What is SMGresearch1?
SMGResearch1 is a virtual machine created in 2012 to provide Faculty and PhD students with access to computational resources and programs that were otherwise unavailable on desktop computers or via computer labs. The server was also intended to provide clients with a faster turnaround for computational resources than other methods of research computing at BU.
Since its creation, research computing at Boston University has matured significantly. Centralized resources are now more powerful, accessible, and faster than SMGResearch1. As a result, effective immediately, Questrom ITS is phasing out SMGResearch1.
Why is it Being Phased Out?
The server has become overly large and very difficult for ITS staff to maintain and continue running. Additionally, as researchers in Questrom have begun doing more advanced research, the work they’re doing on the server has become more advanced and in most cases too large for the server. As a result, Questrom ITS set out to find other alternative on-campus for our researchers. Based on our research, we believe that using BU’s Shared Computing Cluster (SCC) is a better solution for Questrom researchers.
Why SCC
The Shared Computing Cluster is maintained by a dedicated Research Computing Services team who works to ensure that the service is available, fast, and reliable at all time. In addition to providing you with a reliable platform on which to run your research, the team is also able to help you run your research on the cluster faster and more reliably. Unlike the self-support model that comes with using SMGResearch1, the team behind the SCC is ready and willing to help you with your code and research to better enable your work.
When is it Being Phased Out?
Starting immediately, no new accounts will be provisioned on SMGResearch1 and all new research projects are encouraged to use the SCC. Please note that PhD students will need their research projects to be sponsored by a faculty member.
Existing projects should begin to migrate to the SCC as soon as possible. All projects must be moved by January 1, 2017 at which point the server will be decommissioned.
What Next?
Questrom IT Services has been working with IS&T Research Computing (formerly IS&T Scientific Visualization and Computing) to deliver faster and more reliable research computing resources to our users. Over the past several months we’ve worked to ensure that the applications and data sources that are available on SMGResearch1 are available on the Shared Computing Cluster.
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