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Here is all the latest news from the UCF ARCC:


Changes due to Stokes Fall 2014 Maintenance Cycle

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Written by R. Paul Wiegand R. Paul Wiegand
Published: 16 December 2014 16 December 2014

Greetings Stokes users,

Stokes has returned to operation!  From this point forward, we will have two such maintenance downtimes per year, one in late Fall (the one we just completed) and one in late Spring.

There are several substantive changes, and we expect there will be a few unanticipated issues to resolve.  Please remain patient with us as we iron these out — and also, let us know about issues you are having by sending requests to req...@ist.ucf.edu (Click on "..." to reveal the address).

Changes include the following:

  1. The login and supporting nodes, as well as all compute nodes, have been upgraded to CentOS 7.0.  Now all nodes in the cluster are running the same OS and have the same base libraries in local directories.
  2. Software and libraries for Stokes that we (the Stokes administrators) build can be found in /apps.  All software built and compiled by users or groups that used to be in /apps have been moved (more on this below in item #7).  There are no longer any user or group related directories in /apps.
  3. Because there was a substantive upgrade in the operating system, applications and libraries in /apps had to be re-built.  When appropriate and possible, we also upgraded these to their most recent versions.  In most cases, we did not re-build old versions of software.  You can use “module avail” to see what is available currently.You will notice that some software that used to be present no longer appears.  We have noticed that there was a lot of software that did not appear to be in use, so in some cases we chose not to rebuild the software.  Moreover, we are still in the process of rebuilding some software, and modules will continue to appear as we complete these.  If there’s something missing on which you rely, please let us know ASAP so we can prioritize it.
  4. Software and module naming conventions have been standardized.  Because of this, and because versions are sometimes different, module names have changed.  You should remove all references to old modules from your scripts and .bashrc files in favor of the newer names.  If you issue the command “module avail”, you will see all the new modules currently available.Users that have lines such as the following in their .bashrc file should remove those lines:
    . /usr/local/Modules/3.2.9/init/bash
    module load modules tools/torque moab/7.1.1
  5. All user files have been consolidated under user home directories, and all user home directories are now on fs1.  There are no criss-crossing links between the two file systems anymore.  If you had a link to a “backup” or “work” directory somewhere else in the file system, those should now appear in your home directory as subdirectories with the name “backup” and/or “work”, respectively.
  6. Where possible, we’ve tried to make the account names in our resource manager (the account to which you charge your compute hours) consistent with the default unix group — using a consistent nomenclature.  For most users this will mean no change; however, a few users will notice that their default group has a different name.  For the vast majority of users, their default group has the same name as their PI’s account name.  Let us know if there is any confusion.
  7. Group locations have been provided on fs0 and are accessible at the directory /groups/<groupname>.  Software directories that had been in /apps have been moved to /groups/<groupname> for the appropriate groups, as well as any group-level materials that had been in /home or in /gpfs/fs<num>/work.  We tried to name these subdirectories in such a way as to make it clear where it came from (e.g, if “apps” is in the name, it came from /apps; if “fs0″ is in the name, it came from fs0, etc.).*** Note that you will have to rebuild your software because of the OS upgrades. ***
  8. Quotas limitations have changed.  The default user level quotas on fs1 have been increased to 250 GB of space per user and 115K files.  There are no group level quotas on fs1 any more.  The default group level quotas on fs0 are 100 GB per group and 115K files.
  9. Our scheduler and resource manager (Moab & Torque) have been upgraded.  Among other things, this means that we should be able to handle reservations properly now. All commands and submit script syntax is the same as before.
  10. Our previous version of Matlab is gone.   There is now an upgraded version of Matlab, but it is seat-limited.  This was necessary so that we could be compliant with licensing.  This means that users should no longer run Matlab jobs directly, but should instead use Matlab to compile their code and execute the compiled binary.  Instructions on how to do this will be forthcoming for those that need it.

Because the time since the last maintenance downtime was so long, there were many things that had to get done this time around.  We’re hoping that by having regular, bi-annual maintenance times future such efforts will not involve as many changes.

Note:  Ganglia is not currently available; however, we will notify you when it is back up (hopefully today).

HUGO Meeting (October 2014)

Details
Written by R. Paul Wiegand R. Paul Wiegand
Published: 28 October 2014 28 October 2014
This is a reminder that the second HPC User Group of Orlando (HUGO) meeting will be held in the third floor collaboration area of Partnership 2 at 3p on October 28, 2014. Gonzalo Vaca-Castano will give a talk about his experience using HPC resources for high throughput oriented tasks, and Matt Bilskie will give a talk about his experiences using HPC resources for distributed processing oriented tasks. Rootwork InfoTech LLC will supply the snacks. Please consider attending and share this with relevant faculty, students, and industry researchers and engineers. Partnership II 3100 Technology Pkwy Orlando, FL https://map.ucf.edu/locations/8119/partnership-ii/

HPC Users Group of Orlando

Details
Written by R. Paul Wiegand R. Paul Wiegand
Published: 06 August 2014 06 August 2014

The UCF Advanced Research Computing Center (ARCC) is establishing a local user group for scientists and engineers who interact with high-end computing infrastructures. Our first meeting will be held in room 209 of the Partnership II building from 5:00p to 6:30p on Wednesday, August 27th. All with interest in high performance computing are very welcome to attend. IST will provide pizza and soft drinks. If anyone from your group is planning to come, try to let me know so I can get an accurate head count for the food.

This user group is intended to serve a broad group that includes student and faculty researchers, as well as area industry leaders in the area. Those who regularly interact with high performance computing facilities and smaller-scale compute clusters for advanced computation in research and industry face unique challenges and opportunities, and we can all learn from one another’s experiences. In an effort to foster a greater community where these challenges and opportunities can be shared with others, the ARCC team is interested in helping bring together HPC professionals for informal discussions, programmatic events such as guest lectures, and socialization. We plan on meeting periodically — perhaps monthly — in the evening in the Central Florida Research Park at UCF. Please contact w...@ist.ucf.edu for more information (click "..." to reveal address).

The agenda for this first meeting will be very relaxed. We will primarily focus on group logistics and getting to know one another. I will speak for a few minutes about our goals and objectives for this group then we’ll have a brief discussion about how we would like to organize this group. During this discussion, we’ll try to flesh out a near-term schedule. Finally, we will save some time to introduce people to one another. To that end: If your group wants to give me one slide, I can add it to a small set of slides and give you five minutes or so to speak about how your group uses HPCs and why you came. If you don’t want to give me a slide, but still want the 5 minutes to talk, that’s fine … just let me know. There will be future opportunities for more thorough talks.

Please forward this message to those you believe would be interested.

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About the UCF ARCC:
The University of Central Florida (UCF) Advanced Research Computing Center is managed by the Institute for Simulation and Training, with subsidies from the UCF Provost and Vice President for Research and Commercialization, for the use by all UCF faculty and their students. Collaboration with other universities and industry is also possible.
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