Messages & Announcements

  • 2012-10-10:  SANDHILLS: NFS server unresponsive
    Category:  System Failure

    NFS server on SANDHILLS became unresponsive, we are looking into the problem now and will update you when it's fixed.


    NFS server on SANDHILLS became unresponsive, we are looking into the problem now and will update you when it's fixed.

  • 2012-10-07:  Tusker /work filesystem performance issues
    Category:  System Failure

    We are investigating performance issues with the /work filesystem on Tusker. Some accesses, particularly directory listings, are responding extremely slowly.

    We will update the details link below with more information as it becomes available.


    We are investigating performance issues with the /work filesystem on Tusker. Some accesses, particularly directory listings, are responding extremely slowly.

    We are working with our storage vendor to resolve this problem.

  • 2012-09-19:  Firefly Panasas firmware upgrade complete
    Category:  Maintenance

    The firmware upgrade of Firefly's Panasas storage array is complete. Jobs that were held before the upgrade have been released to run.


    The firmware upgrade of Firefly's Panasas storage array is complete. Jobs that were held before the upgrade have been released to run.

  • 2012-09-19:  Firefly storage firmware upgrade - September 19, 2012
    Category:  Maintenance

    A time-sensitive firmware upgrade is needed for the Panasas storage array on Firefly.

    We will start the firmware upgrade at 11:00 am September 19, 2012 and expect to be done by 1:00 pm.

    While we do not anticipate a full scale outage during this upgrade, running processes that access /work or /home will hang during the procedure and should recover when the upgrade is finished.

    An announcement will be sent out once we complete the firmware upgrade.


    A time-sensitive firmware upgrade is needed for the Panasas storage array on Firefly.

    We will start the firmware upgrade at 11:00 am September 19, 2012 and expect to be done by 1:00 pm.

    While we do not anticipate a full scale outage during this upgrade, running processes that access /work or /home will hang during the procedure and should recover when the upgrade is finished.

    An announcement will be sent out once we complete the firmware upgrade.

  • 2012-09-14:  Module utility revision
    Category:  General Announcement

    Dear HCC user community,

    The following will affect those of you who use the utility "module". Otherwise, please forgive the interruption.

    As the number of HCC users has grown, so has the number of applications, many of which require environmental variables such as paths to libraries to be set. To simplify this process, HCC uses a utility called "module".

    This has proven successful, but now we are dealing with a new complexity -- too many modules. (!)

    In an effort to improve our service and stability,
    we will be simplifying certain modules by dropping minor revisions in their name. For instance, our PGI compiler module will simply be 'compiler/pgi/12' instead of 'compiler/pgi/12.x'. The module will automatically load the latest PGI version for your use. Other software will be treated similarly (i.e. OpenMPI).

    Because of this change, some modules will be removed and it might be necessary for you to recompile or rewrite submission scripts. In order to smooth the transition we will perform it in several steps.

    The contracted set of modules will coexist with the currently named set for the next week (until September 24). At that time, only the smaller set will be supported, although pre-existing modules will be moved to a 'deprecated' area that you can access using the command

    module load deprecated

    Deprecated modules will be maintained for at least a month, and then subject to deletion.

    We will be more assertive in the future in keeping our software up to date. As this happens we will move older module versions to the deprecated group in anticipation of their ultimate removal from our systems.

    Please let us know if you have questions or concerns.

    Thank you.

    David Swanson