RAC 2018 Q&AOctober 11, 2017

How to submit questions

● Please hold all questions until the end of the presentation.

● During the Q&A section of the presentation, please either:

○ mute your phone or vidyo if you are no talking

○ type your question into the vidyo chat

● You can also submit questions at any time during the presentation (or after) to info@computecanada.ca

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Scope of this presentation

● Overview of RAC

● Infrastructure update

● Things to keep in mind for RAC 2018

● How to apply

● Q&A

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RAC Overview - 2018

Overview of RAC

● All CC users can access resources without any special allocation - Rapid Access Service (RAS).

● Compute Canada’s Resource Allocation Competitions (RAC) exists for researchers who need more than they can get from RAS.

In 2018, researchers can apply to two resource allocation competitions:○ Research Platforms and Portals (RPP) Competition○ Resources for Research Groups (RRG) Competition

● Any faculty member can apply. Sponsored users can access the resulting allocation.

● A compute “allocation” is really a “prioritization” within a shared system, based on: ○ Peer-reviews○ Technical reviews

● For storage, an “allocation” is really an allocation.5

Key dates

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RAC 2018 Start Finish

Fast Track submission Oct 3, 2017 Nov 2, 2017

RRG & RPP full application submission Oct 3, 2017 Nov 16, 2017

RPP Progress Report submission Jan 30, 2017 Mar 14, 2018

Award letters sent Mid Mar, 2018 Late Mar, 2018

RAC 2018 Allocations implemented Mid Apr, 2018 Early May, 2018

* Final dates are yet to be confirmed.

RAC Structure

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Reviewed by RAC Admin CommitteeReuse scientific score from previous RPP app

Regular Stream

Large Stream

Portal

Platform

RRG

RAC

Repeating apps (eligible PIs only)

Repeating apps (multi-year awards)

Fast Track

New application

RPP

New application

Annual Progress Report

Scientific and Technical Review

Technical ReviewReuse scientific score from previous RRG app

}

Scientific and Technical Review}

Full applicationRequires CCV

Lightweight applicationNo CCV required

Full applicationRequires CCV

Lightweight reportNo CCV required

Process Under Pressure

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Note: this chart does not include Challenge 1 awards or RRG out-of-round applications.

RRG (new applications)RRG● Regular stream:

○ Batch Compute between 50-1999 Core Years○ Storage between 10-999 TBs○ GPUs between 10-199 GPU years○ Cloud Compute between 80-499 VCPUs○ Persistent Cloud between 10-99 VCPUs○ Evaluation: At least 2 scientific reviews and 1 technical reviewer.○ Workload: Shorter Technical Justification document.

● Large stream: exceeds at least one of the resource limits for Regular as defined above○ Evaluation: At least 3 scientific reviews and 1 technical reviewer. Possibility of

external review.○ Discussion at chairs face-to-face meeting.○ Workload: Larger and more detailed Technical Justification document (similar

to last year’s template)

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● By invitation only - invitation already sent out

● Amount requested (not allocated) in the previous RRG competition round must be lower than:

○ Compute request: <2000 Core Years

○ Storage request: <1000 TBs

○ GPU request: <200 GPU years

○ Cloud Compute request: < 500 VCPUs

○ Persistent Cloud: request: <100 VCPUs

● PIs can ask for up to the same amount of resources requested in the previous RRG full application.

● NOTE: Fast Track is NOT a guarantee that user will receive same allocation as last year. Simply means that allocation for 2018 will be scaled re-using the science score from most recent full RRG application. This greatly simplifies the application and allocation process.

RRG Fast Track (eligible PIs)

RPP (new applications)

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Remember:

No NOI required this year - only full application1. Service Portal:

a. Do not require large computing or storage resources, but may require support effort by the Compute Canada technical team.

b. Often use the Compute Canada Cloud, generally require a static IP address, and may (or may not) have more stringent up-time requirements than most research projects.

c. Reduced documentation/justification expected.d. May be directly approved with 1 technical and 1 science review.

2. Compute and Storage Platforma. Any RPP proposal requiring at least 50 core years (or 50 VCPUs in

the cloud) OR at least 50 TB of storage will be considered a Compute and Storage Platform.

b. Multiple reviews + discussion in committee meeting.

2018 Scientific Committees

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Tomáš PausCommittee Chair & NRAC Acting ChairBioinformatics, Neuroscience and Medical Imaging

Victoria KaspiAstronomy & Subatomic Physics

Natalie CannChemistry, Biochemistry, Biophysics Paul KushnerEarth and Environmental Sciences

Cécile DevaudEngineering, Mathematical & Computer Sciences Anabel Quan-HaaseHumanities & Social Sciences Jeremy SchofieldNano, Materials & Condensed Matter Katja FennelResearch Platforms and Portals

RAC Chairs

Scientific reviewersWe expect to have ~80 scientific reviewers this year.

General Infrastructure Update

Resources Under Pressure

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Good news

Niagara● Expected to be in production by early 2018 - good

fit for large parallel jobs. SFU● Expansion to Cedar (compute) by early 2018,

emphasis on more CPU cores● Expansion to deep storage

U. Waterloo● Expansion to deep storage

GP4 and storage ← We cannot yet publicize the hosting site● GP4 (by mid-2018). Similar to Cedar and Graham● Third “deep storage” site (alongside UW & SFU)

All three GPx systems will have a relatively small cloud partition.

All three sites will share investments in experimental systems.

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“Deep storage” is a catch-all for persistent storage: tape-based backup and nearline; /project, and speciality storage such as Ceph, dCache and CVMFS. Basically, all non-temporary storage.

Bad news

● ~20 clusters being removed from RAC (perhaps including the cluster you used last year).

● Many users will have to be migrated from their current legacy system to one or several of the new systems.

● Raw number of allocatable CPUs might be lower than last year, but the new cores are better cores.

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Things to keep in mind for RAC 2018

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Helpful tips

● The Fast Track eligibility criteria has been relaxed to favour more users: 296 eligible PIs - largest number ever invited to FT.

● Notice of Intent (NOI) is NOT a prerequisite for applying to any RAC competition this year.

● PIs can delegate the completion of a RPP or RRG application to a sponsored user on CCDB.

● Fast Track applications cannot be delegated: PIs must complete the application themselves.

● CVV is required for any RRG and RPP full application, but not for Fast Track or RPP progress reports (more about CCV in the next slides)

When completing your application

● Use the templates provided for the Technical Justification (RRG) and Resource Justification and Strategic Plan (RPP) - pdf format only

● Resource request

○ Ensure your online application includes ALL the resources you need to achieve the goals of your project(s)

○ Very important: Ensure there are NO discrepancies between the resources requested in your technical justification document (pdf) and the online application.

○ /project and / nearline storage are allocatable resources; /scratch is not (but providing this information is helpful for our planning).

○ Storage types (e.g., /project, /nearline, etc) are shown only when the resource you requested has that type of storage available for allocation (see list of allocatable resources for RAC 2018)

○ Cloud requests - only available as a generic resource.

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20*For this competition round, Compute Canada will only accept requests on this resource from users that currently have an allocation on Guillimin

Allocatable systems for RAC 2018

Region System Resource typeResource name (as shown on CCDB)

Storage type(s) (as shown on CCDB)

Backup storage?

Calcul Québec Briarée Compute & Storage briarée Project, Scratch NoGP4* Storage ndc-gp4 Project, Nearline TBDHelios GPU helios N/A NoMammouth Parallel 2

Compute & Storage mp2 Project, Scratch Yes

Storage mammouth-archive Nearline NoCompute Ontario

Frontenac Compute & Storage frontenac-cac Project No

Graham Compute graham-compute Scratch NoGPU graham-gpu N/A NoStorage ndc-waterloo Project, Nearline Yes

HPSS Storage hpss Nearline NoNiagara Compute Niagara Scratch No

Storage ndc-toronto Project YesWestGrid Cedar Compute cedar-compute N/A No

GPU cedar-gpu N/A NoStorage ndc-sfu Project, Nearline Yes

Compute Canada

Cloud Resources Cloud Compute Cloud Cloud storage No

Cloud Persistent Cloud Cloud storage No

How to apply

Resource Applications pageLogin to the Compute Canada DB (ccdb.computecanada.ca) and you should see something like:

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PI can delegate RRG and RPP application to sponsored user

FT cannot be delegated

Once created, click on"Edit" to continue working on your application. Do not click on the green RPP button again as this will create a new application

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Fast Track form

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CCV tips

Applicants with no CCV on CCDB

● Process for submitting a CCV does not change for these users. Simply follow the instructions in the CCV Submission Guide.

Applicants with a CCV on CCDB

● The current CCV design on CCDB does not allow users to "update" a CCV by simply entering a new submission confirmation code.

● If you make changes in your CCV and you want them to be reflected on CCDB, you first have to "destroy" your most recently uploaded CCV on CCDB (not on the CCV site), then upload the updated version of your Compute Canada CCV (for RAC 2018) and then select the publications enabled by Compute Canada resources.

● Only the PI can destroy his CCV (this action cannot be delegated to a sponsored user) - once destroyed, a delegated person can complete the rest of the CCV submission process.

● IMPORTANT: Carefully read the instructions in the CCV Submission Guide (section 6)

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CCV - PIs with existing CCV on file

123456

By default, CCDB shows publications and selection from most recent CCV available on file

You cannot "update" a CCV by simply entering a new confirmation code.You first need to "destroy" your most recently uploaded CCV (the one with the same confirmation code)

123456

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New CCVs Enter CCV confirmation code

Resources & Support

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● Ask a question:

○ About RAC ~ rac@computecanada.ca

○ About Compute Canada CCV ~ ccv@computecanada.ca

● Find an answer:

○ General Competition Information

○ RPP Guide

○ RRG Guide

○ Technical Glossary

○ Frequently Asked Questions

○ CCV Guide

Questions?

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