Dear HPC and Research community colleagues,

The installation and commissioning of the replacement High Performance Computer facility, Comet, is continuing to progress.

We are now at a position where we are testing functionality and performance of the new hardware, and this continues to make progress against the extensive list of criteria set in our agreement with the supplier. Whilst we are not quite at the point where we can give you a definite date for the availability of the new system, we are confident it will be ready in autumn 2025. with the information below gives you the broad outline of the schedule over the coming months.

In order to progress with the remainder of the project schedule, the academic steering group for AHPC within Newcastle have decided that we must now suspend the creation, on Rocket, of new HPC projects and project registration requests. This is so we can reduce the efforts required to continue to support Rocket (an aging system with the capacity to pull in a huge level of support time) and focus our efforts on readying Comet for use. New project creation will resume later this summer (on Comet, instead of Rocket) towards the end of the Beta Testing phase as we move into the migration of Rocket projects to Comet.

• User Acceptance Testing
• Alpha Testing
• Beta Testing
• Rocket Project Migration

This is our current stage of work. We are methodically testing both hardware and basic system functions, as well as higher level capabilities such as the scheduler, GPU and CPU compute functions and storage performance. The testing involves co-operation between the system vendor, the Research Software Engineering team, and academic colleagues from across the University.

Once we complete user acceptance testing, we will invite a number of expert HPC users to explore the performance and functionality of the new system. This will be an opportunity to test in a sandpit environment the new software, tools and performance available. During this period system configuration is likely to be in flux; changing job queues, software and configuration as we shape the system to more accurately cater for the needs of our users and the rest of the Newcastle University infrastructure. Any work during this period will be considered 'at risk' and the system will not be suitable for 'production' work due to possibility of missing software.

Alpha testers will be expected to work largely without support during this time. We expect alpha testing to last up to a month.

After alpha testing has been completed, and any configuration changes that it highlights have been applied, we move into the beta testing phase. During this time we will invite a wider range of existing Rocket projects or new projects who have been waiting to start over the summer to apply for accounts on Comet.

Beta testers will experience the Comet service in a 'production' setting; use of the new HPC portal website (https://hpc.researchcomputing.ncl.ac.uk) to manage their projects and team members, usage reports and metrics, the introduction of job queues which will match production (including 'free' and 'paid' jobs and billing). Most software and functionality (including the new interactive jobs support and container technology) will be in place at this point.

The amount of production, or live projects, created on Comet will be strictly limited at this point.

Beta testers will be able to call upon RSE support resource at regular drop-in surgeries, though will be expected to be able to access and use HPC systems independently; this phase will not be suitable for novice or new users. We expect beta testing to also last approximately one month.

After the beta testing phase has completed, and we are confident that Comet is working in a 'production' manner, we will start the process of migration of projects and users from Rocket.

The lifespan of Rocket will be very limited at this point, and the project timeline states that Rocket will be shut down THREE MONTHS after the completion of user acceptance testing, listed previously. Once we move to the migration phase you will be given a slot during which you will be required to move over any code from Rocket to Comet, and an expectation that any further jobs will run on Comet. Your account on Rocket will then be shut down.

Again, drop-in surgeries will be available to provide advice to projects and users who are asked to migrate, but we cannot move files or data on your behalf.

If you take no action during this phase, then your code, data and jobs on Rocket will be lost at the point it is shut down. There will be no exceptions for extending Rocket. It is already beyond end of life.

Please note that all users will be required to undertake (and pass) an online HPC knowledge test before an account will be provisioned for you on Comet. Further information will be published on this test in due course, and you are advised to take the test as soon as it becomes available to coincide with the start of the Beta Testing stage.  To prepare your project for migration, you may wish to move historical data to RDW and scripts to GitHub.

A range of induction sessions for existing HPC users, and our Introduction to HPC training workshops for new users will be available from the start of the migration phase.

More details on Comet, our revamped support documentation and our workshop offerings are available on the new HPC support portal:

  - https://hpc.researchcomputing.ncl.ac.uk 

Sincerely,

HPC Project Team

hpc.researchcomputing@newcastle.ac.uk

Research Software Engineering

https://rse.ncldata.dev/contact

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