OpenSFS Board nominations and elections are conducted in adherence with the OpenSFS bylaws and OpenSFS handbook. The Board nomination process was facilitated by the Nomination Committee and the nomination period closed on April 1, 2024.
The primary contact for each OpenSFS Member company is eligible to vote for in the Board election. An online ballot will be sent directly to OpenSFS primary contacts to facilitate the voting process. Election results will be announced during the virtual OpenSFS Member Meeting on May 7, 2024.
The following Board positions and candidates are participating in the 2024 election:
Vice President (Term: Two years)
At the request of the President, or in the President’s absence the Vice President shall perform all duties of the President and in so acting shall have all the powers of and be subject to all the restrictions upon the President. The Vice President shall perform such other duties as may from time be assigned to the Vice President by the President or by the Board.
Candidates: Dominic Manno
Dominic Manno is a Scientist in High Performance Computing at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has a background in storage systems and software development. Dominic’s career began in HPC storage at LANL with contributions ranging from maintaining systems to integrating and deploying new Lustre file systems. Dominic, as HPC File System Technical Lead, is responsible for the design, procurement, and administrative team for all parallel file systems in LANL’s HPC data center. He has worked with the Lustre file system since 2014 with work including Lustre administration, file system performance tuning, and improving user performance for high-performance computing applications. Mr. Manno also co-leads a subset of storage research efforts at LANL’s Ultrascale Systems Research Center. Some our latest work includes re-examining disk failures and protection at extreme scales, designing next generation storage system deployments, and exploring best ways to leverage computational storage in HPC storage systems. I have served as Secretary of the board for the past 4 years and look forward to continued participation on the OpenSFS Board.
OpenSFS is a vital piece of the Lustre community. It provides a conduit for sites that field Lustre to provide feedback, suggest features, and engage with a rich set of Lustre users, administrators, and developers. As a board member of OpenSFS, I hope to contribute experience and knowledge that can enhance the HPC filesystems community at large. I will always encourage the openness of the Lustre community, reiterate the vendor neutral support of Lustre, and hope to grow collaborations in emerging areas. I’m happy to continue serving on the board of this important organization.
Candidates: Jesse Hanley
As an experienced Linux systems engineer, I believe the last decade has prepared me to contribute well to the OpenSFS board. My journey at ORNL, and at UTK before that, has included a variety of challenges and opportunities so far. I was able to help write, script and narrate some of the Lustre 101 web course series (https://lustre.ornl.gov/lustre101-courses/), was actively involved in the testing of Lustre features such as PFL, handled communication with our vendor partners and end users on issues, and have either been the Subject Matter Expert (as I am now) for OLCF’s at-scale parallel Lustre file system, or part of the supporting group.
Like OpenSFS itself though, I believe I am more than strictly Lustre. I’ve contributed to non-file system and non-storage related open source projects; I have a strong personal belief in the free interchange of information and ideas; I value my mentoring work equally important to any technical projects I may have completed, and enabling the others around me to better understand and fulfill their potential brings me satisfaction.
I like to think that I’ve been an advocate for adopting newer Lustre features and other open technologies at the lab and I hope that I’m able to give back to the community that has been pivotal in my professional growth. Thank you for your consideration.
Secretary (Term: Two Years)
The Secretary shall act as Secretary of all meetings of the Board, and of the Members of the Corporation, and shall keep the minutes thereof in the proper medium to be provided for that purpose. The Secretary shall cause all notices required to be given by the Corporation to be duly given and served; shall have charge of the other books, records and papers of the Corporation; shall cause the report, statements and other documents required by law to be properly kept and filed; shall maintain a current list of Members and Participants, and be responsible for Membership applications; shall act as editor for correspondence received for publication and distribute this information at intervals not greater than six months; and shall, in general, perform all the duties incident to the office of Secretary and such other duties as may from time to time be assigned to the Secretary by the Board or by the President.
Candidates: Yu Fu
Yu Fu is a system engineer and a Linux sysadmin at the University of Florida, working for the university’s Research Computing department on high performance computing, artificial intelligence computing and secure computing. He has been architecting, implementing, and operating multiple petabyte Lustre storage systems since 2005. He served in the organization committee of the 2021 LUG Meeting. Yu possesses a Ph.D. degree in high-energy physics. He enjoys photography and electronics projects in his spare time.
The University of Florida has been a loyal user of Lustre filesystems since early versions. As an OpenSFS member that has received enormous help from the community on various issues, we have realized the unparalleled value of this organization for the entire Lustre community. We believe it is essential for capable users to contribute to the community, and serving in the organization is one of the best ways. We have hosted the 2021 Lustre Users Group Meeting (virtual due to the pandemic) here at the University of Florida. It would be a great honor for us if we could serve a role in the OpenSFS administration. As our deployment of Lustre filesystems grows rapidly nowadays such a role would benefit both the organization and the community as well as ourselves. This application to the opening position of OpenSFS Secretary is endorsed by the director of our department and the leadership of the University.
Candidates: Tom Crowe
Tom Crowe is the Manager of the High Performance File System team at Indiana University. His background is in storage and Linux administration, having over 25 years’ experience across multiple industries. He has worked with Lustre since 2013 with work including deployments, benchmarking, administration, performance tuning, acceptance testing and multiple file system migrations. Prior to joining Indiana University, Tom worked as a storage and virtualization engineer in the Health Care industry.
Indiana University has been a long time supporter of OpenSFS. I worked for Steve Simms right up until Steve’s departure from IU at the end of 2022. I have a great appreciation for Steve’s contributions to OpenSFS, and I want IU to continue to be a strong supporter. I’ll never have the beard, sandals or Marvel tee shirt collection Simms has, but I’d still like to support OpenSFS with my boring wardrobe and generally clean-shaven face.
Director at Large (elected) (Term: Two Years)
The Director at Large is a full voting member of the OpenSFS Board.
Candidates: Shawn Hall
Shawn Hall’s experience is in large scale system administration, having worked with high performance computing clusters in industry and academia. He has worked on many aspects of large scale systems and his interests include parallel file systems, configuration management, performance analysis, and security. Shawn holds a B.S. and M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Ohio State University.
I believe it’s important for the HPC community that Lustre continues to grow and have a healthy ecosystem. I have served on the OpenSFS board since 2016, and through that time have participated in its restructuring toward a user-driven organization, have helped drive the dramatic membership growth rates seen in recent years especially in industry, and have led the OpenSFS Hosting Committee that organized the 2019 Lustre User Group conference. I’d like to continue supporting OpenSFS and the Lustre community as a voice for the industrial sector and to continue ensuring both OpenSFS and Lustre have a bright future ahead.