HPC RSE Meeting Notes: 21 April 2020
Attending organisations
- GW4, University of Bristol: Isambard
- University of Cambridge: CSD3
- UCL: MMM Hub
- EPCC, University of Edinburgh: ARCHER, ARCHER2, Cirrus, DiRAC
- University of Leeds: N8-CIR
- QUB: NI-HPC
- University of Sheffield: JADE
- University of Reading
- DAMPT, University of Cambridge
- Cardiff University
- University of Hull
- University of Durham
- University of Edinburgh
- Aberystwyth University
- Swansea University
- University of Leicester
- University of York
- University of Nottingham
- University of Bath
- University of Birmingham
Actions
- (AndyT) Propose SocRSE online event on online training this year to SocRSE trustees
- (AndyT) Suggest that ExCALIBUR run a webinar to bring community up to date with the project
National HPC RSE Updates
ARCHER, ARCHER2, Cirrus, DiRAC, EPCC
- Oracle bare metal cloud benchmarking
- Skylake nodes interconnected by 100 Gbps RoCE
- Benchmarked DiRAC benchmark applications up to 32 nodes
- Single node performance same as native
- Multi-node performance similar to single-rail IB cluster
- Full story at upcoming webinar, see:
- DiRAC benchmarks
- Application benchmarks from the community - QCD, astrophysics/cosmology
- Baseline across current DiRAC systems
- Release in open source benchmarking model (as for ARCHER benchmarks)
- ARCHER2: awaiting delivery of hardware
- Website now available: https://www.archer2.ac.uk
- 1st eCSE call planned to open soon: https://www.archer2.ac.uk/ecse/
- Cirrus: new hardware delivered but not yet configured
JADE
- Waiting on delivery for JADE2
- Working on training materials for deep learning
MMM Hub
- Expecting new Tier-2 hardware in middle of May
### Isambard
- Continued high rate of sign ups
- Updated Arm compilers
- Isambard 2 due by the end of the year
- Have early access to A64FX in Japan
### NI-HPC
- Finalising acceptance tests based on remote access - should be complete this week
- Ulster have appointed their RSE will start 1 June
- QUB will advertise as soon as possible
### N8 HPC
- Hardware delivered to Durham
- RSEs distributed across N8 - one from each institution. Some already in place.
Cambridge
- Awaiting delivery of new Tier-2 hardware
- Open Exascale Lab at Cambridge RSE team from Dell to target new Intel architecture - want to hire new RSEs soon. Aligned to ExCALIBUR project (see below)
Other topics
### Supplier access to site
- Location dependent
- UCL have key staff who volunteered to come in to their datacentre
- EPCC have a rota working to minimise staff on site, suppliers coming in to fix issues with systems
- Durham: University makes distinction between fixing existing kit (allowed) and building new stuff (not allowed)
ExCALIBUR and Exascale
- ExCALIBUR: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/approach/collaboration/spf/excalibur
- Aiming to redesign high priority simulation codes and algorithms to fully harness the power of future supercomputers, keeping UK research and development at the forefront of high-performance simulation science.
- Led by the Met Office and EPSRC (on behalf of UKRI Research Councils) along with UKAEA, NERC, STFC and MRC.
- Phase 1 call from EPSRC to fund Design and Development Working Groups to bring together a wide range of domain experts, mathematicians, computational scientists, and Research Software Engineers (RSEs).
- Call outcome: https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewPanel.aspx?PanelId=1-811FGY
- Also a number of hardware testbeds being installed at various sites across the UK to look at different hardware aspects
Upcoming training, events and meetings
- ARCHER2 Training (all online):
- Introduction to the ARCHER2 hardware and software, Wednesday 22nd April 2020 11:00-12:00 BST, https://www.archer2.ac.uk/training/courses/200422-archer2-hardware/
- Porting and performance of DiRAC HPC benchmarks on Oracle bare metal cloud, Wednesday 29th April 2020 11:00-12:00 BST, https://www.archer2.ac.uk/training/courses/200429-oracle-cloud-benchmarking/ (webinar in collaboration with DiRAC)
- ARCHER2 Spectrum of Support, Online, Wednesday 13th May 2020 15:00-16:00 BST, https://www.archer2.ac.uk/training/courses/200513-archer2-support/
- The determination of clusters structures combining infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations, Online, Wednesday 20th May 2020 15:00-16:00 BST, https://www.archer2.ac.uk/training/courses/200520-cluster-structures/
- LAMMPS, 4 - 18 May 2020, https://www.archer2.ac.uk/training/courses/200504-lammps/
- Message-passing programming with MPI, 14 - 22 May 2020, https://www.archer2.ac.uk/training/courses/200514-mpi/
- Reproducible computational environments using containers, 13 - 14 July 2020, https://www.archer2.ac.uk/training/courses/200713-containers/
- The IWOCL / SYCLcon 2020 program on all things OpenCL and SYCL, starting Mon 27th April, https://www.iwocl.org/iwocl-2020/conference-program/
- Andrew Jones’ “HPC huddles” (MS Teams meeting with 10-20 international HPC people in a free form discussion) sign up by replying to his tweet announcements https://twitter.com/hpcnotes
Date of next meeting
1400 UK Time, TBC May 2020