Large-scale computer system "KEK Central Computer System" goes into operation

（English translation 2023-11-29）

The Computing Research Center of the Applied Research Laboratory has completed the construction of the KEK Central Computer System, a large computer system for shared use, and officially started its operation on September 1. The Central Computer System is a computer system that supports all aspects of research at KEK. It supports the data analysis system (KEKCC) used to store and analyze experimental data, as well as IT infrastructure such as an e-mail system and a web system. The data analysis system is used for various researches at KEK, including particle and nuclear experiments, synchrotron radiation experiments, neutron experiments, accelerator development, and theoretical calculations. In particular, it is used for data analysis in the Belle II and J-PARC experiments and plays an important role in the execution of the experiments. The system will be operated under a four-year lease from September 2020 to August 2024.

The data analysis system consists of a group of compute servers with approximately 15,000 cores and a high-capacity storage system. The storage system consists of a magnetic disk system and a tape system. The magnetic disk system will have a capacity of 25.5 PB and provide a high-speed file system. The tape system can accommodate up to 100 PB of tape media and can be integrated with the disk system to transparently handle large volumes of data on tape. The data analysis system has been running at full spec since the beginning of its operation and is used by many users (see the monitor in the figure below). Grid computing has been installed in the system, and the distributed computing environment is operated in cooperation with data centers around the world. At KEK, data analysis of large accelerator experiments is carried out under international cooperation, using computing resources from all over the world.