<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Hi,</span><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">In the future we plan to provide source code, regression tests, benchmark data set, and possibly some binary packages as downloads for GROMACS users. For reasons discussed earlier, with the 4.6 release the regression test suite and validation of GROMACS build/installation is becoming very important. A standardized benchmark set and pre-compiled binaries would also be a great benefit for many.</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">However, there is one important aspect we need to consider. The source + regression tests suite is already close to 150 Mb which is non-negligible from the point of view of server load. The benchmark set will probably be split up in several packages, some of them gigabytes in size; binaries for the half 6-8 most important platforms will also potentially contribute to the server traffic.</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">A <span style="color:rgb(33,33,33);line-height:15px">deluge</span> of large downloads hitting and possibly crippling our servers after the next major/minor release(s) is a very realistic scenario for which we need to be prepared. After discussing with with some developers (thanks Berk & Sander for the tips) the is the suggestion we came up with:</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">* We should use a separate, dedicated machine/VM to host downloads (are we keeping the current ftp server for this purpose?).</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">* The number of connections and downwind bandwidth for the various GROMACS downloads should be capped to protect the server.</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
* We should provide and *encourage* the use of torrents for downloads, especially the large ones like the benchmark test suite.</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">+ We could consider having mirrors for some (larger) or all downloads. However, for this we would need someone to help out with (read: "donate") storage space + bandwidth!<br>
</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">+ We could consider commercial storage solutions *if* there are suggestions for relatively cheap and efficient ones.</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Legend:</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">*: needs immediate decision/action; </div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
+: would be good to get feedback before 4.6.0.</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Cheers,<br clear="all"><div>--<br>Szilárd</div>
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