Office of Research Computing

Category: News

Hopper and Argo Duo Multi-Factor Authentication Notice

To address compliance requirements and security threats, we are enabling Duo Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to minimize chances of unauthorized access to ORC resources and to protect your data.

This is a notice that the Hopper and Argo clusters will begin requiring Duo MFA starting Tuesday, 06/04/2024. Users will be prompted to accept a Duo MFA push notification to gain SSH access to the Hopper and Argo HPC clusters. Because users are already enrolled in GMU’s Duo instance, as required by other campus IT services, they should already have all the necessary tools to get Duo push notifications.

Affected services:

1. SSH to login/head nodes: All login/head nodes will require DUO MFA.

2. Other secure file transfer and synchronization tools that use SSH such as rsync, scp and sftp will also be subject to Duo MFA.

Scheduled Hopper and Argo Maintenance Downtime June 2 – 4, 2024 

Due to a scheduled data center power outage on Sunday 06/02/2024, ORC will start its biannual maintenance window to coincide with that to minimize future disruptions. This is a reminder that the Hopper and Argo ORC clusters will be unavailable between 6:00AM on Sunday, 06/02/2024 and the End of Tuesday, 06/04/2024 for scheduled maintenance. We plan to upgrade the compute, network, and storage infrastructure of the cluster during this maintenance window.  

Maintenance Schedule: 

– Start Time: June 02, 6:00AM 
– End Time: June 04, End of Day 

Affected services: 

1. Login/Head and Compute Nodes: All login/head and compute nodes will be inaccessible. Users will not be able to log in or submit jobs during this time. 

2. Open On-Demand (OOD): The Open On-Demand (OOD) interface will be inaccessible. Users are advised to plan their activities accordingly and save any unsaved work. 

3. Storage and Related Services: Most storage services, including Samba and Globus, will have very limited and intermittent availability.  

4. Virtual Machines: Most virtual machines will have intermittent availability. Users with virtual machines should be prepared for potential interruptions in service. 

All SLURM partitions will be drained when the maintenance window starts. Any jobs started between now and the maintenance period must be timed to end before 6:00AM Sunday June 2.  When starting a job, make sure to set the time parameter in SLURM to less than 6 days and reduce it as the maintenance window gets closer, for example: 

#SBATCH — time= 4-00:00:00 ## Days-Hours:Mins:Secs - calculate backwards from 6/2 6:00AM  

Please note that any jobs that are configured to run past the planned downtime dates will not start.   

The clusters should be back online by 06/4/2024.   

If you have any questions or concerns, contact the ORC at [email protected].  

ORC Spring 2024 Workshop Series

We are excited to begin our Spring 2024 Workshop series, the first of which will be on The SLURM Scheduler on the HOPPER Cluster and is planned for this Thursday, 02/08/2024, at 11:00AM -12:00PM. All those using the cluster and planning to use the cluster are invited to attend.


The SLURM Scheduler on the HOPPER Cluster | 02/08/2024 | 11:00AM – 12:00PM EST
Summary: This workshop will be an introduction to the cluster environment and using the job scheduler, SLURM, to run jobs interactively and in batch mode.

Workshop Registration/Join Details:

Registration/Sign in form: https://forms.office.com/r/LqPA5x519N

Upcoming ORC Workshops for Spring 2024

DateTimesTitleDescription
02/15/202411:00AM – 12:00PMOpen OnDemand: An Interactive Web Dashboard for Working on the ClusterThis workshop will be a detailed introduction to the Open OnDemand web dashboard that can be used to run apps and other jobs on the cluster interactively.
02/20/202411:00AM – 12:00PMRunning VS Code from Open OnDemandThis workshop will go over how to correctly use VS Code from the Open OnDemand dashboard while working on the cluster.
02/22/202411:00AM -12:00PMManaging Python Packages with Conda and Virtual Environments on the ClusterThis workshop will go into the different ways python packages can be managed in the cluster environment using conda and python virtual environments both in batch mode from the command line and with Jupyter Notebooks and Jupyter Lab on the cluster.
02/27/202411:00AM -12:00PMRunning GPU Jobs Efficiently on the ClusterThis workshop covers an introduction to the different gpu resources we have available on the cluster and how to set up and monitor your GPU runs on these resources in the most efficient way.

Upcoming ORC events and workshops are normally posted on our website here while the workshop series and other training resources details can be found on our Training pages here.

VA-WHPC: Advancing Research with Deep Learning and High-Performance Computing: Join the Spring Meeting

Advancing Research with Deep Learning and High-Performance Computing:
Join Our Spring Meeting

What 

Discover how two leading professors leverage GPUs and HPC to address vital research questions. Don’t miss the chance to explore exciting HPC research and unique workflows shaping its global impact. Engage in the discussion and interact with speakers during the Q&A session. Be part of the dialogue at this exceptional opportunity.

When

Tuesday, February 6th 2024  

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Register Now!     

Speakers:

Dr. Daniel Runfola – Associate Professor and Graduate Director of Applied Science and Data Science at William & Mary

Title: Large Scope Analysis of Satellite Data in HPC Environments

Dan Runfola is an Associate Professor and Graduate Director of Applied Science and Data Science at William & Mary. His core expertise is in the applied use of machine learning to analyze satellite data to better understand the relationships between societies and the environment at a global scale. In addition to over 40 peer reviewed academic publications in high profile outlets including Nature, Dan has published numerous reports with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, UN FAO, Global Environment Facility, and as a contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.   He has received over 5 million dollars in research funding from a wide range of organizations, including the National Science Foundation, Department of Homeland Security, Gates Foundation, Cloudera Foundation, Global Environment Facility, and the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative.  In addition to his Ph.D. and postdoctoral group, Dan also runs one of the largest undergraduate research groups on campus in the geoLab.

Dr. Priscilla Erickson – Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Richmond

Title: Studying evolution in real time with an invasive fruit fly

Priscilla began her studies in biology at Kenyon College in Ohio, where she studied the effect of stress on life history traits in birds. She did her PhD work in Craig Miller’s lab at UC Berkeley, studying the genetic and developmental basis of skeletal evolution in threespine stickleback fish. For her postdoc, she studied the evolution of fruit flies over seasonal timescales with Alan Bergland at the University of Virginia. After a brief stint as a visiting faculty member, she joined the Biology department at the University of Richmond full time in Fall 2021. Outside of work, Priscilla loves swimming, hiking, rock climbing, working on her native plant gardens, and hanging out with her dog, Mindy (who also enjoys helping out with fly maintenance).

Moderator:

Eric Walter – Executive Director, Research Computing, William & Mary

This virtual event is jointly hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University, George Mason University, Virginia Tech, William & Mary, University of Richmond, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Old Dominion University, and the University of Virginia.

—

URL https://va-whpc.org/

VIRGINIA WOMEN IN HPC

WHEN:
October 31st, 2023
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Topic: Student Lightning Talks


WHAT:
Join us in welcoming 10 undergraduate and graduate students
from across Virginia to talk about their research. The talks will
be lightning style format allowing 3 minutes for students to
present and 1-2 questions from the audience. Don’t miss out on
this fantastic opportunity to hear about a variety of research
topics within HPC!

Moderator:
● Eric Walter – Executive Director, Research
Computing, William & Mary

REGISTER NOW!
THIS VIRTUAL EVENT IS JOINTLY HOSTED BY VIRGINIA
COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY,
VIRGINIA TECH, WILLIAM & MARY, UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND,
VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE, OLD DOMINION
UNIVERSITY, ACCESS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

/

ORC Open Office Hours and Fall Workshop Series

Beginning 10/24/2023, the ORC will be hosting regular walk-in office hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 2:00PM – 3:00PM in Research Hall, Suite 141. Students using the cluster for their final class projects and those new to using the cluster are especially encouraged to drop in with any questions. 

Additionally, we have a planned series of workshops as detailed below: 

Date Time Title Description 
10/26/2023 11:00AM -12:00PM The SLURM Scheduler on the Cluster This workshop will be an introduction to the cluster environment and using the job scheduler, SLURM, to run jobs interactively and in batch mode. 
11/02/2023 11:00AM -12:00PM Managing Python Packages with Conda and Virtual Environments on the Cluster This workshop will go into the different ways Python packages can be managed in the cluster environment using Conda and Python virtual environments both in batch mode from the command line and with Jupyter Notebooks and Jupyter Lab on the cluster. 
11/09/2023 11:00AM -12:00PM Running GPU Jobs Efficiently on the Cluster This workshop covers an introduction to the different GPU resources we have on the cluster and how to set up and monitor your GPU runs in the most efficient way. 

Zoom meeting details for the Workshop series will be sent out the week of each workshop. 

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. 

Virginia Women in HPC:  Women in IT & HPC Leadership Journeys

Neena Imam – Director of Research Engagement @ NVIDIA

Join us for our next community event featuring Neena Imam as she shares her personal view of challenges and successes experienced throughout her leadership journey. Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to learn about career strategies, and contribute to our discussion of how the playing field may be leveled to offer equitable IT & HPC leadership opportunities for women and minorities. Attendees are invited to share their own experiences and engage with the speaker during this interactive Q&A session.

Date: September 19th 2023 at 1pm – please register here.

Women in HPC Meeting Flyer – Women in IT & HPC Leadership Journeys

Virginia Women in HPC: The world’s most nerdy game show 

Topic:  The world’s most nerdy game show 

Date & Time: Aug 1, 2023, 01:00 PM 

Description

Add to your summer fun! Put your hard-earned knowledge to work! Join us via Zoom on August 1st at 1 pm for fun, laughs, and prizes in the first VA-WHPC online computing trivia game.  Random teams will be assigned to breakout rooms and asked questions about HPC and computing in general. Come share your knowledge with your peers and colleagues and if you’re lucky, walk away with some free stuff!


Register Now!

Moderated by the VA-WHPC committee

Prizes Sponsored by NVIDIA This virtual event is jointly hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University, George Mason University, Virginia Tech, William & Mary, University of Richmond, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Old Dominion University, ACCESS, and the University of Virginia.


Summer 2023 AI Bootcamp for CI Professionals: Software and Data Facing Track (SDFT)

Summer 2023 AI Bootcamp for CI Professionals: Software and Data Facing Track (SDFT)
When: May 16th – June 15th, Tuesday and Thursday, 2-4pm EDT
No meetings the week of May 29th


 This Summer we are building on the CFT by offering an AI bootcamp targeting CI professionals who focus on software stacks and data workflows. If you maintain simulation and data analysis software on shared research computing systems or develop research software in collaboration with researchers; this bootcamp is for you.  But we welcome any of you who would like to learn more. We will provide a deeper dive on the subjects visited in the CFT by walking through the steps in a typical AI pipeline. We’ll cover best practices and state of the art software and tools for ML/DL and we’ll discuss common pitfalls and debugging strategies and tools. Of course, we’ll cover scaling up at each step.  We are also excited to be hosting a special session on AI accelerators during this bootcamp. The session will have guest presenters from SDSC, PSC and HPRC at TAMU to introduce the Voyager Habana Gaudi processors, the Neocortex Cerebrus system, and the ACES II Graphcore IPUs.

 

Follow this link to the Registration:
Take the Survey

Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:
https://osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6RTTPh1t3Z5QA5M?Q_DL=xtsE8tOPH6zyERy_6RTTPh1t3Z5QA5M_MLRP_6qTj57qrW5xHtA2&Q_CHL=email

VA-WHPC | Topic: Student Lightning Talks | April 4th, 2023 | Come support our students!

Virginia Women in HPC (VA-WHPC ): Student Lightning Talks

What

Join us in welcoming 11 undergraduate and graduate students from across Virginia to talk about their research. The talks will be lightning style format allowing 3 minutes for students to present and 1-2 questions and 1-2 questions from the audience. Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to hear about a variety of research topics within HPC!

Time:

Tuesday, April 4th, 2023 at 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST

Register Now!

Featured Speakers:

  • Lakshmi Miller – Graduate Student

Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Tech

“CFD Informed Maneuvering of AUVs”

  • Rashmi Chawla – Graduate Student

Aerospace Engineering, Virginia Tech

“Multiphysics Modeling of UHTCs using Material Point Method”

  • Naina Pisharoti – Graduate Student

Aerospace Engineering, Virginia Tech

“High-fidelity Computational Analysis of UAV Propellers”

  • Liza Harold – Undergraduate Student

Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia

“Investigating the role of Stereocomplexation in Peptide Assembly via Molecular Dynamics Simulations”

  • Clare Cocker – Undergraduate Student

Chemical Engineering, University of Virginia

“Role of amino acid stereochemistry in the assembly of peptide hydrogels for tissue engineering”

  • Marion LoPresti – Undergraduate Student

Biochemistry, Virginia Tech

“Utilizing HPC to Explore the Dynamics of the Druggable Dengue Virus Protease”

  • Nhi Huynh – Graduate Student

Engineering and Technology, Old Dominion University

“RSM: To Increasing the Capacity of the Deep GCN (Graph Convolution Neural) Image”

  • Sarah Patterson – Undergraduate Student

Developmental Biology, William & Mary

“Single Cell RNA Sequencing in Xenopus Laevis Embryology”

  • Cynthia Sias – Graduate Student

Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech

“Evaluating the Effect of Cover Crop Termination Management on Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) Suppression in Soybean”

  • Afrina Tabassum – Graduate Student

Computer Science, Virginia Tech

“Multimodal Learning: Representation and Generation”

  • Mahshid Ahmadian – Graduate Student

Systems Modeling and Analysis, Virginia Commonwealth University

“Modeling Salmon shark’s location in the Pacific ocean using stochastic process approach”

Moderators:

  •  Mark Gardner – Network Research Manager, Advanced Research Computing, Virginia Tech
  • Heather Baier – Ph.D. Student in Computational Geography, William & Mary

This virtual event is jointly hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University, George Mason University, Virginia Tech, William & Mary, University of Richmond, Virginia Institute of  Marine Science, Old Dominion University, and the University of Virginia.  

Please check our website: https://va-whpc.org/event/va-whpc-student-lightning-talks/

Attached you will find the event flyer (PDF) if you would like to share it with others.