Every year, research institutions and corporations come together to put on a massive conference for supercomputing. Companies are trying to sell their computers, network equipment, and high speed disk systems while researchers discuss the results they've been able to achieve in science as well as things they hope to tackle in the future. In general, the conference takes a year to plan and three weeks to setup for the approximately four day event. It's all torn down in two days.
An important part of the conference is the large group of folks that plan, build, and run the crazy fast network that is used during the show. This is called "SCinet" (pronounced sci-net). While Mike had worked at NCSA for a number of years, a major participant, it wasn't until this year while working for ESnet that he was able to participate. Mike joined SCinet as part of the network security team who's job it was to help protect the network and exhibitors from attacks.
In order to provide the servers and network gear that make the show run, we have to have several racks of equipment. Initially this was setup in a storage room down the hall, but it needed to be centrally located for the show. Here, the work crew is building a 'stage' of sorts where the racks will sit. It's not so much that they had to be raised up to show them off, but these systems require a lot of power cables and network cables which is generally run under a raised floor to keep things tidy.
Brownie is in this picture! The convention center floor was an L shape so it was really hard to get it all in one picture. This is a picture from the corner looking towards where they will be setting up the SCinet stage.
Had to throw this in here. Just down the street was a BBQ place called "Ironworks." Inside they had a Lego model of their building.
Most of the cabling run from the SCinet core out to the booths was optical fiber, so it's not like the copper cable you may be used to. Here a couple guys Mike works with and a few student volunteers are laying some fiber down. They have to keep them in order the entire time and then make little channels out of wood for where the people with walk and forklifts will drive. The zig-zags are there because fiber can be somewhat fragile and in order to fix it you need to have a little slack.
The first couple nights weren't too busy for Mike so he had time to check out the town. Austin, TX is known for it's massive music scene. This guy was playing classic blues covers from Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, CCR, and others. He was really getting into it. :)
There's a bridge in Austin that's famous for bats living under it and the town is very proud of that fact. These are bike racks outside the convention center bent in the shape of bats. Isn't that cool!?!?
Things are starting to move in. You can see the banners on the ceiling that read 400, 500, 600, etc. Large conferences like this will lay themselves like a city grid and number the "streets." It's kind hard to see how far it goes down the long side of the "L", but I think we got up to 2800 this year.
More of the SCinet crew after getting the racks lifted up onto the stage. They're getting ready to wire everything up.
This is the back side of the racks where you can see people setting up walls to protect the equipment. This forms the corner of what will eventually be the NOC (Network Operations Center) for the rest of the show.
More progress. You can see some scaffolding going up and more booth signs from various companies.
Here's the walls getting finished around the server racks.
On the right is the Department of Energy booth who, in a round-about sort of way, is who Mike works for.
At this point I moved a lot of my progress pictures to the main "street" of the show. They were supposed to keep this part clear of boxes and crates so the forklifts could get through easier.
At this point, Mike had been helping setup for three days. He finally realized his last name was spelled wrong on his badge and had to get a new one made!
Now we're getting somewhere!
Mike made some friends and was able to get Brownie his own SCinet badge. This is an all-access pass that can get him anywhere on the show floor, the NOC, and even all the back rooms. Brownie didn't need Mike to escort him around anymore!
WHOA! The next morning all the sudden there was black carpet rolled out along all of the streets and most of the boxes were all cleaned up. The show opens for just the vendors this evening.
One of the vendors brought in a caricature artist to help attract people to their booth. What do you think?
And now the people are here. It'll be more crowded the next day when non-vendors are let in to the show room floor as well.
Here's the network equipment from the front of the NOC where they've revealed clear plastic "windows" for everyone to see.
One of the vendors was selling "3D memory". To promote that they build a 3 store both out of scaffolding and this is a picture from the top. To the left you can see the NOC.
Tear down begins! This was 51 minutes after the show officially closed, a lot of the black carpet is already gone.
Here a forklift is helping get the PDU (power distribution unit) back in a crate for shipping.
The back wall of the stage is gone, the racks are disconnected, and waiting to get lifted down to floor level.
Each rack, with all the equipment still on it, is lifted down carefully by forklift to the floor where it is rolled further away for disassembly.
Careful not to tip it over!
...and down to the floor.
Here's a lot of the SCinet folks disassembling racks and packing up their gear for shipping all over the country. Some of the equipment is owned by the conference, but other stuff is donated by vendors. It was a crazy two weeks for Mike, but in the end it was a great experience. Each year the conference is in a different place, so we'll see if he ends up going again.
