Sync meeting 2023-03-14

• kickoff meeting (23-24 March)
  • what do we need to prepare?
    • Alan: lots
    • Overview of technical WPs (1+5+6) [Caspar, Kenneth]
      • 1 slide per WP task
      • focus on first year
      • work backwards from 1st year review
    • MultiXscale training and events for 2023 [Eli]
      • Introductory crash course on EESSI @ HPCKP'23? (17-18 May 2023, Barcelona)
        • Getting Access, Using EESSI, Structure/How it works + Motivation, Hands-On, apps (GROMACS), MPI (OSU), using GPUs (?), ...
        • 2h session?
      • sysadmin-focused tutorial on CVMFS (fully online)
        • with help from CVMFS developers?
        • to facilitate adoption of CVMFS in EuroHPC systems
        • based on CVMFS tutorial (done by Bob+Kenneth at CernVM 2021 meeting)
          • see https://cvmfs-contrib.github.io/cvmfs-tutorial-2021
      • something on using EESSI in CI pipeline?
        • towards scientific MXS WPs
        • could be part of course on "Best Practices"?
    • no voting for remote attendees
  • points to discuss
    • limited travel budgets vs demands from EU
      • EuroHPC Summit
      • CASTIEL2 kickoff meeting
• Eli: asked about access to webpage
  • deliverable at end of March'23
  • templates for SC deliverables? via Alan
  • Alan can give access to website
  • basic homepage is in place at https://www.multixscale.eu
• social media
  • Twitter account is there, no tweets yet https://twitter.com/multixscale
  • can figure out at kickoff how this will be handled
  • LinkedIn is TODO
  • can be managed by Susana (HPCNow!)
• WP1 (SURF)
  • test suite: getting GROMACS test in shape, can serve as basis for other tests (OSU, TensorFlow)
    • could this be used for testing generic builds in EESSI
  • new EESSI pilot version
    • 2021.06 pilot version be removed (init script will fall back to 2021.12, with a warning)
    • new pilot version 2023.03 is WIP (still in eessi-hpc.org domain)
      • building compat layer basically works
      • would be nice to have strace in compat layer (does it need special permissions?)
        • can also be added to container
        • could help to figure out why using GPUs doesn't work in container
        • some problem with CUDA compat libraries
      • Gentoo Prefix bootstrap is working on x86_64 (+ ppc64le)
        • some problem for aarch64, but a fix is available
      • general consensus seems to be that compat layer should be stripped down to what's essential for software layer
• WP5 (UGent)
  • bot
    • getting close to rewrite of interface between bot and compat/software layer
      • bot/build.sh script in compat/software layers that is used by bot (separation of concerns)
      • required PRs are open/being reviewed+tested, this setup already in use in NESSI projects
    • Thomas/Jonas/Kenneth/Bob are actively involvement in development
    • ~5 people are using bot in scope of NESSI project
    • required effort in MXS T5.3 (10PMs) is probably unestimated
    • maybe a bit more focus is needed on what's really needed in MXS T5.3
  • T5.1 support portal
• WP6 (UB)
  • see above
• WP7 (HPCNow!)
  • see above