2024-01-09 - 2023 update and a 30 Seconds task to ensure your continued access to SLURM

Dear Mjolnir User and PI's,

We have now put 2023 behind us and are writing 2024. 2023 was the first full calendar year where Mjolnir was utilised to it’s max by all users. 

It was also the year with many achieved milestones:

- Expansion of our server park to 22 servers, with a total investment of DKK 1,145,114.89 (including tax) in 2023. A special thanks goes to all Principal Investigators who allocated budget for servers in their grants, as well as to the Globe Educational Board and two sections for contributing dedicated infrastructure funding (see more below).

- Installation exceeded 995 software modules, accompanied by a bi-weekly optional software digest newsletter.

- Successful processing of 9.1 million jobs, with the imminent milestone of surpassing the 10,000,000 job count in this coming week.

As we move forward, there are important updates and initiatives to enhance the user experience at Mjolnir:

Upon the termination of a user's affiliation with the university, communication challenges arise due to reliance on acces to UCPH email addresses. We are currently storing 1,8 PetaByte data. Some of this data belongs to former users whom I am unable to contact, and I need a solution to deal with this.
To address this, I request all users to provide a secondary email through a quick 30-second process using an AirTable form. Please visit the following link: https://mjolnir-ucph.readthedocs.io/en/latest/add_change_primary_email.html

In the form you will be able to provide a secondary email and choose whether you want to be contacted on the UCPH email or the secondary email. 

You can always use the form to update your secondary email and/or you communication preference.

After deletion of an account, the secondary email will automatically be used for communication regarding any current data at the system. 

Please note, this action will not impact existing data but will solely restrict the capability to generate additional data until a reliable secondary way of contacting the user has been established. Those who have not filled in the form will receive automated weekly reminders and will be personally contacted after January 31 to ascertain whether they still require an account.

In the coming days, five additional Dell PowerEdge R6525 servers with 96 tasks and 1TB memory will be added to the SLURM queue. These servers, acquired by the Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Section for Hologenomics, and Globe Educational Board, includes one dedicated to UCPH course teaching.More information regarding the teaching server will be provided in the coming months.
Three additional servers have been purchases by the Section for Hologenomics and is awaiting installation in the datacenter.You can see an overview of all servers here: https://mjolnir-ucph.readthedocs.io/en/latest/hardware.html
What to Expect in 2024- Installation of three servers purchased by the Section for Hologenomics in January.- Implementation of a gateserver (new login node) to protect the underdimensioned current headnode. This will ensure more stability.- Introduction of a teaching server.- Database cleanup with a more organized setup. After every users has decided which email they want communication on, I will send out an enquiry to find out which databases are currently in use.- Establishment of a disruption email list and a form to report disruptions.- Establishment of a form to request a time extension of a job.- First round of an a quarterly introduction workshop for new Mjolnir users.- Expansion of the documentation.- Availability of a monthly storage and compute overview (awaiting KU-IT). - Initiation of the Mjolnir user board, seeking valuable feedback from you, the users. - … and much much more. I can promise you that 2024 will be an exciting year for the user Experience at Mjolnir.

I wish you all the best and as always please always feel free to send me an email with questions, comments or general feedback.

Best,

Bent