Burst Buffer Basics

The long-awaited Burst Buffer technology is now being deployed on major supercomputing systems. In this tutorial we will introduce how Burst Buffers have been configured on Cori at NERSC and discuss briefly early experience with Burst Buffers from both a system and a user’s perspective. Attendees will be given access to Cori, NERSC’s newest supercomputer, and will use the Cori Burst Buffer in a series of exercises designed to demonstrate the IO capabilities of the SSD storage at scale, as well as some of the limitations. Simple exercises will be provided. The tutorial will conclude with a real-life example of a complex workflow executed on the Burst Buffer, including simulation, analysis and visualisation.