LTSP Configuration for Benchmark Platform of Diskless Workstations

In this post we look at using a testing Lab of Windows systems as a benchmarking platform for Linux scientific application using network boot with nfsroot and home mounts. Linux is boot on the systems “diskless” leaving the Windows installs untouched. LTSP turned out to be a great time saver for setting up the configuration.

NVIDIA GPU Power Limit vs Performance

This post presents testing data showing that power-limit reduction on NVIDIA GPUs have give significant benefits for both high wattage and lower wattage GPUs. Power-limit vs Performance data is presented for 1-4 A5000 and 1-4 RTX3090 GPUs.

NVIDIA GPU Powerlimit Systemd Setup Script

In this post I am referencing a Bash shell script I recently put together for setting up automatic NVIDIA GPU power-limit lowering at system boot. This allows a reliable way to configure and maintain multi-GPU systems for stable operation under heavy load.

How-To: Make Ubuntu Autoinstall ISO with Cloud-init

This post will guide you through the process of creating an Ubuntu 20.04 (or newer) autoinstall ISO by modifying the default installer ISO. The install configuration will be done using cloud-init cloud-config method that is now used for the Ubuntu server installer.

Intel Ice Lake Xeon-W vs AMD TR Pro Compute Performance (HPL, HPCG, NAMD, Numpy)

The single socket version of Intel third generation Xeon SP is out, the Ice Lake Xeon W 33xx. This is a much better platform with faster large capacity 8 channel memory and PCIe v4 with plenty of lanes. The new Intel platform is very much like the AMD Threadripper Pro (single socket version of EPYC Rome) so this is the obvious comparison to make. Read on to see how the numerical computing testing went!

Self Contained Executable Containers Using Enroot Bundles

NVIDIA Enroot has a unique feature that will let you easily create an executable, self-contained, single-file package with a container image AND the runtime to start it up! This allows creation of a container package that will run itself on a system with or without Enroot installed on it! “Enroot Bundles”.

NVIDIA 3080Ti Compute Performance ML/AI HPC

For computing tasks like Machine Learning and some Scientific computing the RTX3080TI is an alternative to the RTX3090 when the 12GB of GDDR6X is sufficient. (Compared to the 24GB available of the RTX3090). 12GB is in line with former NVIDIA GPUs that were “work horses” for ML/AI like the wonderful 2080Ti.

Run “Docker” Containers with NVIDIA Enroot

Enroot is a simple and modern way to run “docker” or OCI containers. It provides an unprivileged user “sandbox” that integrates easily with a “normal” end user workflow. I like it for running development environments and especially for running NVIDIA NGC containers. In this post I’ll go through steps for installing enroot and some simple usage examples including running NVIDIA NGC containers.