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2002 Survey

Response Summary
Demographics
Overall Satisfaction
All Satisfaction
  Topics
Visualization &
   Grid Computing
Info Technology
Hardware
Software
Training
User Services
Comments

Survey Text

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Full Survey Results
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NERSC User Survey 2002

Welcome to our 5th survey of users of the NERSC High Performance Computing Facility. Please take a few minutes to fill out this year's survey. Your responses will provide us user feedback about NERSC's operation. It will allow us to judge the quality of our services, give DOE information on how NERSC is doing, point us to areas we can improve, and show how we compare to similar facilities. We will not use your name or login in our tally of the final results.

Section 1: User Information
A. Your name:
B. Your primary login name:

C. What NERSC resources do you use? Check all that apply:

IBM SP Cray T3E Cray SV1 Cluster
Viz server (escher) Math server (newton) HPSS
Consulting services Account support services Computer Operations and Network Support
HPCF website (hpcf.nersc.gov) PDSF Alvarez
NIM
Other:

D. How long have you used NERSC?
 6 months or less 6 months - 3 years More than 3 years N/A

E. What desktop systems do you use to access NERSC? Check all that apply:

UNIX SystemsPC SystemsMacIntosh
Linux
Solaris (Sun)
AIX (IBM)
Tru-64 (Compaq)
HPUX (HP)
IRIX (SGI)
Other 		Windows 2000/NT
Windows ME/98
Windows 95
Windows XP
Windows 3.x
DOS
Other 		MacOS
OSX
Other
Other

Section 2: Overall Satisfaction with NERSC
Rate your overall satisfaction with NERSC in this section and click "Save & Go to Next Section."
Rate your satisfaction with the following: How satisfied are you? How important is this to you?
Overall satisfaction with NERSC
Consulting Services
Account Support Services
NERSC's HPCF Website (hpcf.nersc.gov)
Training
Allocations Process
Available Computing Hardware
Hardware management and configuration
Available Software
Software Maintenance and Configuration
Mass Storage Facilities
Visualization Services
Network Connectivity
Section 3: Visualization & Grid Computing (Special Section)
This year's special survey section concerns visualization and grid computing. See DOE Science Grid and Visualization at NERSC. Tell us about your experience and needs in these areas. Click on the Save button at the bottom of this page to save your responses.
Visualization Services
Are you a current user of visualization services at NERSC?
Yes No N/A
If not, please select any or all of the following reasons for not using visualization services at NERSC
I don't need visualization for my project
Don't know about services or can't find information
Software not applicable to my domain or software doesn't do what I want it to do
Network is too slow
Other:
    
On which of the following platforms do you prefer to use vis tools (select all that apply)
Seaborg (AIX) Escher (IRIX) Newton (LINUX)
Your Desktop Other
If you use NERSC visualization services, What works well?
If you use NERSC visualization services, What needs improvement?
Grid Computing
Do you plan to use any Grid applications this year? Which ones?

What services, features, or functionality would you like to see available on the DOE Science Grid?

Section 4: Information Technology
Web
These questions pertain to the NERSC HPC web sites: HPCF, PDSF, NIM. Remember to click on the Save button at the bottom of this page when you are finished.
Rate your satisfaction with the following: How satisfied are you?
The following relate to HPCF: hpcf.nersc.gov
Ease of finding information on the web site
Search facilities
Timeliness of information
Accuracy of information
General programming information
Running Jobs section
Software section
IBM SP web pages
Cray T3E web pages
Cray PVP web pages
File Storage web pages
Comments and suggestions concerning the HPCF web site.
The following relates to PDSF: pdsf.nersc.gov
PDSF
Comments and suggestions concerning the PDSF web site.
The following relates to NIM: nim.nersc.gov
NIM web interface
Comments and suggestions concerning NIM, including ERCAP.
Communication
The following questions relate to how you keep informed of NERSC changes and current issues.
How useful are these for keeping you informed of issues at NERSC?
Announcments and web archives (HPCF) (PDSF)
MOTD (Message Of The Day)
NERSC Announcement email lists
Phone calls from NERSC
Do you feel you are adequately informed about NERSC changes? Yes No   N/A
Are you aware of major changes at least 1 month in advance? Yes No   N/A
Are you aware of software changes at least 7 days in advance? Yes No   N/A
Are you aware of planned outages 24 hours in advance ? Yes No   N/A
Comments and suggestions regarding how NERSC keeps you informed of changes and issues.
Section 5: Hardware Resources
These questions pertain to NERSC high performance computing hardware. Be sure to click the "Save & Go to Next Section" button to store your responses.
Rate your satisfaction with the following: IBM SP Cray T3E Cray PVP Cluster PDSF
Overall satisfaction
Uptime
Batch job wait time
Batch queue structure
Ability to run interactively
Disk configuration and I/O performance
Max. number of processors used per job
Max. number of processors your code can effectively use per job
Comments on NERSC's IBM SP:

Comments on NERSC's Cray T3E:

Comments on NERSC's Cray PVP Cluster:

Comments on PDSF:

HPSS Storage System How satisfied are you?
Overall satisfaction
Uptime
Reliability
Performance
System response time
User interface (hsi, pftp, ftp)

Comments on NERSC's HPSS Storage System:

Auxiliary Servers How satisfied are you?
Newton (Symbolic math server)
Escher (Visualization server)
Comments about NERSC's auxiliary servers:

Section 6: Software Resources
You must click on the "Save & Go to Next Section" button to save your responses.
Topic: How satisfied are you?
 IBM SPCray T3ECray PVP Cluster PDSF
User environment
FORTRAN compilers
C/C++ compilers
Application software
Programming libraries
Performance and debugging tools
General tools and utilities
Software bug resolution
Comments about NERSC's software resources, suggested improvements, future needs:

Section 7: Training
Click on the "Save & Go to Next Section" button to save your responses.
Topic: How satisfied are you with these resources at NERSC? How useful are these resources for training in high performance computing in general (not at NERSC specifically)?
NERSC Training web pages  
NERSC New User' Guide web pages  
Online web tutorials
Classes
Slides from classes (on web)
What method(s) of training would you like NERSC to offer? (Check all that apply)
General online web documentation Online web tutorials on specific topics Live in-person classes at your site
Live DOE Access Grid classes Live Web broadcasts with teleconference audio Live in-person classes at LBNL
Other:
Comments about training. In what area should we focus our attention?

Section 8: User Services
These questions pertain to NERSC User Services: consulting and account support. Click on the "Save & Go to Next Section" button to save your responses.
 How satisfied are you?
Quality of technical advice from consultants
Timely initial response to consulting questions
Followup to initial consulting questions
Amount of time to resolve your issue
NERSC Online Consulting web site
Response to special requests (e.g. file restores, quota changes, etc.)
Account Support services (account creation, passwords, etc.)

Comments and suggestions regarding NERSC Consulting and Account Support Services:

Section 9: Summary Comments
What does NERSC do well? (What aspects of NERSC are you most pleased with?)

What should NERSC do differently? (How can NERSC improve?)

How does NERSC compare to other centers you have used? List the center(s) you are comparing us to. (What do other centers do that NERSC should do?)

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