The Road to LUG 2014, and Our New Community Director

By jfranklin

A continuing series from OpenSFS describing our work and efforts surrounding Lustre.

LUG 2014

The annual Lustre User Group (LUG) meeting takes place this spring, April 8-10 in Miami, Florida. Running a tech conference takes a lot of effort. There are details around logistics, deadlines, scheduling and lots more. Then from there is the core effort to decide what the conference will cover, who will present, and what is of highest priority.

Not so simple.

So OpenSFS decided to better organize these efforts by creating an LUG committee. With meetings that began in December, the LUG committee developed a timeline for soliciting and receiving proposals, and then worked through analyzing and voting on which talks would be accepted. Based on feedback from last year’s participants, it was important to make sure that the agenda this year was not too full. A really good event reserves time for “hallway meetings” and impromptu discussions.

We had 21 slots to fill and well over double that number of high quality proposals were submitted.

The LUG committee, made up of representatives from Bull, CEA, Intel, IU, LLNL, NetApp, ORNL, Sandia and Xyratex, meets weekly to discuss LUG priorities. Since the deadline for submissions was January 31st, the bulk of the discussions were conducted in January and February, with committee members having to make hard decisions on specific topics and time slots. Weekly discussions focus on high level themes, followed by voting that was conducted through the LUG mailing list and blind “Doodle polls” to tally votes.

This year, since there were quite a few high quality submissions that would not make the cut, the LUG committee added poster sessions. These will be available throughout LUG with the presenters available to respond to questions.

The full agenda is available here: https://opensfs.org/lug-2014-agenda/

The Lustre User Group (LUG) 2014 takes place this spring, April 8-10 in Miami, Florida. Participation in LUG is open to all, and if you would like to attend or sponsor, please email us at [email protected].

LUG 2014 is coming soon! We’re looking forward to seeing you there. Your support and involvement in the Lustre community is key.

Our New Community Director

In another important piece of OpenSFS news, each year OpenSFS members elect a Community Representative Director to join the board in steering OpenSFS. The term runs from March to March annually. Tommy Minyard at TACC served the past term and deserves much credit for a job well done and building a real sense of momentum. Stephen Simms, from Indiana University (IU), has been reelected. Simms was Community Representative Director from 2011-2012. In his previous term, Simms spearheaded a wide range of initiatives within OpenSFS including significant expansion of participation in the annual Lustre User Group as program chair in 2012, encouraging IU engagement in supporting OpenSFS such as hosting of the OpenSFS testbed and development of OpenSFS promotional materials. He has slid seamlessly right back into the position, instantly becoming a critical part of LUG committee planning.

A big hearty welcome back to Simms. Or, in his terms, “Rock on!”

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