Aire Progress Update - June

This is a short update to keep everyone up to date on the progress of Aire, the University’s new High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster. 

 

Aire Future State

Last update, we told you about the new network switches that will be installed and configured. The hardware has now been installed, and the new configuration is being applied.

The updated network rules were to be applied on 28th April, but this has been extended until 9th June to allow additional time for testing and fine-tuning. This phased approach ensures a smoother transition and gives us the opportunity to address any edge cases proactively.

As of now, the new switches are installed, and Aire is connected to them. This already gives us greater resiliency and performance and, with the updated network rules on 9th June, greater security.

• On 9th June from 09:00 to 16:00, connections to login nodes won’t be available.
• All submitted jobs will continue to run.
• From 10th June 08:00, if you find a University resource you cannot use on Aire, please post details in this Teams channel and the team will prioritise these requests.

 

ARC4 Shutdown

This is a reminder of the upcoming ARC4 retirement.

As we’ve said in previous updates ARC4 is nearing its end of life and will be decommissioned soon. We can now confirm the decommissioning timeline:

• No new user accounts are being created on ARC4 since 1st April 2025.
• ARC4 will remain available for compute jobs until 20th June 2025, at which point submitting new jobs will not be possible.
• Users will still be able to access ARC4 storage (/home & /nobackup) until 20th August 2025, when the system will be fully decommissioned.

Everyone can continue to use ARC4 until June 2025 if they need to, but Aire should be considered the default HPC now. If you're still actively using ARC4, we recommend transitioning your workflows to Aire as soon as possible to ensure continuity.

Keep an eye out for further updates on ARC4 in future communications.

 

ARC3

“An update on ARC3? But hasn’t that been decommissioned?” we hear you say.

Yes, it has. As of 20th May all ARC3 hardware has been removed. Truly, the end of an era. ARC3, we commend you to the hardware recycle centre in the sky and thank you for your service.

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Please continue to add any comments or questions into the Teams channel, and we will keep you updated.

 

If you are interested in more information about Aire, please read our previous blog posts:

• Aire Progress Update - May
• Aire Progress Update - April
• Aire Progress Update - March
• Aire Configuration Update & Upcoming Data Centre Visit
• Aire Progress Update - February
• Aire Progress Update - January
• Supporting Teaching and Learning: Updates on ARC4 and Aire Transition
• First look at PyTorch on Aire
• Exploring the Power of Aire: A First Look at Performance Gains