FCCI Tech (aka the SciComp Tech series)

Upcoming talks

(none right now)

This section is about how our team works: both the raw infrastructure but also how our team is organized socially. The target ranges from aspiring research software engineers to computing infrastructure specialists. It is part of the ASC’s new research software engineer training.

It started as a seminar series in 2020/2021 “how ASC does things, taught to people joining our team” to something more broad.

Seminar Practicalities

  • Time: Usually Fridays at 10:00 Europe/Helsinki time.

  • Duration: 60 minute time slot, good to plan for 20-30 minutes presentation and 20-30 minutes discussion.

  • Location: Zoom, usually the garage link.

  • Recordings: You can view a playlist of some videos on youtube.

  • How to present: Talk to rkdarst, get on the schedule.

  • It is not a right but a privilege to participate. Free.

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

Past seminars

Events are listed below in chronological order.

  • 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

    • Presentation

    • Video

  • Triton software stack, Simo Tuomisto, Fri 9.4 2021, 10:15-11:15

    • Triton / FCCI software stack: Spack, building software, …

    • Video

  • Jupyter at Aalto, Richard Darst, Fri 30.4 2021, 10:15

  • Anaconda on Triton: automatic build system, Simo Tuomisto, Fri 7.5 2021, 10:15

    • Anaconda setup on Triton

    • Video

  • Diversity in computational sciences vs university services

    • This wasn’t originally given in FCCI Tech but is relevant to the people reading this page.

    • Presentation

    • Video

  • 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.

    • Presentation

    • Video

  • 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

  • How we did Summer Kickstart 2021, Richard darst + Reading + Video

  • Introduction to a Kubernetes deployment, Richard Darst, Fri 8.10 2021, 10:15

    • What is kubernetes and when is it useful?

    • Different types of Kubernetes objects and how you learn about them

    • Walk through how you would deploy a service into kubernetes - live demo

    • Q&A

    • Reading

    • Video.

  • 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

    • Reading

    • Video

    • Demo of our online teaching strategies

  • 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

    • If you have a containerized service, how can you easily deploy it using Kubernetes?

    • Notes, Video

  • Demo: Publishing a Python Package by Jarno Rantaharju, Fri Jan 26th 2024

  • Demonstration of open source software publishing. I will take a part of an existing Python package and spin it of as a small stand-alone package. We will discuss what is needed for a software publication and recommended practices.

  • Notes