# NERSC Weekly Email, Week of April 5, 2021 <a name="top"></a> # ## Contents ## - [Summary of Upcoming Events and Key Dates](#dates) ## [NERSC Status](#section1) ## - [NERSC Operations Continue, with Minimal Shelter-in-Place Impacts](#curtailment) ## [This Week's Events and Deadlines](#section2) ## - [IDEAS-ECP Webinar on Workflow for Increasing Scientific Software Quality on Wednesday](#ecpwebinar) ## [Updates at NERSC ](#section3) ## - [New VASP License Confirmation Process at NERSC](#vasp) - [NERSC Public Events and Outages Google Calendars Available!](#calendar) - [HPSS Archive Maintenance April 11-16; All Data in Archive Unavailable for Duration!](#hpssmaint) - ["Compile" Queue Now Available on Cori!](#compileq) - [Allocation Reductions Schedule Set for 2021](#allocred) ## [Calls for Participation](#section4) ## - [Nominations for ACM SIGHPC Graduate Fellowships in Computational and Data Science Now Open!](#sighpc) ## [Upcoming Training Events ](#section5) ## - [(NEW) IDEAS-ECP Webinar on Automated Fortran-C++ Bindings for Large-Scale Scientific Applications, May 12](#ecpwebinar2) - [Sign Up for April 19 & 26 Timemory ECP Tutorial to Simplify Monitoring Your Application](#timemory) - [Learn to Use Spin to Build Science Gateways at NERSC: Next SpinUp Workshop Starts April 15!](#spinup) ## [NERSC News ](#section6) ## - [No New "NERSC User News" Podcast this Week](#nopodcast) - [Come Work for NERSC!](#careers) - [Upcoming Outages](#outages) - [About this Email](#about) ## Summary of Upcoming Events and Key Dates <a name="dates"/></a> ## April 2021 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 *7* 8 9 10 7 Apr IDEAS-ECP Webinar [1] *11--12--13--14-*15*-16* 17 11-16 Apr HPSS Archive Maint [2] 15 Apr SpinUp Workshop [3] 18 *19* 20 *21* 22 23 24 19 Apr Timemory Tutorial (Pt 1) [4] 21 Apr Cori Monthly Maint Window [5] 25 *26* 27 28 29 *30* 26 Apr Timemory Tutorial (Pt 2) [4] 30 Apr SIGHPC Fellow Noms Due [6] May 2021 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 *4* 5 6 7 8 4 May First Allocation Reduction [7] 9 10 11 *12* 13 14 15 12 May IDEAS-ECP Webinar [8] 16 17 18 *19* 20 21 22 19 May Cori Monthly Maint Window [5] 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 *31* 31 May Memorial Day Holiday [9] June 2021 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *10* 11 12 10 Jun SpinUp Workshop [3] 13 14 15 *16* 17 18 19 16 Jun Cori Monthly Maint Window [5] 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1. **April 7, 2021**: [IDEAS-ECP Monthly Webinar](#ecpwebinar) 2. **April 11-16, 2021**: [HPSS Archive (User) Maintenance](#hpssmaint) 3. **April 15, 2021**: [SpinUp Workshop](#spinup) 4. **April 19 & 26, 2021**: [Timemory ECP Tutorial](#timemory) 5. **April 21, May 19, & June 16, 2021**: Cori Monthly Maintenance Window 6. **April 30, 2021**: [ACM SIGHPC Graduate Fellowship Nominations Due](#sighpc) 7. **May 4, 2021**: [First Allocation Reduction Date](#allocred) 8. **May 12, 2021**: [IDEAS-ECP Monthly Webinar](#ecpwebinar2) 9. **May 31, 2021**: Memorial Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support) 10. All times are **Pacific Time zone** - **Upcoming Planned Outage Dates** (see [Outages section](#outages) for more details) - **April 7**: HPSS Regent (Backup) - **April 11-16**: HPSS Archive (User) - **Other Significant Dates** - **June 25, 2021**: [PERMAVOST Workshop](https://permavost.github.io/) - **July 5, 2021**: Independence Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support) - **July 21, August 18, & September 15, 2021**: Cori Monthly Maintenance Window - **August 1-13, 2021**: Argonne Training Program on Extreme-Scale Computing - **August 19, October 14, & December 9, 2021**: SpinUp Workshops - **September 6, 2021**: Labor Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support) - **October 20, November 17, & December 15, 2021**: Cori Monthly Maintenance Window - **November 25-26, 2021**: Thanksgiving Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support) - **December 24, 2021 - January 3, 2022**: Winter Shutdown (Limited Consulting and Account Support) ([back to top](#top)) --- ## NERSC Status <a name="section1"/></a> ## ### NERSC Operations Continue, with Minimal Shelter-in-Place Impacts <a name="curtailment"/></a> Alameda County, California, where NERSC is located, remains under public health order restrictions. NERSC continues to remain open while following site-specific protection plans. We remain in operation as before, with the majority of NERSC staff working remotely for the foreseeable future, and only staff essential to operations onsite. You can continue to expect regular online consulting and account support but no telephone support. Trainings will continue to be held online, or postponed if online is infeasible. Regular maintenances on the systems will continue to be performed while minimizing onsite staff presence, which could result in longer downtimes than would occur under normal circumstances. Because onsite staffing is so minimal, we request that you continue to refrain from calling NERSC Operations except to report urgent system issues. For **current NERSC systems status**, please see the online [MOTD](https://www.nersc.gov/live-status/motd/) and [current known issues](https://docs.nersc.gov/current/) webpages. ([back to top](#top)) --- ## This Week's Events and Deadlines <a name="section2"/></a> ## ### IDEAS-ECP Webinar on Workflow for Increasing Scientific Software Quality on Wednesday <a name="ecpwebinar"/></a> The next webinar in the [Best Practices for HPC Software Developers](http://ideas-productivity.org/events/hpc-best-practices-webinars/) series is entitled "A Workflow for Increasing the Quality of Scientific Software", and will take place this Wednesday, April 7, 2021, at 10:00 am Pacific time. This webinar, presented by Tomislav Maric (TU Darmstadt), will present a workflow to increase the quality of research software in Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) by applying established software engineering practices extended with CSE-specific testing and visualization, and periodical cross-linking of software with reports/publications and datasets. There is no cost to attend, but registration is required. Please register [here](https://www.exascaleproject.org/event/workflow4scisoft/). ([back to top](#top)) --- ## Updates at NERSC <a name="section3"/></a> ## ### New VASP License Confirmation Process at NERSC <a name="vasp"/></a> All VASP license confirmation requests should now use the new [VASP License Confirmation Request](https://nersc.servicenowservices.com/sp/?id=sc_cat_item&sys_id=d2935b561b032c106c44ebdbac4bcbb6&sysparm_category=e15706fc0a0a0aa7007fc21e1ab70c2f) form located in the "Request Forms" section of the [NERSC Help Desk](https://help.nersc.gov). For more information on the VASP license verification process, please see <https://docs.nersc.gov/applications/vasp/#access>. ### NERSC Public Events and Outages Google Calendars Available! <a name="calendar"/></a> NERSC has two publicly viewable calendars aimed at users, the NERSC Public Events Calendar and the NERSC Outages Calendar, to help users keep track of what's going on at NERSC. The **NERSC Public Events** calendar shows events such as trainings, and NUG webinars. It is viewable as a standalone calendar at <https://calendar.google.com/calendar?cid=bGJsLmdvdl9sczBnZHRnaTdiOTNqcmVkbGVzMGlibDB1NEBncm91cC5jYWxlbmRhci5nb29nbGUuY29t>, and you can also add it to your own calendar: - The Google Calendar ID is <lbl.gov_ls0gdtgi7b93jredles0ibl0u4@group.calendar.google.com> - For iCal users, the link is <https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/lbl.gov_ls0gdtgi7b93jredles0ibl0u4%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics> The **NERSC Outages** calendar is automatically populated by the NERSC Message of the Day (MOTD), and also includes historical information about when systems were unavailable or in degraded mode in addition to future scheduled outages. You can see it in MyNERSC at <https://my.nersc.gov/outagecal-cs.php>, or as a standalone calendar at <https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=lbl.gov_hgvrbjd08kf6srjjtt1ifh0qi8%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America%2FLos_Angeles>, and you can also add it to your own calendar: - The Google calendar ID is <lbl.gov_hgvrbjd08kf6srjjtt1ifh0qi8@group.calendar.google.com> - For iCal users, the link is <https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/lbl.gov_hgvrbjd08kf6srjjtt1ifh0qi8%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics> ### HPSS Archive Maintenance April 11-16; All Data in Archive Unavailable for Duration! <a name="hpssmaint"/></a> **Archive, the NERSC HPSS Tape Storage System, will be unavailable for a software upgrade from 7 am (Pacific) on April 11, 2021 to 7 pm on April 16, 2021.** Although Archive has been running stably without a system upgrade for nearly a decade, we must perform this upgrade to take advantage of more recent developments in HPSS software. Included in the process is an upgrade of the metadata for the more than 245 million objects in the Archive, which we anticipate will take the bulk of the maintenance period. **During this maintenance period users will not have any access to the Archive or its data, and will not be able to log into Archive** (e.g., via `hsi` or `htar` to archive data, via the NERSC HPSS Globus endpoint, or via ftp), so please plan accordingly. Once the upgrade is complete, you will be able to access your data as usual from any NERSC system without taking any further action. After the maintenance is complete, users will once again have access to all files on Archive as before. No user files will be deleted during the upgrade process. Thank you for your patience during this long-overdue upgrade process. Please open a ticket at <https://help.nersc.gov> if you have any questions or if you need help finding temporary storage space while Archive is unavailable. ### "Compile" Queue Now Available on Cori! <a name="compileq"/></a> A new "Compile" queue is now available on Cori. The [compile queue](https://docs.nersc.gov/jobs/policy/#compile) is intended for workflows that regularly compile codes from source, e.g., DevOps models leveraging Continuous Integration. There is a single Haswell node allocated to jobs in this queue. There is no charge for using the compile queue, but users must request access. If you are interested in accessing the compile queue, please fill out the Compile Queue [request form](https://nersc.servicenowservices.com/sp?id=sc_cat_item&sys_id=9089a22f1b426010263aa82eac4bcb5b&sysparm_category=e15706fc0a0a0aa7007fc21e1ab70c2f). ### Allocation Reductions Schedule Set for 2021 <a name="allocred"/></a> Allocation reductions will recommence this year after a one-year hiatus. The reduction process takes unused allocation from projects not using them and allows DOE program managers to redistribute that time to other projects. PIs and PI proxies may request exemptions, at least one week before the reduction date. Reduction dates this year will be **May 4 and September 7, 2021.** For more information, including how much allocation will be removed, please see <https://www.nersc.gov/users/accounts/allocations/allocation-reductions>. ([back to top](#top)) --- ## Calls for Participation <a name="section4"/></a> ## ### Nominations for ACM SIGHPC Graduate Fellowships in Computational and Data Science Now Open! <a name="sighpc"/></a> Are you a currently enrolled graduate student focusing on computational or data science (or will you be one no later than October 15)? Are you a woman or a member of a racial or ethnic group that is currently underrepresented in the computing field in the country where you are studying? If so, you may be eligible to apply for the ACM SIGHPC Graduate Fellowship in Computational and Data Science. Each fellowship recipient will receive a stipend of US$15000 annually for up to 2 years as long as they are progressing in their degree program. In the case of non-US universities, the stipend will be adjusted depending on World Bank national price level ratio for the country where the degree will be earned. In addition, new fellowship recipients will be supported to travel to the annual SC conference, where they will be honored at the awards session. The submissions close **April 30, 2021**. For more information please see <https://www.sighpc.org/for-your-career/fellowships>. ([back to top](#top)) --- ## Upcoming Training Events <a name="section5"/></a> ## ### (NEW) IDEAS-ECP Webinar on Automated Fortran-C++ Bindings for Large-Scale Scientific Applications, May 12 <a name="ecpwebinar2"/></a> The May webinar in the [Best Practices for HPC Software Developers](http://ideas-productivity.org/events/hpc-best-practices-webinars/) series is entitled "Automated Fortran-C++ Bindings for Large-Scale Scientific Applications", and will take place Wednesday, May 12, 2021, at 10:00 am Pacific time. This webinar, presented by Seth Johnson (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), will present a solution to the challenge of connecting existing Fortran code to new internal C++ kernels or external C++ libraries, a challenge many developers interested in performance portability models and other rapidly developing, dynamic programming paradigms. SWIG-Fortran provides a flexible solution that includes support for performant data transfers, MPI support, and direct translation of C++ features to Fortran interfaces. There is no cost to attend, but registration is required. Please register [here](https://www.exascaleproject.org/event/fortran-cpp-bindings/). ### Sign Up for April 19 & 26 Timemory ECP Tutorial to Simplify Monitoring Your Application <a name="timemory"/></a> The Timemory toolkit is a suite of C/C++/Fortran/Python tools for performance analysis, optimization studies, logging, and debugging, that can be used to easily integrate and maintain the exact set of measurements/tools/features you want to support with an interface best suited for your application. Timemory helps you simplify the monitoring of the state and performance of your application so that relevant debugging, logging, and performance data can be trivially enabled or disabled in a consistent and portable manner. The Timemory tutorial, to be held across two successive Mondays, April 19 & 26, will introduce the user to Timemory, its command-line tools and APIs, and how to use the individual components to build a custom tool. The tutorial is sponsored by ECP, but open and available to all. Registration is required. For more information and to register, please see <https://www.exascaleproject.org/event/timemory/>. ### Learn to Use Spin to Build Science Gateways at NERSC: Next SpinUp Workshop Starts April 15! <a name="spinup"/></a> Spin is a service platform at NERSC based on Docker container technology. It can be used to deploy science gateways, workflow managers, databases, and all sorts of other services that can access NERSC systems and storage on the back end. New large-memory nodes have been added to the platform, increasing the potential of the platform for new memory-constrained applications. To learn more about how Spin works and what it can do, please listen to the NERSC User News podcast on Spin: <https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/Spin--Interview-with-Cory-Snavely-and-Val-Hendrix-e1pa7p>. Attend an upcoming SpinUp workshop to learn to use Spin for your own science gateway projects! Applications for sessions that begin next month, on [Thursday April 15](https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/spin/) are now open. SpinUp is hands-on and interactive, so space is limited. Participants will attend an instructional session and a hack-a-thon to learn about the platform, create running services, and learn maintenance and troubleshooting techniques. Local and remote participants are welcome. If you can't make these upcoming sessions, never fear! We'll hold additional sessions in June, August, October, and December. See a video of Spin in action at the [Spin documentation](https://docs.nersc.gov/services/spin/) page. ([back to top](#top)) --- ## NERSC News <a name="section6"/></a> ## ### No New "NERSC User News" Podcast this Week <a name="nopodcast"/></a> There will be no new episode of the "NERSC User News" podcast this week. We encourage you to instead enjoy some of our most recent episodes and greatest hits: - [NERSC 2020 in Review & Looking Forward](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/NERSC-2020-in-Review-and-Looking-Forward-Sudip-Dosanjh-Interview-ep44l0) NERSC director Sudip Dosanjh discusses the highlights of 2020 at NERSC, as well as what to look forward to in 2021 and beyond. - [Software Support Policy](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/NERSC-Software-Support-Policy-Steve-Leak-Interview-ehu6bg) In this interview with NERSC HPC Consultant Steve Leak, learn about the new NERSC software support policy: what it is, how it works, and its benefits for users and NERSC staff alike. - [NERSC Power Upgrade](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/NERSC-Power-Upgrade-David-Topete-Interview-egc35v) In this interview with Berkeley Lab Infrastructure Modernization Division's David Topete, learn about the power upgrade happening this weekend, the work that has to be done, and the steps taken to ensure the safety of the workers involved in the effort. - [Dynamic fan](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/Dynamic-Fan-Norm-Bourassa-Interview-ef4bkp) NERSC Energy Efficiency Engineer Norm Bourassa talks about how NERSC is saving energy with the dynamic fan settings on the Cori supercomputing cabinets, and what NERSC is doing to make the cabinets even more energy efficient. - [RAPIDS](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/The-RAPIDS-Library-Nick-Becker-Interview-eb0h5a) In this interview with NVIDIA RAPIDS senior engineer Nick Becker, learn about the RAPIDS library, how it can accelerate your data science, and how to use it. - [IO Middleware](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/IO-Middleware-Quincey-Koziol-Interview-eaf5r3/a-a1c7plt) NERSC Principal Data Architect Quincey Koziol talks about IO Middleware: what it is, how you can benefit from using it in your code, and how it is evolving to support data-intensive computing and future supercomputing architectures. - [Community File System](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/Community-File-System-Kristy-Kallback-Rose--Greg-Butler--and-Ravi-Cheema-Interview-e9d88q/a-a149hf5) NERSC Storage System Group staff Kristy Kallback-Rose, Greg Butler, and Ravi Cheema talk about the new Community File System and the migration timeline. - [Monitoring System Performance](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/Monitoring-System-Performance-Eric-Roman-Interview-e5g20m/a-aobd6p) NERSC Computational Systems Group's Eric Roman discusses how NERSC monitors system performance, what we're doing with the data right now, and how we plan to use it in the future. - [The Superfacility Concept](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/The-Superfacility-Concept-Debbie-Bard-Interview-e5a5th/a-amoglk): Join NERSC Data Science Engagement Group Lead Debbie Bard in a discussion about the concept of the superfacility: what it means, how facilities interact, and what NERSC and partner experimental facilities are doing to prepare for the future of data-intensive science. - [Optimizing I/O in Applications](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/Optimizing-IO-in-Applications-Jialin-Liu-Interview-e50nvm): Listen to an I/O optimization success story in this interview with NERSC Data and Analytics Services Group's Jialin Liu. - [NESAP Postdocs](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/NESAP-Postdocs--Laurie-Stephey-Interview-e2lsg0): Learn from NESAP postdoc Laurie Stephey what it's like working as a postdoc in the NESAP program at NERSC. The NERSC User News podcast, produced by the NERSC User Engagement Group, is available at <https://anchor.fm/nersc-news> and syndicated through iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and more. Please give it a listen and let us know what you think, via a ticket at <https://help.nersc.gov>. ### Come Work for NERSC! <a name="careers"/></a> NERSC currently has several openings for postdocs, system administrators, and more! If you are looking for new opportunities, please consider the following openings: - **NEW** [Linux Systems Administrator/Dev Ops Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/linux-systems-administrator-dev-ops-engineer-3650): Help build and manage systems that complement the NERSC HPC environment, including web services, databases, container and virtual machine platforms, and more. - [Storage Systems Group Lead](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/storage-systems-group-lead-3651): Lead the team that manages, supports, and monitors NERSC's large-scale storage systems. - [HPC Storage Infrastructure Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-storage-infrastructure-engineer-3617): Join the team that architects, deploys, and supports high-performance parallel storage systems at NERSC. - [HPC Performance Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-performance-engineer-3583): Enable new scientific advancements by enabling scientists to exploit cutting-edge computational science techniques in machine learning, data analysis, and/or simulation on NERSC's next supercomputer. - [HPC Architecture and Performance Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-architecture-and-performance-engineer-3575): Help NERSC develop a complete understanding of architecture/performance to improve application and computer-system performance on extreme-scale advanced architectures. - [Machine Learning Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/machine-learning-engineer-3504): Enable new scientific advancements by enabling scientists to exploit cutting-edge computational science techniques in machine learning and deep learning on NERSC's future supercomputers. - [NESAP for Data Postdoctoral Fellow](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-for-data-postdoctoral-fellow-3017): Work in multidisciplinary teams to transition data-analysis codes to NERSC's new Perlmutter supercomputer and produce mission-relevant science that truly pushes the limits of high-end computing. - [NESAP for Simulations Postdoctoral Fellow](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-for-simulations-postdoctoral-fellow-2804): Work in multidisciplinary teams to develop and optimize codes for the Perlmutter system and produce mission-relevant science that pushes the limits of high-performance computing. - [NESAP for Learning Postdoctoral Fellow](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-for-learning-postdoctoral-fellow-2788): Work in multidisciplinary teams to develop and implement cutting-edge machine learning/deep learning solutions in codes that will run on NERSC's new Perlmutter supercomputer and produce mission-relevant science that pushes the limits of AI on high-performance computing. (**Note:** You can browse all our job openings by first navigating to <https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/search/>. Under "Business," select "View More" and scroll down to find and select the checkbox for "NE-NERSC".) We know that NERSC users can make great NERSC employees! We look forward to seeing your application. ### Upcoming Outages <a name="outages"/></a> - **Cori** - 04/21/21 07:00-20:00 PDT, Scheduled Maintenance - **HPSS Archive (User)** - 04/11/21 07:00-04/16/21 17:00 PDT, Scheduled Maintenance - **HPSS Regent (Backup)** - 04/07/21 09:00-11:00 PDT, Scheduled Maintenance Visit <http://my.nersc.gov/> for latest status and outage information. ### About this Email <a name="about"/></a> You are receiving this email because you are the owner of an active account at NERSC. This mailing list is automatically populated with the email addresses associated with active NERSC accounts. In order to remove yourself from this mailing list, you must close your account, which can be done by emailing <accounts@nersc.gov> with your request. _______________________________________________ Users mailing list Users@nersc.gov