FY 1998 NERSC User Survey

This survey text is available for reference only; NERSC is no longer accepting responses.

Dear NERSC user,

Welcome to our first user survey since NERSC has been located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It is intended to provide user feedback to us about every aspect of NERSC's operation. We hope 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 want to hear from as many users as possible, so all groups and opinions are represented. We will not use your name or login in our tally of the final results.

The survey has been divided into two sections. The first is made up of a series of general information questions, and the second part asks for more detailed responses. We would appreciate you taking the time to answer both sets of questions. However, if you are short on time we especially encourage you to fill out the first section, the "Mini-Survey". Thank you for your help in this survey.

Please respond by Sunday, October 11, 1998.

    SECTION 1: Mini-Survey (General Questions)

  1. Your name:

  2. Your user login (enter the login you use most often if you have more than one):

  3. What NERSC resources do you use? Check all that apply:
    T3E
    J90
    C90
    HPSS
    CFS
    Visualization server (escher)
    Math server (newton)
    NERSC website (www.nersc.gov)
    NERSC consulting services (consult@nersc.gov)
    NERSC account support services (support@nersc.gov)
    NERSC Computer Operations and Network Support (operator@nersc.gov)
    Other   specify:

    Your satisfaction with NERSC:

  4. Rate each topic by:
     How satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    		   How important is this to you?
    1 = no interest to
    3 = very important
    Overall satisfaction with NERSC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    Technical information on NERSC's website 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    Consulting services 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    Account support services (account creation,
    requests to reset passwords)    		 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    Training (online tutorials & classes) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    Allocations process 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    T3E 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    J90 Cluster 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    C90 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    HPSS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    CFS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3
    Network access to NERSC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   1 2 3

  5. Comments on any of the above ratings:

    Suggestions for Change/Improvement:

  6. What does NERSC do well?

  7. In what areas should NERSC improve?

  8. What additional resources would you like NERSC to provide?

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

  10. If you were in charge of NERSC what changes would you implement?

    SECTION 2: More Detailed Questions

    Please answer whatever questions below are of interest to you; feel free to leave others blank.

    Respondent Information:

  11. How long have you used NERSC?
    6 months or less 6 months - 3 years More than 3 years

  12. What desktop systems do you use to access NERSC? Check all that apply:
    Unix PC - Windows PC - NT PC - linux PC - DOS Mac Other   specify:

  13. How do you access NERSC machines? Check all that apply:
    telnet ftp ssh other   specify:

  14. What access methods would you like to use in the future?

    NERSC Website:

  15. How satisfied are you with the NERSC website?

     How satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    NERSC website in general 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    T3E info 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    J90 info 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    HPSS info 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Online tutorials 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Online Cray manuals 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    NERSC News (online magazine) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    What's New page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Visualization pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Software documentation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Getting Started pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Accounts management info 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Research pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  16. Comments about our web pages / suggestions for improvement:

    Communication of Information:

  17. How do you find out about changes at NERSC? Check all that apply:
    motd (message of the day)
    What's New area of the web
    Change pages on the web
    NERSC News
    email from NERSC
    phone calls from NERSC
    from colleagues
    other   specify:

  18. Do you feel you are adequately informed about NERSC changes? Yes No
    If not, why not:

  19. How would you like to be kept informed? Suggestions for improvements:

    Consulting Services:

  20. How satisfied are you with NERSC's consulting services?

     How satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    Overall quality of consulting responses 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Problem resolution (technical advice,
    help debugging)    		 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Software bug resolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Follow-up to questions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  21. Comments about consulting support / suggested improvements:

    Training:

  22. What is needed to adequately cover your training needs? Check all that apply.
    Online tutorials
    Web-broadcasted training
    Classes given in Berkeley
    Classes given at remote sites

  23. Have you taken any of our training classes? Yes No

  24. Comments about our online tutorials, suggested improvements and other ideas for training:

    Large Scale Computers:

    How satisfied are you with NERSC's large scale computers?

  25. T3E:
    T3EHow satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    availability (up time) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    batch job turnaround time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    queue structure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    interactive response time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    programming environment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  26. J90 Cluster:
    J90sHow satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    availability (up time) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    batch job turnaround time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    queue structure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    interactive response time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    programming environment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  27. C90:
    C90How satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    availability (up time) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    batch job turnaround time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    queue structure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    interactive response time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    programming environment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  28. Comments about NERSC's large scale computers, suggested improvements, future needs (including comments on CPU, memory, I/O, disk space and software provided):

    Mass Storage and File Systems:

    How satisfied are you with NERSC's file storage systems?

  29. HPSS:

    HPSSHow satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    availability (up time) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    reliability 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    performance (bandwidth) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    response time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    user interface 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  30. CFS:

    CFSHow satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    availability (up time) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    reliability 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    performance (bandwidth) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    response time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    user interface 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  31. Data Migration on the Crays
     How satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    Data Migration on the Crays 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  32. File restores from backup
     How satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    File restores from backup 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  33. Do you use AFS on your desktop? Yes No
    Is the AFS gateway dano.nersc.gov, as implemented on the J90 cluster and T3E, satisfactory? Yes No
    If NERSC migrates from AFS to DFS, would you use DFS at your site? Yes No Don't Know

  34. Comments about file systems, suggested improvements, future needs:

    Visualization Services:

  35. Visualization
    How satisfied are you with NERSC's visualization services?

    Vis server (escher.nersc.gov)How satisfied are you?
    1 = very unsatisfied
    to 7 = very satisfied
    availability (up time) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    interactive response time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    software provided 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  36. Comments about visualization services, suggested improvements, future needs:

    Final Comments:

  37. Anything else you want to say?