FCCI Tech (fka Behind Triton)
This is a series of talks about scientific computing support and HPC infrastructure administration in practice. It started as our internal kickstart to new members of our staff, but the scope is expanded and now others interested in research infrastructure is invited, though our orientation is still primarily on our own team. Typical attendee are computational research engineers, scientific computing support, or HPC cluster/SciComp admins.
In the future, this may turn into a more general “research engineering” seminar series, once we are done with internal explanations. Guest speakers are welcome. The name stands for “Finnish Computing Competence Infrastructure Tech”.
We share what our practices are, what we have learned, and informally discuss.
Practicalities
Time: The next speaker announce the time/date of the seminar the week before. The speaker sends invitation with the Zoom link. Usually Fridays at 10:00 EET.
Duration: Rough estimate: as desired; ~60 minutes time slots; should be plenty of time for questions and discussion.
Location: Zoom, ask for an invitation but it is usually the garage link.
Recordings: You can view a playlist of some videos on youtube (and a few more are available to our team internally).
It is not a right but a privilege to participate. Free.
Past and currently planned
Events are listed below in chronological order, but sort of sorted by usefulness to a broad audience in the left sidebar (including events which have been drafted but not presented).
Triton hardware, Ivan Degtyarenko, Wed 3.3 2021, 10:00
Triton hardware wise: machine room, different archs, IPMI, hardware troubleshooting
[Material includes sensitive data, can be provided on request]
Triton networking, Ivan Degtyarenko, Fri 12.3 2021, 10:15-11:15
Networking: IB and Ethernet setup, IB islands, troubleshooting
Interval video (Material includes sensitive data, provided on request)
Ansible for FCCI, Mikko Hakala, Mon 22.3 2021, 14-15
Ansible, provisioning with OpenHPC, standalone servers
Internal video
User support in Aalto Scientific Computing, Richard Darst, Mon 29.3 2021, 14-15
User support made easy: different support level by Science IT, docs, issue tracker, garage, etc
Triton software stack, Simo Tuomisto, Fri 9.4 2021, 10:15-11:15
Triton / FCCI software stack: Spack, building software, …
Jupyter at Aalto, Richard Darst, Fri 30.4 2021, 10:15
Jupyter setup at Aalto jupyter.triton.aalto.fi, best practices.
Internal video (but it should be published)
Anaconda on Triton: automatic build system, Simo Tuomisto, Fri 7.5 2021, 10:15
Anaconda setup on Triton
Diversity in computational sciences vs university services
This wasn’t originally given in FCCI Tech but is relevant to the people reading this page.
Sphinx documentation, Richard Darst, Fri 14.5 2021, 10:15
Open and accessible documentation using Sphinx, RST/MyST, and Readthedocs: the story behind scicomp.aalto.fi.
ClusterStor, Andreas Muller (HPE), Tue 18.5 2021, 12:00
Storage systems: ClusterStor hardware and software behind Triton’s new /scratch. Maintenance, troubleshooting.
RSE service status update, Jarno Rantaharju, Marijn van Vliet, and Richard Darst, Fri 28.5 2021, 10:15
RSE program: spring 2021 summary. Impact we have made so far.
How we did Summer Kickstart 2021, Richard darst + Reading + Video
Introduction to a Kubernetes deployment, Richard Darst, Fri 8.10 2021, 10:15
jupyter.cs, Richard Darst, Fri 19.11 2021, 10:00
Triton authentication, Mikko Hakala, Fri 26.11 2021, 10:15
Internal video
NetApp at Aalto: department admins guide, Pekka Alaruikka / Mika Kontiala, Fri 3.12 2021, 10:15
NetApp setup at Aalto
what department admins may and may not of TeamWork
Practicalities: volumes, exports, qtrees, quotas, settings, permissions etc
(if time left) about backups on the TeamWork, troubleshooting, getting help, etc
High Performance Clusters at NVIDIA, Janne Blomqvist, Fri 10.12 2021, 10:15
NVIDIA cluster setup overview
Best practices of the HPC cluster maintenance
What we are doing wrong at FCCI as comparing to NVIDIA
The future of teaching: CodeRefinery teaching strategy Richard Darst, Fri 17.12 2021, 10:00
The role of teaching in CodeRefinery and Aalto Scientific Computing
Tools and strategies we use to successfully teach online: HackMD, streaming, helpers, teams, co-teaching, and more.
Future outlook and goals
Open onDemand experience by Esko Järnfors et all (CSC), Fri 17.12 2021, 12:00
NOTE: the second talk on the same Fri 17.12
Simple Kubernetes deployment by Richard Darst, Fri 3 Nov 2023
Proposed/requested future topics
SLURM setup, Simppa Äkäslompolo
Cluster monitoring, Simo/Mikko
Online courses and CodeRefinery, Richard Darst
Online work and support, Richard Darst
Respectfully and efficiently handling user support requests, Richard Darst
Science-IT data management: policies and procedures
Science-IT data management: storage systems and tech setup
History and structure of FCCI
Security
Send pull requests to this section to add more requests, or to the previous section to schedule a talk.