- Physics-Departmental-Computing

Draft email to distribute regarding HX2 and future needs
by David Colling 30 Oct '24

30 Oct '24

Hi All, I promised both the Physics Computing Committee and the FRCC that I would send around and email for people to circulate to aquire information about HX2 and other future needs. I started and then thought that it might be more fruitful to circulate a draft first and then refine it slightly. So below is a (fairly rough) draft for comment. Comments are very welcome. Best, david Sub: Input into future research computing needs Dear All, As you may know the College's HPC platform has been upgraded with HX1 coming online earlier this year. HX1 is a cluster of over 18k cores (Intel Xeon Platinum 8358) and 60 GPUs (Nvidia A100s). This year the focus is on the update of the data storage with a move away from the current RDS to a more structured Research Data Facility (RDF). The RDF will be coming online later this year. We are now looking for input as to what will be needed both next year and further into the future on a 3 to 5 year time scale. Next year the plan is to decommission the College's main High Throughput Cluster (HTC) CX3 and replace with a new system. The budget available for this purchase will be approximately £5M. Because this will be our first fully watercolled system, we are negotiating space in a new data centre with this capability and so this resource will not come online until the summer of 2025. We are seeking your input as to what we should purchase. As this is replacing an HTC system it is assumed that the majority of the money will be spent on another HTC system, however, if your research has need for other shapes of resources then please let us know. Also even if what you want is an HTC resources what parameters are important to you (e.g. memory/core, access to GPUs, throughput from disk, etc etc). *** Different for different departments - this is the physics example *** Please give us feedback via your representatives on the Departmental Computing Committee. We are also trying to establish what the more medium term computing needs will be. So please can you also discuss these with your representatives on the Departmental Computing Committee. These may be expected needs from from specific instruments/experiments/projects of general growth in computing needs. We will then try to amalgamate these into a coherent input for future purchses. Best, david

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Legacy VPN users
by David Colling 29 Oct '24

29 Oct '24

Hi All, The College is going to turn off the legacy VPNs because they don't have MFA. This is very sensible. All "active" (meaning in the last couple of months) users will be contacted directly however, there may well be users who don't use a VPN often but do rely on it when they do use them. I am writing to the staff lists asking such people to contact you for further information. Attached is the text of the email that is being sent to the active users which has the appropriate links in it. Thanks for your help on this. Best, david

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Short Notice Doodle poll - Physics Computing Meeting
by David Colling 29 Oct '24

29 Oct '24

Dear All, First let me apologise for the short notice - I have a lot of teaching at the moment and this rather snuck up on me. There is a FoNS Computing meeting coming a week tomorrow and, as you know, I like our Physics meeting to be in the week leading up to this meeting so that things can be carried across if needed. I have created the usual doodle poll at: https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/ep70gzQd I would rather not do Monday as I have a clashing meeting but if that is the only day that works for others then I shall move that meeting. I have a number of things that I would like to discuss - high on the list is cyber security. Please send your suggestions. There is an action on me to produce a 2-pager on the meeting that we had about RSE support in the Department. If the meeting is next week then I will produce this before the meeting. Otherwise it will be after the meeting and circulated to you before the FoNS meetinhg. I have cc'ed Alan Heavens and Daniel Waldram as both Tim and Andrew are on sabbatical and so we need two replacements (I think that Alan said that one would be Jonathan but I want to be sure before inviting him). Please fill in this poll at your earliest convenience. I suspect that Tomorrow is way too short notice but kept it in there anyway - just in case everything worked out for tomorrow by some fluke. Best, david

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Fwd: Research Computing Services HX2 Survey
by David Colling 09 Oct '24

09 Oct '24

Dear Physics Computing Committee and Physics Research Committee, Below is an email from Emily who does comms for the Research Computing Service (RCS) regarding a survey that the RCS has put together. I was going to write my own version but I think that Emily covers everything that I want to say. This survey is important! Please can I ask you to distribute this through to the relevant people in your communities and research groups. If people are unhappy doing this then I can send it to the staff list, but I thought that this might be more targeted. This survey has two purposes. The first is to gather requirements for the next large RCS compute facility - to be called HX2 (pronounced Hex 2). Depending on what UMB decide in November, this will either be a £5M or £10M resource. It will provide the bulk of the College's High Throughput Computing for the next ~5 years (traditional HPC resource being provided by HX1). This is our chance to provide input and to make sure that what is bought is what we need. As a member of the RCS Academic Leadership Team, I will get see the survey results and will be able to emphasise certain aspects of your replies if that is needed. The second purpose is to gather future requirements and directions, so even if people don't use the RCS, but are (heavy) computer users then please encourage them to fill in the survey to that the RCS can evolve to better suite your needs. If you have any questions then please feel free to ask either me or Emily (or perhaps both of us). Best, david -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Research Computing Services HX2 Survey Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2024 12:22:59 +0000 From: Lumley, Emily K <e.lumley(a)imperial.ac.uk> To: RCS Communications Team <rcs-comms-team(a)imperial.ac.uk> CC: Lumley, Emily K <e.lumley(a)imperial.ac.uk> Dear all, Research Computing Services are planning for the next deployment of HEX (HX2) in summer 2025. This new computing service, like the current HX1, will be a standalone system with dedicated local storage. Utilising next generation liquid cooling, HX2 will replace the older CX1 and some CX3 services which have traditionally focused on supporting high-throughput workloads. RCS is currently working on design options for the new HX2 system, and we have developed a survey to help gather input from the Imperial community so that HX2’s design is based on requirements defined by our research communities: their present needs as well as anticipating future needs. The survey will also help to shape future requests for central investment as well as models for research group investment to support the growth of central RCS services. We appreciate your time and input on this survey and all feedback is valuable. *Please follow this link to the survey <https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eLtePVCEekLAfKS>* ** If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. All the best, Emily *Dr Emily Lumley (she/her)* Research Engagement Lead Research Computing Services | Information Communication Technologies| Imperial College London LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-lumley-8757b367/> | e.lumley(a)imperial.ac.uk <mailto:e.lumley@imperial.ac.uk> | --

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Looking for Mac users...
by David Colling 06 Sep '24

06 Sep '24

Dear All, Please circulate this around appropriate members of your research groups. As you may remember from our last meeting, we are trying to improve the cyber security of the college. Part of this is try to collect telemetry data for devices accessing certain college systems - all that we are interested in is essentially the patched level of the device, firewall, antivirus etc. We are considering different ways that this can be done from Apple devices. We are looking for a range of apple users from across college to take part in trials and review the proposed solutions. It is only by doing this that we can find a solution that is acceptable to the user communities. At the end of the trials your device will be left as you want them. Basically, if you don't participate at this stage don't feel free to complain about the solution that is settled on :-) This work is being coordinated by a group called Cyber Security Technical Advisory Group (CSTAG). The co-chairs of CSTAG are Jason Bennett and Chris de La Force. They are cc'ed on this message. If you would like to volunteer then please write to them directly (cc'ing me). Thanks you for your help in this, it will be invaluable. Best, david

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Apologies for the short notice - please fill in doodle
by David Colling 10 Jul '24

10 Jul '24

Dear All, My apologies, I have been in a Summer School all week and so thishas rather snuck up on me. When I looked at what I had next week just now I saw that we have a FoNS Computing Meeting next Wednesday afternoon. As you know I like to have our physics meeting the week before the FoNS meeting. I have clearly left this rather late. The easiest way I can see to do this would be for us to meet on the Wednesday lunchtime before the FoNS meeting in the afternoon. I would struggle with either Monday or Tuesday because of previous commitments. The alternative is to have physics after the FoNS meeting.I have put in Thurday and Friday (having moved Friday to be after the examiners meeting). So, my preferred day is Wednesday but if that is not possible then after the FoNS meeting. Please could you fill in the doodle poll by the end of play on Monday. The poll is at: https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/b8BQAQ2e Best, david

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Physics Departmental Computing Meeting
by Physics Executive Assistant 10 Jul '24

10 Jul '24

Purely virtual meeting. Agenda: - Update from RCS - Andy - General update from ITC -Okan - Possible discussion of RCS support in Physics but I have yet to complete the 2-page briefing paper on this (will do this week) - AoB ________________________________________________________________________________ Microsoft Teams Need help?<https://aka.ms/JoinTeamsMeeting?omkt=en-US> Join the meeting now<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Y2RmNmI3YzgtYzNmOC00…> Meeting ID: 365 448 794 282 Passcode: V4UG4T ________________________________ For organizers: Meeting options<https://teams.microsoft.com/meetingOptions/?organizerId=737bc38c-a4e7-4298-…> [https://www.imperial.ac.uk/ict/assets/IMPERIAL_Wordmark_RGB_Blue_safe_area_…] Privacy and security<https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/administration-and-suppor…> ________________________________________________________________________________

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Discussion about RSE support in Physics
by David Colling 20 May '24

20 May '24

Dear All, As I promised at yesterday's Research Committee, this is an email to get a group of people together to discuss RSE support in physics. As some of you know, this is something that I have been pushing for a number of years. I am sending this to the Research Committee and the Departmental Computing Committee. I am also adding the HoD as there are clearly policy issues here. Please do feel to forward this to anybody who would find it interesting. I am going to start by suggesting a time/date and if/when I get emails saying that people who would really like to come cannot make it I will set up a doodle poll. I don't have an Outlook calendar and so cannot see people's availability in advance - my apologies. I am away at a workshop all next week so I am going to suggest 13:00->14:00 (although I hope that it doesn't take an hour) on Tuesday 21st May. Best, david

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Agenda for tomorrow's Computing meeting and ToR
by David Colling 03 May '24

03 May '24

Hi All, I am cc'ing some people who I wouldn't normally include to see if they have specific comments on the ToRs as they are new. Tomorrow has a very tight agenda and we have to finish on the hour so let's try to start promptly and to keep to time. I have also put things that I hope will not be contentious at the beginning of the agenda giving more time items that I think will generate more discussion. 12:00 - Because the minutes from the last meeting are not available there will be no review of actions. 12:00 - Update from RCS - Andy 12:10 - Update from ICICLE - Andy (again) 12:20 - Cyber Security Update - Tom Willson 12:40 - General update from ICT (including storage offering in Office 365 Education, mailman etc) 12:55 ToR (can carry on online if time is short). 12:58 - Few comments on National initiatives and AoB 13:00 Finish Best, david

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Fwd: Physics Computing Committee Meeting
by David Colling 03 May '24

03 May '24

******************* This email originates from outside Imperial. Do not click on links and attachments unless you recognise the sender. If you trust the sender, add them to your safe senders list https://spam.ic.ac.uk/SpamConsole/Senders.aspx to disable email stamping for this address. ******************* Dear All, I had several people saying that they had not received the invitation to this meeting. I can see that Beth sent it to the team and not the mailman list which is the definitive list of members of this committee (the teams membership can lag behind a little). So I am forwarding to the the list now. For those in college the physical meeting will be in Blackett 532. I really want to start this meeting on time as there is a lot to cover today so if people can arrive a couple of minutes early to enable this then that would be great. I realise that by typing this I have almost certainly jinxed it and there will be some catastrophic teams failure :-) Best, david ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Mountford, Bethany R <b.mountford(a)imperial.ac.uk> Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 at 11:57 Subject: Physics Computing Committee Meeting To: Mountford, Bethany R <b.mountford(a)imperial.ac.uk>, Physics Computing Committee - PH <PhysicsComputingCommittee-PH(a)groups.imperial.ac.uk> This meeting is hybrid. ________________________________________________________________________________ Microsoft Teams Need help? Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 312 661 109 041 Passcode: Mwhk9y ________________________________ For organisers: Meeting options | Reset dial-in PIN Privacy and security ________________________________________________________________________________

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