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During this recent test period in November, researchers confirmed that the new system's hardware and base configuration fully enables the proper functioning of all the software they currently depend on within Helios. We discovered important things that we could not have learned without this testing investment, which in turn will contribute to a more robust setup for your researchers.
Upcoming to do's for
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Hoffmann researchers, as of 11/27/13:
(1) Ensure researchers' user data on Sol can be completely deleted.
- We will be deleting all the home directories. (They were originally copied there as a testing convenience during our test phase.)
- We do this to enable a clean import of researchers' current production home directories from Helios.
- Lulu has advised them researchers of this from before the Thanksgiving break, so hopefully no surprises.
Bottom line: If there are any files on Sol which researchers cannot afford to lose (hopefully not- it was in test mode, and it's not being backed up!), researchers must move that data to Helios right away (deadline?).
2) After a predetermined date, researchers will not have access to Sol until it is again ready for testing.
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- Changes to where the Intel compiler and Materials Studio reside (to facilitated debugging and support) must be confirmed to work for researchers.
- Again we are testing on Sol. Thus, the only production work should still be on Helios, not Sol.
Oliver's quick notes:
11/15/13, from email sent to Roald, by Oliver:
- We are still working to learn how much of the Intel package components your group needs/ wants, and to what degree a non-current version might meet their needs in case we don't need to invest in the most recent version
The rest of the email:
I believe we have a short-term answer to address your group's need for the Intel compiler. This temporary solution will work as long as we are earnestly working on a long-term solution.
When you return, I would appreciate discussing options to meet your long-term needs cost-effectively. Michael Hint and I have some imaginative ideas, but some involve coordinating with other CCB researchers (Scheraga and Ananth).
Michael Hint learned the difference between a single user license and the 2-person concurrent licenses. The answer (below) informs one of our ideas, if you care to read it before we meet. But no problem if you don't get to it since I can summarize when I discuss our ideas.
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Sent: Friday, November 08, 2013 4:00 PM
To: Guoying Gao
Cc: Oliver B. Habicht
Subject: one computer matter which will come up
Hi, Guoying,
In his conversation with me, Oliver said that he has investigated the error message referring to absence of a license for an Intel Compiler. It indeed appears that we had been using an older compiler, and that to use it in the future we will need to get a license. But that license is costly; Oliver is determining how much. What he will ask you, and you might inquire of the group in preparation is how often we use that compiler – daily, once a week, once a year? And how many people in the group are using it.
Thanks,
roald
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REMINDER: Researchers must again ensure their user data on Sol can be completely deleted.
4) After a predetermined date, researchers will again not have access to Sol until it is ready for production.
- During this time we will sync researchers' home directories from Helios
QUESTION for Lulu and Michael: Is this really better than giving each researcher a bare home directory and asking them to move only the data from Helios which they need?
5) On a predetermined date, researchers must plan for 1-2 days of downtime for Helios, after which Sol will be up in production.
- We obviously must coordinate this cut-over to ensure no loss of researcher's production data and to minimize the inconvenience of the downtime.
Thank you! -ChemIT
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Older notes:
Next steps
- Meet to review all options and confirm desired direction and expected timing.
- Review resources. Huayun Gen has cluster management experience, including set-up.
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