Service Disruption for Users Accessing ASPIRE 2A

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Dear ASPIRE 2A Users,

We wish to inform you that there is a service disruption on the ASPIRE 2A system. Our team is diligently investigating the issue and working towards a swirft resolution. 

Cause of Disruption:

  • Issues with the GPFS storage system.

Impact of the Disruption:

  • All users are currently unable to access the ASPIRE 2A system.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding. Should you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our Helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Warm regards,

The NSCC Team

[Completed] Rescheduled to 28 March 2025: Urgent Scheduled Maintenance for ASPIRE 2A on 17 March 2025, 9AM to 7PM

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Dear ASPIRE 2A Users,

We are pleased to announce that the ASPIRE 2A urgent scheduled system maintenance has been completed. You may proceed to use the systems as per usual.

Should you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our Helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Warm regards,
The NSCC Team

Update on Cybersecurity Enhancement: Implementation of Security Intelligence Filtering on 21 Feb 2025

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Dear Users,

NSCC has received numerous requests regarding access restrictions to Hugging Face services and URLs due to our recently implemented Security Intelligence Filtering. In response, we have reviewed the matter and whitelisted access to Hugging Face services.

Users can now access the Hugging Face services and URLs without restriction from the HPC system. If you continue to experience any access issues, please contact our Helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected] for assistance.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we enhance our cybersecurity measures.

Warm regards,

The NSCC Team

Rescheduled to 28 March 2025: Urgent Scheduled Maintenance for ASPIRE 2A on 17 March 2025, 9AM to 7PM

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Dear ASPIRE 2A Users,

We wish to inform you that the upcoming urgent scheduled system maintenance for ASPIRE 2A has been rescheduled to 28 March 2025 (Friday). 

Maintenance Details:

  • Start: 28 March 2025 (Friday), 9:00 AM SGT
  • End: 28 March 2025 (Friday), 7:00 PM SGT
  • Duration: 10 hours

Purpose:

  • To replace the faulty Cooling Distribution Unit (CDU) Pump

Impact During the Maintenance Period:

  • Unavailable Compute Resources: 66% of CPU compute nodes.
  • Users may also experience some slight disruption or performance degradation on the storage operation for a short period of time.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding. Should you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our Helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Warm regards,
The NSCC Team

Urgent Scheduled Maintenance for ASPIRE 2A on 17 March 2025, 9AM to 7PM

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Dear ASPIRE 2A Users,

We wish to inform you of an upcoming urgent scheduled system maintenance for ASPIRE 2A to enhance its long-term reliability, uptime, and stability.

Maintenance Details:

  • Start: 17 March 2025 (Monday), 9:00 AM SGT
  • End: 17 March 2025 (Monday), 7:00 PM SGT
  • Duration: 10 hours

Purpose:

  • To replace the faulty Cooling Distribution Unit (CDU) Pump

Impact During the Maintenance Period:

  • Unavailable Compute Resources: 66% of CPU compute nodes.
  • Users may also experience some slight disruption or performance degradation on the storage operation for a short period of time.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding. Should you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our Helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Warm regards,
The NSCC Team

Cybersecurity Enhancement: Implementation of Security Intelligence Filtering

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Dear Users,

As part of our ongoing commitment to enhancing cybersecurity, we have implemented a new security measure – Security Intelligence Filtering. This enhancement is designed to automatically filter and block traffic from our HPC system to known malicious websites and domains on the internet, helping to safeguard our infrastructure and users.

With this implementation, you may experience access restrictions to certain websites or domains that are categorized as potential security risks. This may include some well-known platforms such as Hugging Face.

If you encounter access issues and believe a website or domain has been mistakenly blocked, please do not hesitate to contact our helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected]. for further clarification and verification.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding as we continue to strengthen our security measures.

Warm regards,

The NSCC Team

[Completed] Urgent Scheduled Maintenance for ASPIRE 2A on 22 January 2025, 9AM to 6.30PM

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Dear ASPIRE 2A Users,

We are pleased to announce that the ASPIRE 2A urgent scheduled system maintenance has been completed. You may proceed to access the systems as per usual.

Should you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our Helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Warm regards,

The NSCC Team

Urgent Scheduled Maintenance for ASPIRE 2A on 22 January 2025, 9AM to 6.30PM

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Dear ASPIRE 2A Users,

We wish to inform you of an upcoming urgent scheduled system maintenance for ASPIRE 2A to enhance its long-term reliability, uptime, and stability.

Maintenance Details:

  • Start: 22 January 2025 (Wednesday), 9:00 AM SGT
  • End: 22 January 2025 (Wednesday), 6:30 PM SGT
  • Duration: 9.5 hours

Purpose:

To replace the faulty Cooling Distribution Unit (CDU) Actuator.

Impact During the Maintenance Period:

  • Unavailable Compute Resources:
    • 33% of CPU compute nodes
    • All GP-GPU compute nodes
    • 75% of large memory nodes
  • Available Compute Resources:
    • 66% of CPU compute nodes
    • All AI-GPU compute nodes
    • 25% of large memory nodes
  • Users will still be able to log in and access the ASPIRE 2A system during this time.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding. Should you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our Helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Warm regards,

The NSCC Team

Removal of OpenMPI Modules on ASPIRE 2A

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Dear Users,

The following OpenMPI modules will be removed from ASPIRE 2A on 3 February 2025:

openmpi/4.1.4-aocc4.0

openmpi/4.1.5-aocc4

openmpi/4.1.5-gcc11

openmpi/4.1.5-icc22

openmpi/4.1.5-icc24

These modules were built statically, and following the update of PBS to a newer version, they no longer function correctly across multiple nodes. While MPI processes can still be spawned within a single compute node, these modules fail to communicate across nodes. As a result, applications built with these versions of OpenMPI will not run successfully on multiple nodes.

To ensure continuity in your workflows, we recommend transitioning to the following OpenMPI versions:

openmpi/4.1.2-hpe(default)

openmpi/4.1.6-gcc11

openmpi/4.1.7-gcc11

openmpi/4.1.7-icc24.2.1 

openmpi/5.0.5-gcc11

openmpi/5.0.5-icc24.2.1 

If you encounter any issues while using these versions, please do not hesitate to contact our helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected].

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Warm regards,

NSCC Team

[Completed] ASPIRE 2A and ASPIRE 2A+ Scheduled System Maintenance from 28 Nov 2024, 9am to 3 Dec 2024, 1pm

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Dear Users,

We are pleased to announce that the ASPIRE 2A and ASPIRE 2A+ scheduled system maintenance has been completed. You may proceed to access the systems as per usual.

ASPIRE 2A Partial System Online:
Kindly note that only 66% of the CPU compute node and all AI-GPU compute nodes are available on this release. The remaining 33% of the CPU compute nodes and all GP-GPU compute node will only be available on 5 Dec, 6pm.

ASPIRE2A Job Portal and Visualization Portal will be also temporary available until further notice.

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Please contact our Helpdesk via the Service Desk Portal or email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Warm regards,

The NSCC Team