UC's super computer helping with earthquake data

The University of Canterbury's BlueFern high performance computing systems and the grid infrastructure kept running throughout the 7.1 magnitude earthquake and the subsequent aftershocks without a single glitch.

The systems are hosted alongside the University's main ICT infrastructure in the new state-of-the-art Data Centre on earthquake-resistant mountings and are powered from an uninterruptible power supply with a backup diesel generator.

BlueFern HPC Unit Director Professor Tim David said BlueFern continued running throughout the earthquake and all jobs that had been running at the time were unaffected.

"Within days after the earthquake, the systems started helping scientists and emergency response teams share data to understand the earthquake.

"The grid storage connected to the BlueFern systems, providing backend to the BeSTGRID DataFabric, has been used as the single interchange point for the large geological datasets needed by the various New Zealand-based emergency response agencies, including New Zealand Defence Forces, Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency, Environment Canterbury, New Zealand Aerial Mapping and Christchurch City Council.

"The project was setup within days after the earthquake, with BlueFern staff still working from home."

Systems consultant Vlad Mencl said the teams using the service had been finding it "extremely helpful" and were reporting back that it had made data distribution much easier.

BlueFern, which has been operating since 2007, features the first IBM Blue Gene to be installed in the Southern Hemisphere and an IBM p575 super cluster. The systems are made available via the KAREN advanced research network.

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