NERSC logo National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
  A DOE Office of Science User Facility
  at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 		Site Map | Help | Search
Login
Home About News & Publications HPC Users Projects
Science Newsroom Technical Reports Annual Reports User Surveys
Restore navigation column

Text of NERSC 2003 User Survey

Section 1: User Information
When you are finished with this page click "Save & Go to Next Section" or your responses will be lost.
A. Your name:
B. Your primary login name:  (This is not my NERSC username; start survey anew.)

C. What NERSC resources do you use? Check all that apply:

IBM SP PDSF HPSS
Viz server (escher) Math server (newton) Grid Services
Consulting services Account support services Visualization Services
HPCF website (hpcf.nersc.gov) CVS Alvarez
Computer and Network Operations NIM
Other:
D. How long have you used NERSC?
6 months or less 6 months - 3 years More than 3 years N/A

E. What desktop systems do you use to access NERSC? Check all that apply:

UNIX SystemsPC SystemsMacIntosh
Linux
Solaris (Sun)
AIX (IBM)
Tru-64 (Compaq)
HPUX (HP)
IRIX (SGI)
Other 		Windows 2000/NT
Windows ME/98
Windows 95
Windows XP
Windows 3.x
DOS
Other 		MacOS
OSX
Other
Other
Section 2: Overall Satisfaction with NERSC
Rate your overall satisfaction with NERSC in this section and click "Save & Go to Next Section."
Rate your satisfaction with the following: How satisfied are you? How important is this to you?
Overall satisfaction with NERSC
Consulting Services
Account Support Services
NERSC's HPCF Website (hpcf.nersc.gov)
Training
Allocations Process
Available Computing Hardware
Hardware management and configuration
Available Software
Software Maintenance and Configuration
Mass Storage Facilities
Visualization Services
Network Connectivity
Why do you compute at NERSC? (What are the reasons NERSC is important to you?)
Security
How satisfied are you with NERSC security?
Has security gotten in the way of your work at NERSC? Yes No   N/A
If yes, how?
How do you compare NERSC computer security openness and access to your home site and others?
Flexible Work Option at NERSC

Beginning in May, NERSC started participating in Berkeley Lab's Flexible Work Option (FWO) Pilot. FWO means some staff work 9 hours a day and are off one day every two weeks. NERSC always has on duty qualified staff for all areas.

Have you noticed any changes specifically due to the FWO participation? Yes No N/A

If yes, please describe your experience.

Section 3: Scaling Initiatives (Special Section)

This year NERSC implemented initiatives aimed at promoting highly scalable applications as part of the DOE emphasis on large scale computing. For the first time, DOE has an explicit goal that "25% of the usage will be accounted for by computations that require at least 1/8 of the total [compute] resource." This section of of the survey is intended to explore this topic in more detail and measure how progress is being made toward DOE's goal.

Click on the Save button at the bottom of this page to save your responses.

Large Job Reimbursement Project
Did you participate in the Large Job Reimbursement Project?
Yes No N/A
If yes, how useful was the program to you?
New Class (Queue) Structure
In March NERSC restructured the LoadLeveler classes on Seaborg. The new classes were configured to favor large concurrency jobs and the wallclock time limit was increased to 48 hours for jobs using more than 32 nodes.
How useful to you were these class changes?
Special Consulting Services
The NERSC User Services Group worked with some users to help them investigate the performance and scaling characteristics of their codes.
If you utilized these services, how useful to you were they?
Comments on NERSC's scaling initiatives.
DOE Applications Performance Matrix
DOE has instituted an Applicaiton Performance Matrix as a new way of gathering information and analysis for large scale applications. It it intended to demonstrate efficient large-scale applications for each DOE discipline, on a per system basis. To support that effort, NERSC instituted performance gathering tools such as "poe+".
Have you or your project submitted information to the Applications Performance Matrix?
Yes No N/A
Have you used poe+?
Yes No N/A
If so, how useful is it?
Do you plan to submit results to the Applications Performance Matrix in the coming year?
Yes No N/A
If not, why not?
Section 4: Information Technology
 
Web
These questions pertain to the NERSC HPC web sites: HPCF, PDSF, NIM. Remember to click on the Save button at the bottom of this page when you are finished.
Rate your satisfaction with the following: How satisfied are you?
The following relate to HPCF: hpcf.nersc.gov
Ease of finding information on the web site
Search facilities
Timeliness of information
Accuracy of information
General programming information
Help section
Software section
IBM SP web pages
Seaborg job and queue data
IBM SP Manuals
File Storage web pages
Comments and suggestions concerning the HPCF web site.
The following relates to PDSF: pdsf.nersc.gov
Rate your satisfaction with the following: How satisfied are you?
PDSF Web Site
Comments and suggestions concerning the PDSF web site.
The following relates to NIM: nim.nersc.gov
Rate your satisfaction with the following: How satisfied are you?
NIM web interface
Comments and suggestions concerning NIM, including ERCAP.
Communication
The following questions relate to how you keep informed of NERSC changes and current issues.
How useful are these for keeping you informed of issues at NERSC?
Announcments and web archives (HPCF) (PDSF)
MOTD (Message Of The Day)
NERSC Announcement email lists
Phone calls from NERSC
Do you feel you are adequately informed about NERSC changes? Yes No   N/A
Are you aware of major changes at least 1 month in advance? Yes No   N/A
Are you aware of software changes at least 7 days in advance? Yes No   N/A
Are you aware of planned outages 24 hours in advance ? Yes No   N/A
Comments and suggestions regarding how NERSC keeps you informed of changes and issues.

Section 5: Hardware Resources
These questions pertain to NERSC high performance computing hardware. Be sure to click the "Save & Go to Next Section" button to store your responses.
Rate your satisfaction with the following: IBM SP PDSF
Overall satisfaction
Uptime
Batch job wait time
Batch queue structure
Ability to run interactively
Disk configuration and I/O performance
Max. number of processors used per job
Max. number of processors your code can effectively use per job

Comments on NERSC's IBM SP:

Comments on PDSF:

HPSS Storage System How satisfied are you?
Overall satisfaction
Uptime
Reliability
Performance
System response time
User interface (hsi, pftp, ftp)
Data transfer rates

Comments on NERSC's HPSS Storage System:

Auxiliary Servers How satisfied are you?
Newton (Symbolic math server)
Escher (Visualization server)
Comments about NERSC's auxiliary servers:
Networking How satisfied are you?
Network performance within NERSC (e.g. Seaborg to HPSS)
Network performance to/from NERSC (WAN, e.g. PPPL to Seaborg)
Section 6: Software and Visualization
You must click on the "Save & Go to Next Section" button to save your responses.
Topic: How satisfied are you?
 IBM SP PDSF
User environment
Fortran compilers
C/C++ compilers
Application software
Programming libraries
Performance and debugging tools
General tools and utilities
Software bug resolution
 IBM SP Escher
Visualization software
Comments about NERSC's software resources, visualization support, suggested improvements, future needs:
Section 7: Training
Click on the "Save & Go to Next Section" button to save your responses.
Topic: How satisfied are you with these resources at NERSC? How useful are these resources for training in high performance computing in general (not at NERSC specifically)?
NERSC Training web pages  
NERSC New User' Guide web pages  
Online web tutorials
Classes (in person)
Classes via Access Grid
What method(s) of training would you like NERSC to offer? (Check all that apply)
General online web documentation Online web tutorials on specific topics Live in-person classes at your site
Live DOE Access Grid classes Live Web broadcasts with teleconference audio Live in-person classes at LBNL
Other:
Comments about training. In what area should we focus our attention?
Section 8: User Services
These questions pertain to NERSC User Services: consulting and account support. Click on the "Save & Go to Next Section" button to save your responses.
 How satisfied are you?
Quality of technical advice from consultants
Timely initial response to consulting questions
Followup to initial consulting questions
Amount of time to resolve your issue
NERSC Online Consulting web site
Response to special requests (e.g. file restores, quota changes, etc.)
Comments and suggestions regarding NERSC Consulting and Account Support Services:
Section 9: Overall Comments
Click on "Save & Go to Finish" button to save your comments.

What does NERSC do well? (What aspects of NERSC are you most pleased with?)

What should NERSC do differently? (How can NERSC improve?)

How does NERSC compare to other centers you have used? List the center(s) you are comparing us to. (What do other centers do that NERSC should do?)

Computing Sciences | Computational Research Division | ESnet
LBNL Home
Page last modified: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 23:42:04 GMT
Page URL: http://www.nersc.gov/news/survey/2003/text.php
Web contact: webmaster@nersc.gov
Computing questions: consult@nersc.gov

Privacy and Security Notice 		DOE Office of Science