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ARCHER2 Weekly Newsletter

By ARCHER2 Service on May 10, 2023

Tags: newsletters 

Major software upgrade

The major software upgrade will take place from Friday 19th May - week beginning Monday 12th June 2023.

The delay to the upgrade was due to an additional system software release which is now available and will be installed on ARCHER2 rather than the originally planned software.

This essential upgrade will ensure access to security updates; improvements to interconnect reliability and performance; improvements to upgradeability, maintainability and monitoring; and access to more recent compilers, software libraries and tools. Unfortunately, the major software upgrade will cause a long outage, but we have endeavoured to minimise the outage. During the upgrade, users will be unable to connect to ARCHER2 via the login nodes, jobs will not run on the compute nodes and users will not be able to access any data on the system which include the /home, /work, NVMe and RDFaaS (/epsrc and /general) file systems.

Following the upgrade, we would advise users to recompile and test your codes as the new software will be based on a new operating system and new versions of compilers and libraries. The ARCHER2 CSE team will be recompiling and testing all centrally installed software. There will be no Python 2 installation available as part of supported software following the upgrade. Python 3 will continue to be fully supported.

Online User Forum: Wednesday 7th June 1400 BST

An online User Forum will take place on Wednesday 7th June at 1400 BST. EPCC and HPE Staff will present information regarding the upgrade including new features and changes to the user environment. It will also give you an opportunity to ask any questions to HPE and EPCC staff.

Details of the User Forum including instructions on how to connect

If you have any specific questions or topics you would like us to cover then please send them to us.

We have created a webpage with further details of the upgrade which will be updated throughout the upgrade process.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this essential maintenance.

The 10th ARCHER2 eCSE software development call and Early Career eCSE Panel Observers call

The 10th ARCHER2 eCSE call

We are very pleased to announce that the 10th ARCHER2 eCSE call (ARCHER2-eCSE010) is now open for proposals. The deadline for submitting documents for technical evaluation is 16:00 on 23 May 2023, with the final deadline for proposal submission being 16:00 on 13 Jun 2023. The early career eCSE Panel Observers opened alongside the eCSE call and the deadline for applications for this call is 16:00 on 23 May 2023.

Embedded CSE (eCSE) support provides funding for RSEs (Research Software Engineers, PDRAs or equivalent) to carry out software development of codes to be run on the ARCHER2 system. Projects can be requested for up to 18 person months of effort per Project. There is flexibility in the way the effort is requested. For example, a project may have more than one person working on it or the effort could be spread over a greater number of calendar months, i.e. a staff member could work on the project at less than 100% alongside other commitments or it could be worked on by a staff member who doesn’t work full time. Please just get in contact with the ARCHER2 Service Desk if you wish to discuss possible scenarios.

The code(s) may already be running on ARCHER2, where the aim is to improve performance or scalability, to add functionality or to improve the usability and maintainability, or the code(s) may be running elsewhere (e.g. on a Tier-2 system) and the proposal could be to bring the software up to a level where it would perform well on ARCHER2.

For this call, software which results in research which is within the remit of EPSRC is eligible. Funding can be requested for staff located at the institution of the PI, third parties, or can include staff from the centralised CSE support team or a mixture of the above.

More details of how to apply are available by following the link to the eCSE calls page

together with details of the application and review process, assessment criteria eligibility, etc. A recent webinar includes a walk through of the submission of a proposal.

ARCHER2 Early Career eCSE Panel Observers call

The eCSE Panel Meeting is the meeting where eCSE proposals are reviewed and decisions are made on which proposals to fund. As part of our commitment to encouraging and developing Early Career Researchers, we are offering a small number of places to such researchers to attend the eCSE panel meeting as Early Career Observers. The aim is to give Early Career Researchers a better insight into this competitive selection process, to assist them in the preparation of future funding proposals.

The deadline for applying to attend the panel meeting as an observer is 16:00 on 23 May 2023. Details of the call

An insight into the experience from one of our recent Early Career Panel Observers

eCSE and observers call dates

  • Deadline for submitting ARCHER2-eCSE10 documents for technical evaluation: 16:00 on Tuesday 23 May 2023
  • Deadline for final ARCHER2-eCSE10 submission: 16:00 on Tuesday 13 Jun 2023
  • Deadline for Early Career eCSE Panel Observers call: 23 May 2023

A recent webinar which includes a walk through of the submission of an eCSE proposal.

Access to HPC Call open

Access to HPC Call (EPSRC remit only) opened 27th March 2023 ARCHER2 or Tier-2 computing resource

  • Feasibility stream
    • Maximum request of £1,000 notional value (for example, 5,000 CU, 33,000 CPUh or 1,000 GPUh).
    • Projects can be up to six months in length.
  • Main stream
    • Projects can be up to 12 months in length.
  • Pioneer stream (ARCHER2 only)
    • Projects can be up to 2 years in length.
    • Minimum request of 165,000 CU per year.

TA Deadline - 12 May 2023 at 4:00pm UK time
Submit Deadline - 26 May 2023 at 4:00pm UK time

More details and application forms

Recently added known issues

The “Known Issues” page of the ARCHER2 Documentation https://docs.archer2.ac.uk/known-issues/ lists all current open known issues including a description of the issue, its symptoms and any work-arounds.

  • No recent issues

Upcoming ARCHER2 Training

Further details of upcoming training

We always welcome researchers wishing to present their work in a webinar - please contact the Service Desk if you would be interested in presenting your work.

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Recordings of past courses

Recordings of past virtual tutorials