Scheme Manager Update – January 2022

Wednesday 19 Jan 2022 (1:00-2:00pm AEDT)

Version: FINAL 19 Jan 2022

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COVID-19 Update

Most NCI staff will continue to work from home. Return to campus possible in Feb-Mar 2022, to be confirmed.
NCI buildings on ANU campus are now physically accessible to staff.
The NCI Help Desk phone (02 6125 3437) remains non-accessible due to work from home and ANU phone configuration issues. Contact user support by email: help@nci.org.au and provide contact details if a phone or zoom discussion is required for a support matter.

Gadi CDU issues in early January. Monitoring continues, with vendor support. Unscheduled downtime in Q1 may be needed for repairs.
/g/data5 file system is online.
/g/data6 on order. Operational date will dependent on vendor and supply chains.
Q2 scheduled maintenance: 04 Apr 2022

Aggressive communications campaign to inform users during Q1-Q2.
Initial file clean up is scheduled for 26 Apr 2022
First three clean up cycles will use relaxed, but convergent, file age criteria:
1. 26 Apr 2022 : age = 365 days
2. 17 May 2022 : age = 200 days
3. 07 Jun 2022 : age = 100 days
4. Continuous from 07 Jun 2022 : age = 100 days
Implementation before July permits essential tuning and reconfiguration of /scratch file system.
Default scratch quota will be raised at July quarterly maintenance. (Default quotas are still necessary for file system safety.)
Projects expecting to use large amounts of scratch capacity will still need to request appropriate quota.
All NCMAS projects will receive /g/data allocations.
Stakeholder projects will get /g/data allocations per entitlements and demand.

New merit-based allocation scheme providing mix of Gadi compute, cloud compute, Gdata storage.
Quarterly call for applications, for 20 MSU/Quarter resource share.
Project allocations up to 500 KSU/Q, or 250 KSU/Q for two consecutive quarters.
Adapter is well suited to projects with:
1. mixed compute and storage requirements,
2. seasonal or sporadic workloads,
3. data-dependent workloads,
4. single-cpu or single-node workflows.
Adapter Pilot Call - 2022 Q1
Adapter First Call - announcements in February 2022, for allocations in 2022 Q2
In development:
1. Adapter application form
2. Project expiry policy and procedures

Allocation meetings 01 Dec 2021 - 03 Dec 2021 .
Overall allocations
1. Pawsey/Setonix 1st Request: 108.7 MSU
2. Pawsey/Setonix 2nd Request: 107.5 MSU
3. NCI/Gadi: 299.6 MSU
4. MASSIVE/M3: 1.9 MSU, specialised call for neuroscience/neuroimaging, structural biology/CryoEM, machine learning.
Anonymised proposal process, as for 2021 call.
221 applications were assessed by the Merit Allocation Committee.
157 applications received allocations at one or more facilities: overall success rate 71%.
3 administrative appeals under consideration.
Future calls – university research office involvement in preparation of applications?
Privacy principles: applicant permission is explicitly required for disclosure outside of NCMAS.

Nirin = NCI Cloud
New CEPH storage for Nirin is operational. I/O intensive projects will be early migration candidates.
Integrated accounting and additional hardware scheduled for 2022 Q1-Q2.

Dr Liz Williams - Deputy Director, Business Development and User Engagement
- Communications and Outreach: Adam Huttner-Koros
- Business / Finance: Donna Chan
- Training: Jingbo Wang
- User Services: Roger Edberg
Associate Directors: HPC, Storage, Cloud, HPC Performance and Optimisation, Data Collections and Services
Recruitments for 2-3 Staff Scientists (User Services) planned in Q1-Q2
NCI recruitments - https://nci.org.au/about-us/working-nci , also ANU jobs website.

Gadi system enhancement in progress: target is 1.5-1.8x current total compute.
Gadi is heavily subscribed in 2022. NCI will need to be firmer on share overconsumption and supplemental allocation requests in 2022.
Unused compute allocations made against fixed entitlements are not refundable, per standard agreements, terms and conditions.
Allocations for PAYG and commercial services require a draft agreement.

Features/fixes for project memberships to be released before 01 Feb 2022
1. Project personnel can be invited to join at proposal stage.
2. Invitations now work based on email address for active NCI users.
Some profile attributes will become mandatory. Expected to take effect in 2021 Q1-Q2.
Update to institution/organisation attributes. Primarily affects ANU users.
NCI to review account management processes for compliance with Privacy Act (Cth), and Australian Privacy Principles.
The Lead CI on a project is responsible for managing project personnel. NCI strongly recommends that a Lead CI should reject any project membership requests from any person who do not have a known and legitimate connection to a project. Approving a project membership requests from an unknown person is a potential security risk to your project.

NCI Training Coordinator: Dr. Jingbo Wang.
Functional email address for training-related matters - training.nci@anu.edu.au
If you have training needs or requests, please contact Jingbo.
For 2022, new 'Skill Sharpening' courses: NCI Training and Educational Events and NCI public web site.
Introduction to Gadi course 03 Mar 2022 , and then monthly through 2022.
Online Support Session Thursday 03 Feb 2022 , and then weekly through 2022.