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Fortress tape library upgrade

  • Maintenance
  • Fortress

Updated, 3/29/2013

During the datacenter migration the core server for the Fortress HPSS system experienced a failure with its boot device. Vendor engineers are working on the issue, and as a result, the estimate to Fortress's return to production has been revised to Saturday, March 30 at 12:00 noon.

Please contact us at rcac-help@purdue.edu if you have questions or concerns.

Original message:

Each year, ITaP partners with Purdue faculty to construct a new community cluster system. Planning is already underway for the next system, and to make the data center ready for the next generation of HPC hardware at Purdue, some equipment must be physically moved to prepare for this project.

As part of this work, the ADIC Scalar 10K tape library that serves the Fortress HPSS archive system is going to be upgraded, and the server hardware driving Fortress will be relocated to a different data center facility.

  • This physical transition is scheduled to for 8am Thursday though 5pm Friday, March 28-29 2013.
  • During this time, the Fortress archive will be completely unavailable.
  • We suggest copying your data to another location if you will need it during the planned downtime.
  • If you're unsure what your options are here then please consult the Fortress user guide at https://www.rcac.purdue.edu/knowledge/fortress or contact ITaP at rcac-help@purdue.edu

The new tape library will have an increased capacity from 1.3 PB to 6 PB uncompressed, and uses newer LTO-6 tape technology that should provide a 1.5x speedup when reading data. Additionally, it provides redundant mechanical arms that will deliver additional speed when loading and mounting tapes, as well as providing redundancy for these moving parts.

Thank you for your patience during this upgrade.

Please contact ITaP at rcac-help@purdue.edu if you have any questions or concerns about this upgrade.

Originally posted: