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ARCHER2 Weekly Newsletter

By ARCHER2 Service on April 22, 2026

Tags: newsletters 

An ARCHER2 User’s Spack Primer

Free webinar, Wednesday 22nd April 2026 15:00 - 16:00

Spack is an HPC-focused package manager enabling automated software installation and resolution of dependencies. Through its spec syntax a user can easily describe in its entirety how a piece of software is to be compiled.

An experimental Spack configuration is available now on ARCHER2.

In this webinar, we will provide an introduction to Spack for completely new users, as well as a hands-on demonstration using it to set up a full software stack on ARCHER2.

Full details and join link

ARCHER2 Capability Days: 12-14 May 2026

The fifth ARCHER2 Capability Days session will run from 12-14 May 2026. ARCHER2 Capability Days are a mechanism to allow users to run large scale tests on the system free of charge. The motivations behind Capability Days are:

  • Enhancing world-leading science from ARCHER2 by enabling modelling and simulation at scales that are not otherwise possible.
  • Enabling capability use cases that are not possible on other UK HPC services.
  • Providing a facility that can be used to test scaling to help prepare software and communities for future large-scale resources.

Capability Days are made up of two parts:

  • 0900-1900 BST, 12 May 2026 - pre-Capability Days session (“pre-capabilityday” QoS) to allow users to test scaling and job setup ahead of full Capability Day
    • Supports jobs 256-1024 nodes, 1 hour maximum run time
    • Jobs are uncharged
  • 0800 BST, 13 May - 1400 BST, 14 May 2026 - Capability Days session (“capabilityday” QoS)
    • Supports jobs 512-4096 nodes, 2 hours maximum run time
    • Jobs are uncharged

More information on Capability Days and how to submit jobs can be found on the ARCHER2 documentation

Workflows

Online, 27 - 28 April 2026 10:00 - 12:00

his short seminar provides an introduction to modern scientific workflows and hands-on practice with two workflow systems. Over two half-days (4 hours each), attendees will:

Day 1

Understand the role and purpose of scientific workflows, including how and why they are used to structure and automate complex data-processing pipelines. Modules include an introduction to workflow concepts and an extended practical session creating workflows with Common Workflow Language (CWL), including exercises in a Google Colab Jupyter Notebooks to install and run CWL workflows.

Day 2

Explore dispel4py, a Python-based streaming workflow framework. Participants will work through basic and advanced concepts, build simple examples, and complete hands-on exercises using dispel4py in Google Colab Jupyter Notebooks, including some real-use cases drawn from scientific applications.

Prerequisites

Attendees should be comfortable with basic Python programming concepts and familiar with using Jupyter notebooks or Google Colab; no prior experience in workflow languages is required.

Learning objectives

By the end of the course attendees will be able to describe workflow concepts and systems, write and run basic CWL workflows in a notebook environment, and develop and test simple dispel4py workflows for streaming data processing.

Full details and registration

VI-HPS Tuning Workshop (TW49)

April 27, 2026 to April 29, 2026, Durham

Not an ARCHER2 course, organised in collaboration with VI-HPS and HPC.NRW, this 3-day workshop is designed to help researchers and developers analyse and optimise the performance of HPC applications.

What you’ll learn:

  • Performance analysis and diagnosis technique
  • How to effectively use the VI-HPS tools suite
  • Hands-on experience with: Score-P, CUBE, Scalasca, Extra-P and MAQAO

Practical focus: Participants are encouraged to bring their own MPI, OpenMP, or hybrid applications (including GPU codes) and receive expert coaching and optimisation advice.

The workshop will run daily from 09:00 - 17:30 and make use of HPC Hardware Lab @Durham, with accounts provided if needed.

  • Free to register and attend
  • Travel support available (up to £300 for eligible UKRI-funded participants)

This work is supported by UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure Programme [grant number UKRI/ST/B000293/1 (HAI-End)]

Full details and registration

Durham HPC Days 2026

The Durham HPC Days bring together researchers, developers, and practitioners to explore the frontiers of high-performance computing, data analysis, and scientific innovation.

Join EPCC and colleagues from across the community for a week of talks, workshops, and hands-on tutorials. Topics spanning from Green HPC and Quantum Computing to the people who make it all possible.

Registration extended to May 1st, secure your spot

Curious about what’s in store? The programme is now live

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