Articles

Understanding how applications perform I/O is important not only because of the volume of data being written and read, but because the performance of some applications is dependent on how I/O is conducted. In this article we profile I/O at the block layer to help you make the best storage decisions.

As data analytics workloads become more common, HPC administrators need to assess their hardware, software, and processes.

Graphite converts confusing columns of time series data into handy diagrams, showing trends in operating system and application metrics at a glance.

Developers fed up with cryptic Makefiles should take a look at the new Meson build system, which is simple to operate, offers scripting capabilities, integrates external test tools, and supports Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

The most fundamental tool needed to administer an HPC system is a parallel shell, which allows you to run the same command on a series of nodes. In this article, we look at pdsh.

Understanding the proliferation of data in your filesystem is key to being an administrator. Understanding file sizes and file ages and their distribution helps you tune filesystems for performance and develop policies for data management.

When building cloud environments, you need more than just a scalable infrastructure; you also need a high-performance storage component. We look at Ceph, a distributed object store and filesystem that pairs well in the cloud with OpenStack.