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Dec. 17, 2012
Bluefire decommissioning now set for January 31, 2013

Based on current Yellowstone successes, the current timeline for Bluefire will have that system being decommissioned on January 31, 2013. Users should plan their work accordingly.

CISL and IBM continue to make progress on Yellowstone, and the agreement with IBM is to provide maintenance for Bluefire for six weeks after Yellowstone is declared production-ready.

Most Bluefire users should now have access to Yellowstone and are strongly encouraged to begin ramping up on that system, while they focus on bringing their work on Bluefire to a meaningful stopping point.

Dec. 17, 2012
MATLAB, IDL, other applications ready for use on Geyser, Caldera

CISL provides more IDL and MATLAB licenses for the Yellowstone environment than were available previously, allowing more users to run either application at the same time. Both are installed and ready for use.

Geyser is the recommended system for running large-scale data analysis and post-processing tasks. Many other applications have been installed, or will be soon, for analysis and visualization on the Geyser and Caldera clusters.

Even with increased licenses, the Consulting Services Group (CSG) asks that individuals use no more than one MATLAB license and no more than one MATLAB Toolkit license of each variety at any one time. If CSG receives a complaint of license domination, the responsible user will be asked to kill some of the jobs. If CSG cannot reach the responsible user, system administrators will kill all but one of the related jobs.

See this page for documentation about running applications on Geyser and Caldera.

Dec. 12, 2012
Yellowstone queue restrictions lifted for non-ASD users

Yellowstone users can now submit jobs to any of the standard queues, with the exception of the "capability" queue, which is limited to Accelerated Scientific Discovery (ASD) projects.

This change gives jobs from non-ASD users more opportunities to fill in around the ASD jobs, as well as to submit larger jobs.

Please keep in mind, however, that ASD jobs continue to have priority, and non-ASD users are encouraged to limit their work to smaller-scale jobs for the next two months. Large-scale jobs from non-ASD users may not be scheduled as quickly during this period.

Dec. 12, 2012
Updated mechanism for copying files to Yellowstone

Yellowstone users can now copy (cp) any files they need from Bluefire’s /ptmp and GLADE file systems to the new Yellowstone GLADE file spaces. Instructions are available at http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/resources/yellowstone/quick_start#copy_files.

Before migrating your files, consult the GLADE File Spaces for Yellowstone documentation at http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/resources/glade_yellowstone.

Please do NOT use HPSS as a temporary staging area for migrating files; it is difficult to recover tape space even after the files are deleted. If your files are already in HPSS, however, you can access them from Yellowstone via HSI or HTAR.

Dec. 12, 2012
CISL Consulting and Help Desk closed for staff event Thursday, December 13 from 12:15 - 2:00

The consulting office and help desk will close for a staff event Thursday, December 13 from 12:15 - 2:00.

Computing users may still submit tickets to cislhelp@ucar.edu and we will respond by Thursday afternoon.

Dec. 7, 2012
Monitor projects, set Yellowstone preferences via SAM

Along with the arrival of Yellowstone, CISL has deployed the new System Accounting Manager (SAM) application for managing allocations, user preferences, and accounting for resource use.

You can visit SAM at http://sam.ucar.edu/ and log in with your UCAR token or password.

Select User -> Preferences to view and set your primary group across CISL resources, your default project for HPSS, and your preferred login shell.

Select Reports -> Account Statement to view project information, allocations, and resource activity, including job-level details. Yellowstone and Janus use is reported daily; weekly HPSS usage will begin appearing soon.

SAM is very much a work in progress. CISL is actively working on expanding the reporting features, including 30/90 day reporting, and improve the user interface. If you encounter any errors or if you have any feedback and feature requests, please send them to cislhelp@ucar.edu.

Dec. 7, 2012
Yellowstone now available to all users as of November 26

CISL is pleased to announce that all users now have access to the Yellowstone system starting Monday, November 26. Based on feedback from early users and after completing major system updates, we are making a portion of the system available to all users for porting, testing, and preparing for the transition from Bluefire while we continue to improve the Yellowstone user experience.

Initially, general users will have access to approximately 648 nodes (10,368 cores) and can only submit jobs to the *economy* queue. Once CISL and IBM have completed further evaluation of the overall system's stability and some planned performance tests, we will lift these restrictions.

During Yellowstone's first two months, most of the system will be dedicated to supporting the 11 Accelerated Scientific Discovery (ASD) projects [http://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/big-data/first-accelerated-scientific-discovery] as they tackle major challenges in the geosciences. However, approximately 4 percent of the system -- roughly equivalent to the computational capacity of Bluefire -- will be available for other users to port their codes and conduct testing and small-scale runs.

For Bluefire users, CISL has provided a transition guide that highlights some key differences you will encounter on Yellowstone [http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/resources/yellowstone/transition] and a quick-start guide [http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/resources/yellowstone/quick_start] as part of the system documentation. Due to the possible high volume of requests, users are strongly encouraged to consult the Yellowstone documentation prior to submitting help requests.

We emphasize that Yellowstone is still a work in progress, and CISL and IBM are continuing to refine the user environment, install additional software, and resolve system problems that cause jobs to fail. Furthermore, the Geyser and Caldera clusters do not yet have their full complement of analysis and visualization software installed.

If you have any problems with the system or a request for software be installed, please send help requests to cislhelp@ucar.edu. We are particularly interested in learning about any job failures you may experience; please include system error messages in your help request.

Dec. 6, 2012
AGU Fall Meeting Workshop - Visual Data Analysis: Tools and Techniques for the Geophysical Sciences

Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Time: 8:30am- 12:30pm
Location: San Francisco Marriott
Room: Nob Hill A
Cost: FREE (refreshments will be served)
Registration: NONE REQUIRED
Organizers: John Clyne, NCAR
Only a few years ago advanced scientific visualization techniques were largely limited to the realm of visualization experts, and employed primarily as a communication aid to illustrate complex phenomena. Thanks to the commoditization of computer graphics hardware, and the emergence of mature, user-friendly, domain-focused software packages, scientific visualization is increasingly becoming an indispensible tool used by resarchers in their day-to-day efforts to analyze data and extract new insights. This workshop will provide an overview of some of the open source software packages that are available, and most relevant, to researchers in the geo-sciences. Attendees can expect to gain a basic understanding of the capabilities of these powerful visual data analysis environments; learn which tools may be most appropriate for their own needs; and have an opportunity to talk with tool developers, on-hand for the workshop.
Visual Data Analysis Wiki

Dec. 4, 2012
Migrating files from Bluefire-GLADE to Yellowstone-GLADE

Bluefire users are responsible for migrating any files they need from the Mesa Lab GLADE file system or Bluefire's /ptmp file system to the appropriate Yellowstone GLADE file space.

Currently users must use scp to move files; instructions are available at http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/resources/yellowstone/quick_start#copy_files. We are working to provide alternate mechanisms before Bluefire is decommissioned.

Please see the GLADE File Spaces for Yellowstone documentation (http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/resources/glade_yellowstone) when considering where to place files on the new GLADE resource.

If your files are already in HPSS, you can access the files via HSI or HTAR from Yellowstone as well. IMPORTANT: Please do NOT use HPSS as temporary staging area for migrating files, because it is difficult to recover tape space even if the files are deleted.

Dec. 1, 2012
CISL offers Yellowstone training Friday, Nov. 30

CISL will present a Yellowstone training session from 10 a.m. to noon MST on Friday, Nov. 30. NCAR users can attend in person in the Small Seminar Room at Foothills Lab 2 (FL2-1001). Remote users can attend either via Adobe Connect or webcast. Because of limits on the number of Adobe Connect attendees, NCAR personnel are encouraged to attend in person.

Links for remote participants:

    Adobe Connect: http://meet93561595.adobeconnect.com/ys_nov30
    Live webcast: http://www.fin.ucar.edu/it/mms/fl2-live.htm

Remote participants can submit questions or comments during the session through Adobe Connect or by email to cislhelp@ucar.edu.

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