files from Perseus were recovered, CentOS and Intel Fortran were updated
Jul. 2019: CentOS 7.6 became the default OS
Aug. 2020: CentOS 7.8 became the default OS
Aug.-Oct. 2021: CentOS 7.9 became the default OS
Apr./May 2023: Various software installations were performed
***Other remote desktop ideas to try at some point?***
How to install and access CentOS remote desktop on VPS - install TigerVNC to achieve the usual: VNC through an ssh tunnel
How to enable Desktop Experience and enable RDP for a CentOs 7 VM on Microsoft Azure - install xrdp in addition to TigerVNC
Other potential options (with their main areas of strength):