General Facilities
The CCDG servers exist in a VMware virtual datacenter infrastructure. The physical servers are connected to the University of Pittsburgh’s network via a firewalled secure server zone that only allows our workstation firewall zone to access it. Accounts and permissions to file server shares are allowed through the University-maintained single sign-on resource based on Microsoft’s Active Directory framework. No local accounts on machines exist that allow user access. Outside study collaborators have limited access to drop files in designated separate areas through the use of University- provided resource accounts that have limited functionality. Permissions are reviewed to make sure that currently active staff and faculty have access to files for their individual studies and no others. Physical hosts for the center’s servers are maintained off-site at the University’s data center at RIDC Park in Blawnox, PA. The datacenter is maintained by the University of Pittsburgh Computer Services and Systems Development and our hosts and virtual servers are monitored 24x7 and fully backed-up.
Data Analysis Cluster (Indy)
Indy, a 21-node compute cluster under the direction of CCDG faculty member Manika Govil, is designed to allow development, testing, and application of statistical genetic methods requiring the use of high speed computing. The specifications for this cluster were developed by Dr. Govil, in consultation with collaborators at the Battelle Center for Mathematical Medicine, Columbus, Ohio. Indy is housed in a controlled-environment facility at the University of Pittsburgh’s Network Operations Center (NOC). The NOC also provides essential system monitoring and backup support for the cluster.
Genome Sequencing Lab
The CCDG also maintains a VarSeq lab with 2 Mac Pro workstations for the use of the Golden Helix VarSeq variant annotation and filtering software application.