New Systems Migration

Compute Canada has begun one of the largest advanced research computing renewals in Canada’s history. Funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and provincial partners is being used to replace aging systems with four new national systems that will consolidate resources. For more information on the national migration process and the latest update to the technology refresh program, please visit the Compute Canada website.

ACENET’s four main clusters - Mahone, Fundy, Placentia and Glooscap - will be decommissioned 31 March 2018, after which ACENET will no longer support them. This page provides details specifically about migrating calculations and data off these legacy systems.

Thank you in advance for your patience during this migration period. We are working hard to limit the extent of disruptions and impact to your research during this transition. If you have questions or concerns about any aspect of this migration process, please contact ACENET support.

Schedule

While the main ACENET clusters will continue operating until 31 March 2018, we have established a schedule for users to migrate their data and begin using the new Compute Canada national systems. The purpose of this schedule is to avoid difficulties in the last few weeks prior to decommissioning. Moving terabytes of data is not an overnight project, nor is installing and testing software on a new cluster.

As the deadline for each system approaches we will communicate with its users, providing instructions and resources for migration. There will be at least one month provided to complete the migration.

System	Deadline to migrate	Decommission date	Actions to take
Mahone	15 November 2017	31 March 2018	Migration of data should now be complete.
Fundy	30 November 2017	31 March 2018	Migrate data now to new Compute Canada cluster. If you have questions, contact support.
Placentia	31 January 2018	31 March 2018	Wait for instruction from ACENET support team. If you have questions, contact support.
Glooscap	28 February 2018	31 March 2018	Wait for instruction from ACENET support team. If you have questions, contact support.

Anyone wishing to begin using the new national systems immediately is encouraged to do so!

How to migrate data

See General Directives for Migration on the Compute Canada Documentation Wiki for step-by-step instructions of how to transfer your data. The steps, summarized, are:

1. Delete any unneeded files.
2. Archive and compress your files before transferring them, if appropriate.
3. Choose a system to land on. Cedar and Graham are both suitable replacements for legacy ACENET systems.
4. Transfer the data using Globus if possible; sftp, scp, or rsync if not.
5. Complete the Migration Complete form once you have migrated. It is important that this form be submitted so that we know you have successfully transitioned to one of the new systems.

The following resources are available:

• National documentation centre
• General directives for migration
• Migration from legacy regional systems to Compute Canada national systems 2016-18
• Transferring data
• Available Software on National Systems

As always, our technical staff are ready to help you in any way. Please contact support with any questions or concerns.

Accessing the new systems

SSH access

You can SSH to the new servers using the following login nodes:

cedar.computecanada.ca
graham.computecanada.ca

You will need to use your Compute Canada username and password to login (the same credentials you use for the CCDB). If you have difficulty logging in or have forgotten your Compute Canada username or password, contact support.

Globus endpoints

You can transfer files to and from the new systems using the Globus endpoints:

computecanada#cedar 
computecanada#graham
acenet#fundy-acenet
acenet#glooscap
acenet#placentia
acenet#mahone

Instructions on using Globus can be found here.

Training on the new systems

There is a great deal of training available on how to use the new systems, both from ACENET staff, and through webinars provided by our partners SHARCNET and WestGrid. You can view upcoming sessions on our training page.

How-to videos are available on ACENET's YouTube channel and Compute Canada's.

ACENET research consultants will be available for online office hours at the following times:

• Tuesdays, 10h00-11h00 Atlantic time (10h30-11h30 Newfoundland)
• Wednesdays, 11h00-12h00 Atlantic time (11h30-12h30 Newfoundland)
• Thursdays, 11h00-12h00 Atlantic time (11h30-12h30 Newfoundland)

To contact a research consultant during online office hours, connect to the ACENET Office Hours Google Hangout. You will be able to ask questions by text or by voice, and you and the research consultant will be able to share screens. (If you want to use voice, video, and screen-sharing features, we recommend using Chrome or Safari browsers; recent versions of Firefox may not support these.)

RAC 2017 Allocations

2017-2018 RAC allocations located on ACENET clusters will continue uninterrupted until 31 March 2018.

If you hold a Resource Allocation on an ACENET system and have concerns about reconciling the transfer out of your data with the decommissioning schedule, email support@ace-net.ca and support staff will construct a data movement plan with you.

No data retention after decommissioning

Following the 31 March 2018 decommission date, user data on Mahone, Fundy, Placentia and Glooscap may be deleted without further notice. ACENET will not retain any long term or backup copies of user data. Users should ensure they take the appropriate steps to comply with any data management requirements their institution and funding agency.

Decreased performance and limited support

Systems scheduled for decommissioning are not being maintained under comprehensive vendor support programs due to the prohibitive cost. Only critical components (interconnects and shared storage) are maintained.

Continued ACENET Support

While this new national infrastructure is not located in Atlantic Canada, ACENET will continue to be the primary support organization for research groups in Atlantic Canada, providing training, research consulting, and troubleshooting. Reach out to your local team, or contact us.