FAQ
Will anything change in the way I connect to Hábrók?
No, you will be able to connect to Hábrók in the same ways you are used to, including ssh connections from MobaXterm or your preferred terminal application and the Hábrók Web Portal
While AlmaLinux 8.10 will still supported with security updates by the AlmaLinux developers until 2029, no other features or improvements will be provided. That means no updates for features such as:
- Updated base OS system software (updated versions of
glibc, Python,nano, OpenSSL, versions, and many other applications) - Updated Linux kernel, which is expected to provide benefits in I/O, hardware support and a number of other benefits.
Will the migration affect my data on Hábrók?
No, we will not delete, move, or otherwise modify any user files in /homeX, /projects, /scratch , /userapps, or user and group directories. You will be able to access them using the same paths.
Will the existing software modules be removed or changed?
No, the currently installed Hábrók software stack will still be available. However, we will be moving to a software stack based on EESSI. To access the old, fully in-house built software stack, you can run module load 2023.01.
Will my user environments (R, Python, conda, etc) still work?
Almost certainly not, and you may run into weird or unexpected errors in the future so it is highly advisable to reinstall your environment using the new software stack. This may happen even if you explicitly load the old 2023.01 software stack. This applies to Python virtual environments, conda environments, R package libraries, Julia packages, and any other user managed environments. See the relevant section for details and instructions.
You can test the impact by using the AlmaLinux 9 test nodes.
Will my compiled applications still work?
Almost certainly not, and you may run into weird or unexpected errors in the future so it is highly advisable to recompile your code or applications before running them. This is because your compiled code may be linking to system libraries that are no longer present or are different in Alma 9. Additionally, the system compilers are also not the same versions you would find in Alma 8, so you may run into compatibility issues.
You can test the impact by using the AlmaLinux 9 test nodes.
Why is Hábrók moving to EESSI as a new software stack if the old one still works?
The existing Hábrók software stack is fully built and managed by us, using a build framework - EasyBuild - that is collaborative in nature. Researchers and HPC admins write build recipes (easyconfig files) and make them publicly available.
We use those public easyconfigs or create our own when none are available in order to build all the modules in Hábrók. This process is very time and labour intensive, which results in us sometimes not being able to install some applications, or in the process taking a very long time.
EESSI uses EasyBuild as a tool, but rather than just sharing easyconfigs, the entire optimized applications are freely provided centrally and streamed directly to HPCs (or laptops, etc). This way, the collaboration happens not just in writing the build recipes, but also in installing the software. This is done by a large number of organizations, of which RUG is one. That means that when one application is installed in EESSI, it is automatically installed in all systems using EESSI, even without a direct contributions by the admins of that HPC.
Using EESSI will free up our time to focus on the challenging installations that cannot be centrally provided, answering support requests, and otherwise implementing new features on Hábrók.