Purdue University

During the 2022 winter maintenance, the Scholar cluster had a significant upgrade and expansion of its hardware. The operating system was patched and user-facing applications and libraries stack was updated. The most important changes are outlined below:

• New modern AMD EPYC 3rd generation CPU nodes installed, boosting Scholar CPU capacity from 400 cores to 512 cores;
• Four additional GPU nodes with two NVIDIA Tesla A30 GPUs per node added, doubling Scholar total GPU capacity;
• Slurm scheduler updated to the latest version;
• Up-to-date version of CUDA libraries for the GPU nodes installed;
• Up-to-date version of the Open OnDemand gateway installed, with better job management and interactive applications capabilities;
• Updated stack of CPU- and GPU-based applications installed;
• Improved management of /class filesystem;
• Accounts audited to ensure compliance with Scholar accounts policy;

How does this affect you?

• All previously pending and running jobs were deleted during the maintenance, as there has been a hardware change on affected partitions.
• Several installed applications have been upgraded to recent versions. You may want to ensure your module load calls and your previously compiled applications continue to work in the new hardware and software environment. In some cases you may have to adjust module versions and/or recompile your application.
• /class space is currently being copied over, and some of the existing subfolders may not be visible yet. We expect the process to be complete over the next few days.
• Multiple old and inactive accounts from past Scholar classes have been removed. Accounts for Spring 2023 classes will be added as usual before the start of the semester.
• To ensure instructors' Scholar account stay between semesters, instructors are encouraged to register their future courses with us as soon as possible.

Please reach out to rcac-help@purdue.edu if you have any questions about this maintenance or need support. Please note that RCAC staff will observe the university winter recess from December 23, 2022 through January 2, 2023. Your request will be addressed as soon as staff are back in the office.