# NERSC Weekly Email, Week of December 18, 2023<a name="top"></a> # ## Contents ## ## [Summary of Upcoming Events and Key Dates](#section1) ## - [Happy Holidays from NERSC!](#lastemail) - [Scheduled Outages](#outages) - [Key Dates](#dates) ## [This Week's Events and Deadlines](#section2) ## - [NERSC User Survey Closes Tonight!](#usersurvey) - [NERSC Holiday Closure, December 25-January 1](#holidaybreak) ## [Perlmutter](#section3) ## - [Perlmutter Machine Status](#perlmutter) - [Additional Nodes Temporarily Allocated to Support Interactive and Real-Time Work](#urgentnodes) ## [Updates at NERSC ](#section4) ## - [Allocation Year 2024 Begins January 17, 2024!](#ayrollover) - [2024 ERCAP Allocations Were Announced December 15](#ercapalloc) - [DOE-SC Annual User Stats Call](#userstats) - [Changes to Science Gateways using PHP at portal.nersc.gov](#gatewaysphp) ## [NERSC User Community ](#section5) ## - [Got a Tip or Trick to Share with Other Users? Post It in Slack or Add It to NERSC's Documentation!](#tipsntricks) - [Submit a Science Highlight Today!](#scihigh) ## [Calls for Submissions](#section6) ## - [Nominate a Colleague for the James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building, & Communication by December 31](#corones) - [Attention Future & Early PhD Students: Applications for Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Now Open!](#csgf) - [(NEW/UPDATED) Apply Today for April SYCL HackFest!](#syclhf) ## [Upcoming Training Events](#section7) ## - [(NEW/UPDATED) Applications to Attend the International HPC Summer School Open Through January 31](#ihpcss) - [Applications Now Open for E3SM Tutorial Workshop](#e3sm) ## [NERSC News ](#section8) ## - [Come Work for NERSC!](#careers) - [About this Email](#about) ([back to top](#top)) --- ## Summary of Upcoming Events and Key Dates <a name="section1"/></a> ## ### Happy Holidays from NERSC! <a name="lastemail"/></a> Best wishes for a joyous and relaxing festive season from your friends at NERSC! This message is the final NERSC Weekly Email of 2023. Weekly emails will resume in January. ### Scheduled Outages <a name="outages"/></a> (See <https://www.nersc.gov/live-status/motd/> for more info): - **Perlmutter** - 12/20/23 06:00-22:00 PST, Scheduled Maintenance - 01/17/24 06:00-22:00 PST, Scheduled Maintenance - **HPSS Regent (Backup)** - 01/03/24 09:00-13:00 PST, Scheduled Maintenance - HPSS will be available while we upgrade Library firmware. Some retrievals may be delayed during tape library maintenance. - **Iris** - 12/19/23 11:00-16:00 PST, Scheduled Maintenance - Iris will be unavailable briefly (~5 minutes) several times during the window while the underlying deployment platform is upgraded. - **Superfacility API** - 12/19/23 11:00-16:00 PST, Scheduled Maintenance - The Superfacility API will be unavailable briefly (~5 minutes) several times during the window while the underlying deployment platform is upgraded. ### Key Dates <a name="dates"/></a> December 2023 January 2024 February 2024 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 28 29 30 31 25 26 27 28 29 31 #### This Week - **December 18, 2023**: [NERSC User Survey Closes](#usersurvey) #### Next Week - **December 25, 2023 - January 1, 2024**: [Winter Shutdown](#holidaybreak) (Limited Consulting and Account Support) - **December 31, 2023**: [James Corones Award Nominations Due](#corones) #### Future - **January 15, 2024**: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support) - **January 17, 2024**: - [First Day of Allocation Year 2024](#ayrollover) - [Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Applications Due](#csgf) - **January 31, 2024**: - [Applications Due for E3SM Tutorial Workshop](#e3sm) - [Applications Due for International HPC Summer School](#ihpcss) - **February 2, 2024**: [Submissions Due for SYCL HackFest](#syclhf) - **February 19, 2024**: Presidents' Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support) ([back to top](#top)) --- ## This Week's Events and Deadlines <a name="section2"/></a> ## ### NERSC User Survey Closes Tonight! <a name="usersurvey"/></a> The annual NERSC user survey for Allocation Year 2023 closes tonight! The survey is being performed by a company called National Business Research Institute (NBRI), with expertise in conducting accurate, reliable surveys. Anyone who is an active NERSC user as of late October received an announcement email on Monday November 13 and an email on Wednesday November 15 with a personalized link to the online survey, from <NERSC@nbriresearch.com>. An additional follow-up reminder was sent on November 27. NERSC values your feedback on what we do well and how we can serve you even better. The results of the user survey are the top source of input for the improvements we make in operations, and how we plan for the future. We also report user survey results to our Department of Energy sponsors, and your feedback helps us provide a fuller picture of our center. Please help us help you, by taking 5-10 minutes to fill out the survey before 10 pm (Pacific) tonight! ### NERSC Holiday Closure, December 25-January 1 <a name="holidaybreak"/></a> NERSC's annual holiday break begins on Monday, December 25, and continues through January 1, 2024. During this time, no consulting or account support will be available, with the exception of Thursday, December 28, when there will be limited account support and consulting support. On that day, the most urgent queries will be prioritized. Regular consulting and account support services will resume on Tuesday, January 2, 2024. As a consequence of this shutdown and general festive season observance by most businesses, any issues that come up with NERSC resources during this period are unlikely to be resolved as quickly as they would at another time of year. We welcome user reports of issues, which will be assessed and prioritized when we return to full services in the new year. ([back to top](#top)) --- ## Perlmutter <a name="section3"/></a> ## ### Perlmutter Machine Status <a name="perlmutter"/></a> Perlmutter is available to all users with an active NERSC account. Some helpful NERSC pages for Perlmutter users: * [Perlmutter queue information](https://docs.nersc.gov/jobs/policy/#qos-limits-and-charge) * [Timeline of major changes](https://docs.nersc.gov/systems/perlmutter/timeline/) * [Current known issues](https://docs.nersc.gov/current/#perlmutter) This section of the newsletter will be updated regularly with the latest Perlmutter status. ### Additional Nodes Temporarily Allocated to Support Interactive and Real-Time Work <a name="urgentnodes"/></a> NERSC has temporarily added 256 new CPU nodes and 128 new GPU nodes to Perlmutter. The CPU nodes are identical to existing CPU nodes, while the GPU nodes have twice as much memory on the host and on each GPU (512 GB RAM and 4 x 80 GB GPU memory). Jobs in the realtime, interactive, and Jupyter queues will be preferentially directed to these nodes at least through the end of the allocation year. No modifications to scripts are required unless you do not wish to use the higher-memory GPU nodes; please [send in a ticket](https://help.nersc.gov/) if you find that you need to exclude these nodes from your jobs. NERSC will monitor the impact of these new nodes on utilization and job turnaround time across all queues on Perlmutter. Queue configurations will likely change sometime in the new allocation year. ([back to top](#top)) --- ## Updates at NERSC <a name="section4"/></a> ## ### Allocation Year 2024 Begins January 17, 2024! <a name="ayrollover"/></a> NERSC's Allocation Year 2023 (AY23) ends at 7 am (Pacific time) on Wednesday, January 17, 2024. AY24 runs through Tuesday, January 14, 2025. PIs for new and continuing projects will be notified about the status of their project request later this week. There are not many changes for AY24. Please remember: - **PIs for renewed projects must authorize each user that should continue to be a project member in AY 2024.** The menu to perform this user approval has now been enabled. Authorizations must be completed by Friday, January 12, 2024. - **Projects have two separate allocations for CPU and GPU resources.** Allocations on these two architectures are separate and cannot be traded or exchanged. For more information, please see the [Allocation Year Transition](https://www.nersc.gov/users/allocation-year-transition-2023-to-2024/) page. ### 2024 ERCAP Allocations Were Announced December 15 <a name="ercapalloc"/></a> Successful ERCAP projects for Allocation Year 2024 (AY24) were announced on Friday, December 15, 2023 via email. AY 2024 begins on January 17, 2024. ### DOE-SC Annual User Stats Call <a name="userstats"/></a> The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (SC), which is the primary sponsor of NERSC, requires that a limited set of information relating to your user project/experiment be transmitted to SC at the conclusion of the current fiscal year. A subset of this information, including your name, institutional affiliation(s), and project title(s), will be publicly disseminated as part of an SC user facility user projects/experiments database on the [SC website](http://science.osti.gov), after the conclusion of the fiscal year. For proprietary projects, SC requests that the user provide a project title that is suitable for public dissemination. ### Changes to Science Gateways using PHP at portal.nersc.gov <a name="gatewaysphp"/></a> Effective January 2, 2024, all science gateways using PHP on portal.nersc.gov will move to a new model of service. On this date, each project will be deployed in a dedicated environment with access only to the project's www directory in the Community File System (CFS). No downtime is required to make this change. In addition, for future projects, PHP will be enabled by request only. NERSC encourages all impacted projects to test their existing applications in this new environment, which is already set up at portal-dev.nersc.gov. In particular, applications that access the file system outside the project's www directory or across multiple projects are likely to experience issues with this migration. If the issues can't be resolved by moving the data into the www directory, please raise a ticket at <https://help.nersc.gov>. For more complex applications or specific PHP version requirements, NERSC recommends using our container-based platform [Spin](https://www.nersc.gov/systems/spin/). ([back to top](#top)) --- ## NERSC User Community <a name="section5"/></a> ## ### Got a Tip or Trick to Share with Other Users? Post It in Slack or Add It to NERSC's Documentation! <a name="tipsntricks"/></a> Do you have a handy tip or trick that you think other NERSC users might be able to benefit from? Something that helps make your use of NERSC resources more efficient, or saves you from needing to remember some obscure command? Share it with your fellow NERSC users in one of the following ways: - A new `#tips-and-tricks` channel on the [NERSC Users Slack](https://www.nersc.gov/users/NUG/nersc-users-slack/) (login required -- you may also join the NERSC Users Slack at this link) has been started and provides a daily tip or trick. Feel free to share it there! - Add it to the NERSC documentation -- NERSC's technical documentation pages are in a [Gitlab repository](https://gitlab.com/NERSC/nersc.gitlab.io/), and we welcome merge requests and issues. - Speak up during the "Today-I-Learned" portion of the [NUG Monthly Meeting](https://www.nersc.gov/users/NUG/teleconferences/). ### Submit a Science Highlight Today! <a name="scihigh"/></a> Doing cool science at NERSC? NERSC is looking for cool, scientific and code development success stories to highlight to NERSC users, DOE Program Managers, and the broader scientific community in Science Highlights. If you're interested in your work being considered to be used as a featured Science highlight, please let us know via our [highlight form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScP4bRCtcde43nqUx4Z_sz780G9HsXtpecQ_qIPKvGafDVVKQ/viewform). ([back to top](#top)) --- ## Calls for Submissions <a name="section6"/></a> ## ### Nominate a Colleague for the James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building, & Communication by December 31 <a name="corones"/></a> Can you think of a mid-career PhD scientist or engineer making an impact in leadership, community building, or science communication? Consider nominating them for the [James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building, & Communication](https://www.krellinst.org/about-krell/corones-award)! Established in memory of James Corones, the late founder of the Krell Institute, the Corones Award recognizes mid-career scientists and engineers who are making an impact in leadership, community building, or science communication. Like Jim Corones, the recipient will be someone who encourages and mentors young people to be active in the science community, to communicate their work effectively, and to make a difference in their scientific area. The prize consists of a $2,000 cash award and an engraved tangible gift. To learn more or to nominate a candidate, please see <https://www.krellinst.org/about-krell/corones-award>. Nominations are due next Sunday, December 31! ### Attention Future & Early PhD Students: Applications for Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Now Open! <a name="csgf"/></a> Are you a US citizen or permanent resident interested in pursuing a doctorate in engineering or the physical, computer, mathematical or life sciences at an accredited US university (or within your first year of PhD)? If so, consider applying for a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF). Successful applicants can receive, for up to 4 years, a generous yearly stipend, payment of full tuition and required fees, a professional development allowance, the opportunity for a paid twelve-week practicum experience at a DOE national laboratory, and attend an annual program review held each summer in the Washington DC area. Please consider joining fellowship staff as they host an informational webinar at 2:00 p.m. CT on Thursday, December 7. This Zoom session ([register here](https://krellinst.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=1ef2ce85a914817e1fa927992&id=aa534a9d42&e=744a4272f1)) will provide an overview of the DOE CSGF and guidance for applying, and it will serve as a forum to ask related questions in a live Q&A format. A recording will also be made available via the fellowship website. For more information and to apply, please see <https://www.krellinst.org/csgf/>. Applications are due January 17, 2024! ### (NEW/UPDATED) Apply Today for April SYCL HackFest! <a name="syclhf"/></a> Are you interested in participating in a fun, one-day hacking session with SYCL, the cross-platform abstraction layer that enables code for heterogeneous and offload processors to be written using modern ISO C++? If so, consider applying for the SYCL HackFest, to be held Monday, April 8. Submit a project proposal, which will be reviewed by a committee of SYCL community members. Topics of interest include - SYCL Performance and Optimization - SYCL 2020 Features - CUDA to SYCL Porting - SYCL Benchmarking All participants will be supported by mentors who are world leaders in SYCL development. For more information and to apply, please see the [SYCL HackFest webpage](https://www.iwocl.org/iwocl-2024/sycl-hackfest/). Submissions are due February 2, 2024! ([back to top](#top)) --- ## Upcoming Training Events <a name="section7"/></a> ## ### (NEW/UPDATED) Applications to Attend the International HPC Summer School Open Through January 31 <a name="ihpcss"/></a> Are you a graduate student or postdoctoral scholar from an institution in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, or the United States who is interested in learning more in computational sciences with major state-of-the-art aspects of HPC and Big Data Analytics for a variety of scientific disciplines, advancing the formation of professional networks, being provided with advanced mentoring, facilitating international exchange and opening up further career options? If so, consider applying to attend the International HPC Summer School, to be held July 7-12, 2024 in Kobe, Japan. For more information and to apply, please see <https://ss24.ihpcss.org>. Applications are due **January 31, 2024.** ### Applications Now Open for E3SM Tutorial Workshop <a name="e3sm"/></a> [Energy Exascale Earth System model (E3SM)](https://e3sm.org/) is a state-of-the-science Earth system model development and simulation project to investigate energy-relevant science using code optimized for DOE's advanced computers. The E3SM project, supported by the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division (EESSD) and Earth System Model Development (ESMD) programs will hold its first **in-person tutorial workshop at NERSC, May 7-10, 2024.** The tutorial will include - Lectures on earth system simulation and the model components of E3SM. - Practical sessions on running E3SM, modifying components, and analyzing data. - Best practices for utilizing the model and potentially contributing to its development. This workshop is designed for new users engaged in currently funded BER's EESSD projects, and other related DOE projects. We particularly encourage participation by graduate students, post-docs, and early career staff. For more information and to apply, please see [the event webpage](https://www.nersc.gov/e3sm-tutorial-workshop-may2024/). Applications are due January 31, 2024. ([back to top](#top)) --- ## NERSC News <a name="section8"/></a> ## ### 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: - [Machine Learning Postdoctoral Fellow](http://phxc1b.rfer.us/LBLeuJ8SH): Join a multidisciplinary team of ML researchers and physicists in a project on systematic-aware AI benchmarking for High-Energy Physics (HEP). - [NERSC HPC Department Head](http://phxc1b.rfer.us/LBLqbK819): Lead and provide vision and strategic direction for the NERSC High-Performance Computing department. - [Data Science Workflows Architect](http://phxc1b.rfer.us/LBL3eO7sI): Support scientists at experimental facilities using supercomputing resources at NERSC. - [HPC Systems Software Engineer](http://m.rfer.us/LBLSQh6ZH): Help architect, deploy, configure, and operate NERSC's large scale, leading-edge HPC systems. - [NESAP for Simulations Postdoctoral Fellow](http://m.rfer.us/LBLRUa4lS): Collaborate with computational and domain scientists to enable extreme-scale scientific simulations on NERSC's Perlmutter supercomputer. (**Note:** You can browse all our job openings on the [NERSC Careers](https://lbl.referrals.selectminds.com/page/nersc-careers-85) page, and all Berkeley Lab jobs at <https://jobs.lbl.gov>.) We know that NERSC users can make great NERSC employees! We look forward to seeing your application. ### 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