FAS Research Computing - Notice history

NOTICES

GPU PARTITIONS
The gputest partition is back in service. Job limits are now 64 cores, 8 GPU's, and 750G of RAM. Users can run up to 2 jobs.

GLOBUS PERSONAL CLIENT - 3.1 Client Deprecated
If you are using the Globus Connect Personal client on your machine, please ensure you have updated and are running version 3.2 or greater. Version 3.1 and below are deprecated and will not work as of December 17th, 2022. https://docs.globus.org/ca-update-2022/#globusconnect_personal

HOLIDAY NOTICE
January 16th is a university holiday (MLK Day)

GENERAL MAINTENANCE

* Slurm upgrade
Audience: Cluster users
Impact: Jobs will be paused during upgrade

* OnDemand Version upgrade to 2.0.29
Audience: VDI/OpenOnDemand users
Impact: VDI will be unavailable during this and the above Slurm upgrade

* Domain controller updates
Audience: All cluster
Impact: Could briefly impact some older systems, otherwise no impact expected

* Login node and VDI node reboots and firmware updates
Audience: Anyone logged into a a login node or VDI/OOD node
Impact: Login and VDI/OOD nodes will be unavailable while updating and rebooting

* Scratch cleanup ( https://docs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/kb/policy-scratch/ )
Audience: Cluster users
Impact: Files older than 90 days will be removed.

Reminder: Scratch 90-day file retention purging runs occur regularly not just during maintenance periods.

Thanks!
FAS Research Computing
Department and Service Catalog: https://www.rc.fas.harvard.edu/
Documentation: https://docs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/
Status Page: https://status.rc.fas.harvard.edu/

NOTICES

GPUTEST and REMOTEVIZ PARTITIONS Due to failed nodes, the gputest partition is down to 2 nodes and the (single node) remoteviz partition is down at the moment. We are working with the vendor to replace hardware, but this is still unresolved and no ETA at this time. Updates and QoS changes on our status page when we have them: https://status.rc.fas.harvard.edu/cl8a94kcf17664hvoj8oksxanx

GLOBUS PERSONAL CLIENT - UPDATE BY DEC 17
If you are using the Globus Connect Personal client on your machine, please ensure you have updated and are running version 3.2 or greater by December 17th, 2022. You will not be able to use version 3.1 or below after that date. https://docs.globus.org/ca-update-2022/#globusconnectpersonal

HOLIDAY NOTICES NOVEMBER:
Office Hours will be held on 11/23 prior to the Thanksgiving break, but will run only from 12-2pm. FASRC staff will be unavailable Nov. 16th from 12-3pm for a staff event. Thur/Fri Nov. 24th and 25th are university holidays (Thanksgiving).

HOLIDAY NOTICES DECEMBER:
Office Hours will not be held on Dec. 21st and will resume Jan. 4th, 2023. Winter break runs Dec. 23 - Jan. 2nd. FASRC will monitor for emergencies during this time, but general questions/tickets will be held until we return on Jan. 3rd, 2023.

SLUMR SCHEDULER UPDATE NOTES:
Given a bug in the previous versions of Slurm, this upgrade will create a situation where jobs launched on the previous version will get stuck in COMPLETING state until the node is rebooted (see: https://bugs.schedmd.com/show_bug.cgi?id=15078). This means in the week(s) following the upgrade there will rolling reboots of the nodes to clear these stuck jobs.

Users should be aware that any jobs stuck in COMPLETING state will remain so until the node the job lives on is rebooted, and any node that is labelled COMPLETING will not be able to receive jobs until it is rebooted. This is due to a Slurm bug and nothing to do with the users code or jobs and thus the users cannot do anything to clear this state faster. FASRC admins will reboot nodes as soon as they are clear of work to fix this issue.

GENERAL MAINTENANCE

• Slurm scheduler update (22.05.x) - See notes above
  -- Audience: All cluster job users
  -- Impact: =See notes above.= The scheduler and job will be paused during upgrade.

• Partition decommissioning
  -- Audience: narayan and holymeissner partition users
  -- Impact: This partition(s) will no longer be available

• Domain controller DHCP updates
  -- Audience: All users
  -- Impact: No impact expected

• Holyscratch01 firmware updates
  -- Audience: All users of scratch
  -- Impact: Scratch will be unavailable for short periods

• Login node and VDI node reboots and firmware updates -- Audience: Anyone logged into a a login node or VDI/OOD node -- Impact: Login and VDI/OOD nodes will be unavailable while updating and rebooting

• Scratch cleanup ( https://docs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/kb/policy-scratch/ ) -- Audience: Cluster users -- Impact: Files older than 90 days will be removed.

Reminder: Scratch 90-day file retention purging runs occur regularly not just during maintenance periods.

Updates on our status page: https://status.rc.fas.harvard.edu

Thanks!
FAS Research Computing
Department and Service Catalog: https://www.rc.fas.harvard.edu/
Documentation: https://docs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/
Status Page: https://status.rc.fas.harvard.edu/

NOTICES

• GPUTEST and REMOTEVIZ PARTITIONS Due to failed nodes, the gputest partition is down to 2 nodes and the (single node) remoteviz partition is down at the moment. We are working with the vendor to replace hardware, but this is still unresolved and no ETA at this time. Updates and QoS changes on our status page when we have them:https://status.rc.fas.harvard.edu/cl8a94kcf17664hvoj8oksxanx

• GLOBUS PERSONAL CLIENT - UPDATE BY DEC 17 If you are using the Globus Connect Personal client on your machine, please ensure you have updated and are running version 3.2 or greater by December 17th, 2022. You will not be able to use version 3.1 or below after that date. https://docs.globus.org/ca-update-2022/#globusconnectpersonal

• TRAINING New training sessions, including monthly new user training, are available. You can find a list and links to sign up here: https://www.rc.fas.harvard.edu/upcoming-training/

• NERC informs us that they will be performing maintenance on Nov 2nd from 8am-12pm. If you use NERC's services, you can find more information on their status page: https://nerc.instatus.com/

FASRC REGULAR MAINTENANCE

• Network maintenance - HIGH IMPACT POSSIBLE -- Audience: All users -- Impact: Network maintenance will take place during this time and is expected to run the full 4 hours. Work on the firewalls and fibre links will be involved, so impact may be felt across both data centers.

• Samba admin node reboots -- Audience: All users of Samba (desktop) mounts -- Impact: Impact is expected to be transparent or minimal. Active Samba mounts could be affected but only briefly and should recover on their own.

• Globus update -- Audience: All users of Globus -- Impact: Globus may be unavailable for short periods.

• Domain Controller Updates -- Audience: All users -- Impact: Minimal impact is expected.

• Login node and VDI node reboots -- Audience: Anyone logged into a a login node or VDI/OOD node -- Impact: Login and VDI/OOD nodes will be unavailable while updating and rebooting

• Scratch cleanup ( https://docs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/kb/policy-scratch/ ) -- Audience: Cluster users -- Impact: Files older than 90 days will be removed. -- Reminder: Scratch 90-day file retention purging runs occur regularly not just during maintenance periods.

Thanks, FAS Research Computing Department and Service Catalog: https://www.rc.fas.harvard.edu/ Documentation: https://docs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/ Status Page: https://status.rc.fas.harvard.edu/