New HPC resources to replace Flux and updates to Armis will run a new scheduling system (Slurm). Users will need to learn the commands in this system and update batch files to successfully run jobs. Slurm is expected to bring performance gains, better user communications, and increased reliability that will significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the HPC environment at U-M.
In anticipation of these changes, ARC-TS has created the test cluster “Beta,” which will provide a testing environment for the transition to Slurm. Slurm will be used on Great Lakes; the Armis HIPAA-aligned cluster; and a new cluster called “Lighthouse” which will succeed the Flux Operating Environment in early 2019. Support staff from ARC-TS and individual academic units will conduct several in-person and online training sessions to help users become familiar with Slurm.
The tentative time frame for replacing or transitioning current ARC-TS resources is:
- Flux to Great Lakes, first half of 2019
- Armis from Torque to Slurm, January 2019
- Flux Operating Environment to Lighthouse, first half of 2019
- Open OnDemand on Beta, which replaces ARC Connect for web-based job submissions, Jupyter Notebooks, Matlab, and additional software packages, fall 2018
