Research Cluster | InSPiRe Research Lab

The InSPiRe lab is structure as a secure self-contained $500k+ research cluster specifically designed to support active cyber-security research, larger-scale run-time software engineering performance testing, while also providing a secure facility for private and proprietary data analytics.

Overall the lab consists a stand-alone fully isolated research cluster containing:

105 Xeon processors,
205 1 Gbps Ethernet ports
13 layer 2/3 network switches.

More specifically, this research cluster contains:

Computers:

- 42 IBM HS20 dual processor blade modules
  - Two 3.0 GHz 64-bit Hyperthreaded Xeon processors per blade
  - One GByte Memory per blade
  - Two 36.5 Gbyte SCSI disks per blade
  - Four 1 Gbps Ethernet ports per blade

- 2 IBM x386 dual processor 2U rack mount servers
  - Two 3.0 GhZ 64-bit Hyperthreaded Xeon processors per server
  - Two GByte Memory per server
  - 5×74 Gbyte 15k rpm SCSI disk raid on each server
  - Four 1 Gbps Ethernet Ports per server
  - One advanced management module
  - Dual redundant power supplies

- 4 IBM Pro-Z Dual processor workstations
  - Two 3.4 GHz 64-bit Hyperthreaded Xeon processors per workstation
  - Two GByte Memory per workstation
  - One 80 Gbyte and one 160 Gbyte Serial ATA hard drive per workstation
  - Two workstations have 19″ 1280×1024 LCD displays
  - Two workstations have 2×2 20″ 1280×1600 LCD displays (8 Million pixels per composite display)
  - Five 1 Gbps Ethernet ports per workstation
- 32 core, 384 Gbyte, 17T Byte storage secure Data Analytics Server

Network Equipment:

- 12 Nortel Networks Inc. Layer 2/3 network switches
  - Each of the 3 IBM blade chassis holds 4 of these network switches
  - Each switch connects to one of the 4 Ethernet ports on each blade installed in the chassis.

- Cisco Systems Ltd. Catalyst 4503 Layer 2/3 network switch
  - support for 48 1 Gbps Ethernet ports
  - support for 4 1 Gbps single mode fiber upstream ports.

Infrastructure Equipment:

- IBM 42U Enterprise Rack

- IBM KVM module

- IBM 17″ LCD 1U rack mount display console

- 3 IBM Blade Chassis
  - support for 14 blades per chassis
  - redundant power supplies
  - advanced management module

University of Victoria