Kodiak is Back with Expanded Resources, Features

Over the summer, Kodiak, Baylor's high-performance research computing system, was offline for a few days for standard maintenance and expansion. When the system was successfully brought back online, it featured the "Rocky" Linux 9.6 operating system, updated versions of Open Message Passing Interface (MPI), 100 Gbps storage network ports, upgraded libraries to support compatibility for parallel applications, a modernized job scheduler, and enhanced security.

"Since 2012, we have conducted a five-day downtime to perform Kodiak maintenance," said Mike Hutcheson, Director of Research Technology. "However, this year, we improved to just over two days of downtime with a six-hour early access period for testing before returning the full system to production. This required careful planning over the prior eight weeks to prepare for a highly orchestrated upgrade and testing period."

Several Baylor faculty and graduate students contributed to the testing of the upgraded Kodiak system during the early access period. Additionally, Brian Sitton, Senior Research Systems Administrator, and Carl Bell, Senior Research Technology Programmer, contributed to the upgrade through careful planning and direct customer support during the early access period.

Researchers with large data sets to process as part of their research can work with the BaylorITS Research Technology team to explore the possibilities Kodiak offers. Beyond Kodiak, Research Technology can point to additional resources available to help support Baylor's leading-edge research across multiple disciplines.

To learn more about research technology resources available to Baylor faculty and graduate students, visit its.web.baylor.edu/research-technology. If you have questions or need support, send a message to research_technology@baylor.edu.