Abisko: Precise to Xenial migration

We have recently finished the upgrade of Abisko from Ubuntu Precise to Ubuntu Xenial, which is also what is running on Kebnekaise. The reason for doing this is that Ubuntu Precise reached its End-of-Life on 2017-04-28. (End-of-Life means that after that it will no longer get security updates, bug fixes, etc.) 

Simultaneously with the Linux upgrade we have upgraded the rest of the environment on Abisko to resemble the one on Kebnekaise. This mainly means changes to the module system and the installed software. Go here to read about the lmod system and here to read about accessing software which is how things now look on Abisko.

This will require you to change your submit files, recompile software and possibly something more that we haven't thought of. Check back here regularly for more information!

Summary of changes after the upgrade

• Ubuntu Precise -> Ubuntu Xenial
• Tcl module system -> Lmod (Lua based module system)
• Software installed using EasyBuild

Dates and miscellaneous

On April 19th we had a maintenance window (which also affected Kebnekaise) where we updated the version of Slurm (the batch system) on Abisko to the same version that are running on Kebnekaise. During that maintenance window we also made some changes to the Lustre file system configuration to improve stability and performance.

On April 28th we stopped accepting new jobs to the old (Precise) part of Abisko, moved the ordinary login node over to Xenial and only jobs submitted from the Xenial based login node are accepted.

On May 9th the regular Abisko login node was back in operation. Note that the Abisko login node has a new ssh host key, for more information see 2017-05-09: Abisko ordinary login node now online, running Xenial.

Further information

You can read more about the setup of software and the module system on
https://www.hpc2n.umu.se/documentation/environment/easybuild
and
https://www.hpc2n.umu.se/documentation/environment/lmod

If you have any questions about the upgrade, please contact support@hpc2n.umu.se.