HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING g


PRACE and European training PRACE makes it possible for researchers from public and private institutions from across Europe and the world to apply for resources on high-end Tier-0 HPC systems via a centralised peer review process. PRACE is a huge provider of training and support for new and existing HPC users. While many may think of PRACE as delivering tier-0 facilities to European researchers it also offers new users and industrial users opportunities to get access to HPC systems through the various programmes such as SHAPE and PRACE Preparatory Access. PRACE operates 14 PRACE Training Centres (PTCs) and they have established a state-of-the-art curriculum for training in HPC and scientific computing. PRACE training courses are open to


participants from all European countries. PTCs carry out and coordinate training and education activities that enable both European academic researchers and European industry to utilise the computational infrastructure available through PRACE and provide top-class education and training opportunities for computational scientists in Europe. In addition, PRACE seasonal schools


complement the PTC training program with three such events usually held throughout the year. One is usually held in autumn, one in winter and one in spring. Each of these is held in a non-PTC country (see next section) and at different geographical locations. Their curriculum is also different and usually varies to that of the PTC events. Registration for all PRACE Training courses is free and open to all. Specific courses can be found on the PRACE training portal. In addition to computing time, support


from a high-level support team (HLST) may be assigned to selected research projects. HLSTs will help projects of outstanding scientific value to further utilise the capabilities of PRACE Tier-0 systems through code optimisation. HLSTs are available in combination to


Tier-0 systems of the following PRACE hosting members: Grand Équipement National de Calcul Intensif GENCI, France; GAUSS Centre for Supercomputing GCS, Germany; CINECA – Consorzio Interuniversitario, Italy; Barcelona Supercomputing Center BSC, Spain; Swiss National Supercomputing Centre CSCS at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland.


Call for preparatory access The objective of PRACE Preparatory Access is to allow PRACE users to optimise, scale and test codes on PRACE Tier-0 systems before applying to PRACE calls for Project


6 Scientific Computing World Spring 2021


developed at CERN, CernVM-FS, and makes a research-grade scalable software stack available for a wide set of HPC systems, as well as servers, desktops and laptops. Through the FENIX Research


Infrastructure and AWS, LearnHPC offers the use of moderately sized clusters configured specifically for your training events. At present, there is no specific mechanism to request access to LearnHPC resources. In a recent interview with FENIX


“One of the biggest hurdles ... is providing educational access to HPC resources in a consistent way at the required scale”


Access. The next PRACE call for proposals for Project Access will most likely open in Autumn 2021. Production runs are not allowed as part of PRACE Preparatory Access. Currently, PRACE offers four different schemes for Preparatory Access based on the type of application and the maturity of the project.


LearnHPC LearnHPC is a website set up to ensure that HPC is an accessible technology for the widest possible community of scientific researchers. The site acts as a gateway providing materials, resources and tools that will lower or remove barriers. EU-wide requirements for HPC training


are increasing as the adoption of HPC in the wider scientific community gathers pace. However, the number of topics that can be thoroughly addressed without providing access to actual HPC resources is very limited, even at the introductory level. In cases where such access is available, security concerns and the overhead of the process of provisioning accounts make the scalability of this approach questionable. EU-wide access to HPC resources on the


scale required to meet the training needs of all countries is an objective that we attempt to address with this project. The proposed solution essentially provisions virtual HPC systems in a public cloud. This infrastructure will allow us to dynamically create temporary event-specific HPC clusters for training purposes, including a scientific software stack. The scientific software stack will be provided by the European Environment for Scientific Software Installations (EESSI) which uses a software distribution system


Research Infrastructure, Dr Alan O’Cais, software manager for E-CAM Centre of Excellence at Forschungszentrum Jülich, discussed the role of LearnHPC and the drive to develop HPC skills across Europe. ‘Through my involvement in the E-CAM Centre of Excellence and FocusCoE, I am aware that HPC training and education is a hugely important topic in the context of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. There is, however, an enormous logistical challenge in extending HPC training of a consistent standard to an ever-growing pool of researchers in 32 countries.’ ‘One of the biggest hurdles that I foresee


is providing educational access to HPC resources in a consistent way at the required scale,’ added O’Cais. ‘In the context of HPC training, I wouldn’t immediately draw a distinction between “students, researchers, and users”, I would see them all as learners.’ ‘What LearnHPC will hopefully do for all learners is make the mechanics of accessing HPC training uniform, well documented and as easy as possible. We want to remove, hide or simplify the technical barriers that tend to increase the slope of the learning curve when it comes to HPC. ‘Learners may still ultimately need to


know about ip-restricted ssh keys or how to compile the latest GCC compiler from source, but these can be introduced at a more appropriate time in their learning journey.’


Additional resources


ARCHER » Training www.archer.ac.uk/training


ACRC training, Advanced Computing Research Centre, University of Bristol www.bristol.ac.uk/acrc/acrc-training


Training portal (prace-ri.eu) https://training.prace-ri.eu


PRACE preparatory access guide https://prace-ri.eu/hpc-access/preparatory-access/ preparatory-access-open-calls


BlueCrystal Phase 4 user guide https://www.acrc.bris.ac.uk/protected/bc4-docs


BC4 User documentation https://sso.bris.ac.uk/sso/login


LearnHPC - Scalable HPC Training http://www.learnhpc.eu


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