[euler-users] Important Changes to be implemented May - June 2021
Euler Sysadmin
Hello Euler Researchers and Students,
I am writing to inform you of an Euler outage planned for late May 2021.
As some of you may already be aware, the free CentOS Linux distribution used on the Euler Cluster has been discontinued by RedHat. Euler's current CentOS 8 platform will reach a premature End-Of-Life on December 31, 2021 rather than in May 2029 as originally advertised by the distributor. Accordingly, Euler will be forced to adopt a new platform before that time. The most suitable time for this conversion to occur is between the end of the spring semester and the beginning of the summer term. Therefore, Euler will be unavailable from May 24th, 2021 through June 4th, 2021. While we have not yet decided which distribution to use as a new platform, openSUSE Leap and Fedora Server are currently under consideration.
The following changes are planned for this period:
- Euler will adopt a new Linux operating system, distribution TBD
- Euler will begin using UW-Madison NetID Authentication rather than WACC-specific credentials
- Euler's file system will be reformatted, and all stored data will be deleted
- Euler's network will finalize its shift from the current Cat6A ethernet backbone to a low latency RoCE-based solution. This interconnect update will come at a price tag of approximately $100K; the funds have been already secured.
Further information, answers to common questions, and advice on how to efficiently move data off of Euler will be made available on the [euler-users] mailing list as the deadline approaches.
PIs will receive a similar email detailing these changes in the coming days along with the Spring 2021 invoices.
Please direct any questions or concerns about the outage or the corresponding changes to sysa...@sbel.wisc.edu.
Regards,
Colin Vanden Heuvel
Euler Cluster System Administrator