2001 NERSC User Survey

The User Survey is Closed

NERSC User Survey 2001

Welcome to our 4th 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.

Primary NERSC User Name

Section 1: User Information

When you are finished with this page, click "Save" at the bottom of the page.

A. Your name:
B. Your primary login name: ragerber

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" at the bottom of the page.
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
Software Documentation
Mass Storage Facilities
Visualization Services
Network Connectivity

Section 3: NIM
This year's special survey section concerns the new NIM accounting interface. The following questions pertain to the NERSC Information Management (NIM) web interface. Click on the Save button at the bottom of this page to save your responses.
Rate your statisfaction with the following:How satisfied are you?
Ease of use
Ability to find desired information
Functionality (range of features)
Allocations request interface (ERCAP)
Ease of obtaining account information
User management (PIs & Managers)
Performance

What are the most useful features of NIM for you?:

Comments and suggestions regarding NIM. What NIM features would you like to see improved or added?:

Comments and suggestions regarding the getnim command line interface:

Section 4: Information Technology
Web
These questions pertain to the NERSC HPC web site: hpcf.nersc.gov. 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?
Ease of finding information on the web site
Search facilities
Timeliness of information
Accuracy of information
General programming information
Info on using NERSC-specific resources
IBM SP web pages
Cray T3E web pages
Cray PVP web pages
File Storage web pages
NERSC Getting Started Guide
Comments and suggestions concerning the HPCF web site.
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?
Announcements web archives
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 button at the bottom of the page to store your responses.
Rate your satisfaction with the following: IBM SP (seaborg) Cray T3E Cray PVP Cluster
Overall satisfaction
Up time
Batch job wait time
Batch queue structure
Ability to run interactively
Disk configuration and I/O performance
Max. number of processors used
Max. number of processors your code can effectively use
Comments on NERSC's IBM SP (seaborg):

Comments on NERSC's Cray T3E:

Comments on NERSC's Cray PVP Cluster:

HPSS Storage System How satisfied are you?
Overall satisfaction
Up time
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 button at the bottom of the page to register your responses.
Topic: How satisfied are you?
 IBM SPCray T3ECray PVP Cluster
User environment
FORTRAN compilers
C/C++ compilers
Application software
Programming libraries
Vendor documentation
Local (NERSC) documentation (on web site)
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 button at the bottom of the page when you are finished
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)?
Online web tutorials
Classes (Live, in-person presentations)
Slides from classes (on web)
Teleconference Lectures
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 button at the bottom to save your responses.
 How satisfied are you?
Quality of technical advice from consultants
Timely response to consulting questions
Response to special requests (e.g. file restores, quota changes, etc.)
Followup to initial consulting questions
Account Support services (account creation, passwords, etc.)

Comments and suggestions regarding NERSC Consulting and Account Support Services:

Section 9: Your Comments
Click on the Save button at the bottom to submit your comments.

What does NERSC do well?

What should NERSC do differently?

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

Thank You

Thank you for participating in the NERSC 2001 User Survey.

You may go review any of your responses using the links at the top of this page.

You may changes your answers; all responses will be considered final when the survey closes at midnight on Nov. 4, 2001.

Alternatively, you may lock your responses by clicking on the button below. Note that this survey is not password protected, so anyone could masquerade as you. If you lock your responses, they can no longer be changed. You will be sent an email confirmation after you lock your survey.