---
title: Hardware And Software Description
#tags:
#keywords:
last_updated: 09 April 2021
#summary: ""
sidebar: merlin6_sidebar
permalink: /merlin5/hardware-and-software.html
---

## Hardware

### Computing Nodes

Merlin5 is built from recycled nodes, and hardware will be decomissioned as soon as it fails (due to expired warranty and age of the cluster).
* Merlin5 is based on the [**HPE c7000 Enclosure**](https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04128339) solution, with 16 x [**HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen8**](https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04123239) nodes per chassis.
* Connectivity is based on Infiniband **ConnectX-3 QDR-40Gbps**
  * 16 internal ports for intra chassis communication
  * 2 connected external ports for inter chassis communication and storage access.

The below table summarizes the hardware setup for the Merlin5 computing nodes:

<table>
  <thead>
   <tr>
   <th scope='colgroup' style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" colspan="8">Merlin5 CPU Computing Nodes</th>
   </tr>
   <tr>
   <th scope='col' style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" colspan="1">Chassis</th>
   <th scope='col' style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" colspan="1">Node</th>
   <th scope='col' style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" colspan="1">Processor</th>
   <th scope='col' style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" colspan="1">Sockets</th>
   <th scope='col' style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" colspan="1">Cores</th>
   <th scope='col' style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" colspan="1">Threads</th>
   <th scope='col' style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" colspan="1">Scratch</th>
   <th scope='col' style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" colspan="1">Memory</th>
   </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
   <tr style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" ralign="center">
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2"><b>#0</b></td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="1"><b>merlin-c-[18-30]</b></td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2"><a href="https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/64595/intel-xeon-processor-e5-2670-20m-cache-2-60-ghz-8-00-gt-s-intel-qpi.html">Intel Xeon E5-2670</a></td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2">2</td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2">16</td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2">1</td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2">50GB</td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="1">64GB</td>
   </tr>
   <tr style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" ralign="center">
     <td rowspan="1"><b>merlin-c-[31,32]</b></td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="1"><b>128GB</b></td>
   </tr>
   <tr style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" ralign="center">
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2"><b>#1</b></td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="1"><b>merlin-c-[33-45]</b></td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2"><a href="https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/64595/intel-xeon-processor-e5-2670-20m-cache-2-60-ghz-8-00-gt-s-intel-qpi.html">Intel Xeon E5-2670</a></td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2">2</td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2">16</td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2">1</td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="2">50GB</td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="1">64GB</td>
   </tr>
   <tr style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" ralign="center">
     <td rowspan="1"><b>merlin-c-[46,47]</b></td>
     <td style="vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" rowspan="1"><b>128GB</b></td>
   </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

### Login Nodes

The login nodes are part of the **[Merlin6](/merlin6/introduction.html)** HPC cluster,
and are used to compile and to submit jobs to the different ***Merlin Slurm clusters*** (`merlin5`,`merlin6`,`gmerlin6`,etc.).
Please refer to the **[Merlin6 Hardware Documentation](/merlin6/hardware-and-software.html)** for further information.

### Storage

The storage is part of the **[Merlin6](/merlin6/introduction.html)** HPC cluster,
and is mounted in all the ***Slurm clusters*** (`merlin5`,`merlin6`,`gmerlin6`,etc.).
Please refer to the **[Merlin6 Hardware Documentation](/merlin6/hardware-and-software.html)** for further information.

### Network

Merlin5 cluster connectivity is based on the [Infiniband QDR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InfiniBand) technology.
This allows fast access with very low latencies to the data as well as running extremely efficient MPI-based jobs.
However, this is an old version of Infiniband which requires older drivers and software can not take advantage of the latest features.

## Software

In Merlin5, we try to keep software stack coherency with the main cluster [Merlin6](/merlin6/index.html). 

Due to this, Merlin5 runs:
* [**RedHat Enterprise Linux 7**](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/7.9_release_notes/index)
* [**Slurm**](https://slurm.schedmd.com/), we usually try to keep it up to date with the most recent versions.
* [**GPFS v5**](https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/STXKQY_5.0.2/ibmspectrumscale502_welcome.html)
* [**MLNX_OFED LTS v.4.9-2.2.4.0**](https://www.mellanox.com/products/infiniband-drivers/linux/mlnx_ofed), which is an old version, but required because **ConnectX-3** support has been dropped on newer OFED versions.