Newsletter 6 (Dec 2014)
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to our December newsletter.
The biggest news is of course the positive review of our application "bwForCluster ENM" by the DFG in Bonn on November 6th. Thanks again to everybody involved, especially our contributors from the scientific communities Elementary Particle Physics, Neurosciences and Microsystems Engineering.
This was a major step, but our efforts do not stop here. In fact, in a certain sense, work has only just begun.
Your HPC Team, Rechenzentrum, Universität Freiburg
Table of Contents
(Reminder) SHUTDOWN: bwGRiD Freiburg on December 1st
(Reminder) SHUTDOWN: Lustre storage (bwGRiD) on December 18th
Status NEMO (preliminary bwForCluster ENM)
Workshop “NEMO Benchmark CodeJam”
Allinea Workshop on December 10th in Ulm
Important dates
01.12.2014: bwGRiD Freiburg went offline
02.12.2014: Start of the bwForCluster ENM (pre) - Codename NEMO
05.12.2014: Start of the computational/theoretical chemistry cluster (JUSTUS) in Ulm
10.12.2014: DFG Joint Committee (possible decision on bwForCluster ENM application)
10.12.2014: Allinea Workshop in Ulm
16.12.2014: NEMO Benchmark CodeJam
18.12.2014: Lustre storage of the bwGRiD Freiburg goes offline
Positive review by DFG
On November 6th, the Freiburg bwForCluster ENM application was presented before a DFG review board in Bonn by Prof. Gerhard Schneider (Rechenzentrum Freiburg), Prof. Günter Quast (Elementary Particle Physics, KIT, Karlsruhe), Prof. Stefan Rotter (Neuroscience, Bernstein Center Freiburg) and Prof. Alexander Rohrbach (Microsystems Engineering, IMTEK, Freiburg).
The review board reviewed our bwForCluster ENM application positively. There were no major changes in strategy requested by the board nor any cuts in funding proposed.
Hence, we convinced the DFG review board that the bwForCluster ENM is needed by our scientific communities, that it fits into the concept for HPC in Baden-Württemberg, that we have the competence to get the cluster up and running and last but not least that we have the support and collaboration of our scientific communities to turn it into a success.
We could not have given this impression to the DFG review board without proper preparation in advance. Therefore we wish to extend our gratitude to everybody involved in the process, especially those people who provided the scientific contents and those who gave us their help and advice.
To start the acquisition process, we still need the formal decision of the DFG Joint Committee on our application. There is a chance that this can already happen on their next meeting on December 10th.
Preparation for Acquisition
The amount of money involved requires an "Invitation to Tender" on a EU scale. Unsurprisingly, this is a very complex, very formal and very bureaucratic process. Therefore, what can be done ahead of time should be done ahead of time. On an administrative level, we are already in talks with the respective persons involved at the university. On a technical level, we have been doing technical benchmarks on various hardware architectures to get a feel for what to expect.
Call for Benchmarks
We intend to steer the acquisition process by the aid of benchmarks that we provide to the vendors. The HPC-Team has the know-how to prepare the usual synthetical and technical benchmarks. However, we would like to tailor the configuration of the bwForCluster ENM as closely as possible to the needs of our scientific communities. To this end, we strongly encourage you to prepare benchmarks that represent use cases in your community. We already have such benchmarks from parts of the physics community. However, more benchmarks are needed. Therefore, we actively call for your participation. There is a mutual benefit: Steering the acquisition process will help us in taking the correct decisions and it will provide you with a cluster optimally suited to help you solve your scientific problems.
The HPC Team will host a workshop “NEMO Benchmark CodeJam” on December 16th which is especially targeted to scientists of our communities who intend to contribute benchmarks.
Xeon Phi opportunity
We have a Xeon Phi test unit which needs to be returned soon. Intel is currently selling Xeon Phi units at a promotional price. Based on your feedback and in anticipation of the forthcoming bwForCluster ENM, we could acquire some Xeon Phi units permanently and integrate them into our pre-Cluster NEMO. The offer varies from 1 compute server with 2 Xeon Phi processors to 4 compute servers with 8 Xeon Phi processors (2 Xeon Phi processors per compute server). If you are interested, please write an E-Mail to enm-support@hpc.uni-freiburg.de.
(Reminder) SHUTDOWN: bwGRiD Freiburg on December 1st
We would like to remind you that the Freiburg bwGRiD has been shutdown on Monday, December. For alternative options and for data migration, please see http://www.hpc.uni-freiburg.de/nemo/migration.
(Reminder) SHUTDOWN: Lustre storage (bwGRiD) on December 18th
We would like to remind you that the Lustre Filesystem (of the old bwGRiD) will be shutdown on Thursday, December 18th. For data migration, please see http://www.hpc.uni-freiburg.de/nemo/migration.
Status NEMO (preliminary bwForCluster ENM)
If you do not mind being part of a "work in progress" effort, we can offer you early access to this new service, which is running on the salvageable parts of the old bwGRiD hardware.
This service is intended as a testbed and playground for both, HCP users and the HPC team. If you have specific requirements, e.g. software installations, please don't hesitate to ask.
We have a special emphasis on our key communities, but we will try to support users from other field on a “best effort” basis.
Please note that there are no guarantees on availability. If you have to rely on a HPC resource, e.g. for a paper deadline, please consider using one of the alternatives, e.g. bwUniCluster.
If you previously had a bwGRiD login, you can try NEMO right away.
For more information see http://www.hpc.uni-freiburg.de/nemo.
Please bear with us while we update the website with further information.
Workshop “NEMO Benchmark CodeJam”
We cordially invite you to the Workshop “NEMO Benchmark CodeJam” on December 16th in the Rechenzentrum. The workshop is intended for – but no limited to – people of our scientific communities ENM who are willing to provide benchmarks for the procurement process to acquire the new bwForCluster ENM. You should have some experience in programming and have a typical use case which is important for your work. Together with you, we will see whether this can be transformed into a benchmark that can be given to vendors.
The Workshop will be on December 16th from 10:00 AM to 16:00 PM. If you would like to attend, please write an E-Mail to bernd.wiebelt@rz.uni-freiburg.de.
Construction work
Work for the new machine hall 2b is ongoing. The student computer pool has been moved to the opposite side of the floor. Old desks and desktop cabling have been removed, the machine hall is now ready for further construction work.
Allinea Workshop on December 10th in Ulm
There are still places available for the Allinea Workshop in Ulm on December 10th (Wednesday next week).
For the details, please see https://www.uni-ulm.de/?id=allinea-workshop2014
From the announcement:
Allinea tools have been recently licensed for the HPC machines installed within the bwHPC ecosystem. This workshop will introduce basic, but also advanced features of the Allinea Tools, and specifically the DDT Debugger and will allow you to enhance your programming productivity.
The Workshop will include hands-on session using the tools on the bwHPC machines -- so you are encouraged to bring your code!
There will be time for questions and direct interaction.
HPC-Team Rechenzentrum, Universität Freiburg
http://www.hpc.uni-freiburg.de
bwHPC-C5
http://www.bwhpc-c5.de
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