The Karolina supercomputer, located at the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Centre, was commissioned in the summer of 2021 and has since been used by more than 1,700 users to solve more than 700 projects. A substantial software upgrade is planned to ensure alignment with current tool and application versions. This necessitates a complete shutdown of the Karolina supercomputer, which is scheduled for approximately four weeks starting 8 April.
The primary objective of the upgrade is to transition the operating system of the computational nodes to Rocky Linux 8.9. This includes the login, compute, and visualisation nodes, alongside reinstalling the supercomputer administrator nodes with the RHEL 8.9 operating system. Additionally, the upgrade encompasses updating the operating system kernel, libraries, and dependencies to newer iterations to maintain compatibility with updated development tools and applications.
Moreover, the upgrade presents the opportunity to leverage fully compatible and optimised tools, GPU MOFED drivers, compilers, and libraries, particularly tailored for AMD processors, such as glibc and LibSci libraries. Enhanced system security is also a significant benefit of the upgrade.
Given the extensive nature of the upgrade, it essentially entails a complete reinstallation of the Karolina supercomputer, warranting its full shutdown for the specified duration. Regrettably, the exact duration for the complete upgrade cannot be determined at present.
Should the scheduled shutdown pose significant disruptions to ongoing computing projects, users are encouraged to reach out to the user support team at support@it4i.cz for assistance.