Conference call notes 20170118

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Notes on the 68th EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday January 18th 2017 (5pm - 6pm CET)

Attendees

Alphabetical list of attendees (10):

• Damian Alvarez (JSC, Germany)
• Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent, Belgium)
• Adam Huffman (Francis Crick Institute, UK)
• Alan O'Cais (JSC, Germany)
• Ward Poelmans
• Åke Sandgren (Umeå University, Sweden)
• Robert Schmidt (OHRI, Canada)
• Davide Vanzo (ACCRE - Vanderbilt University)
• Shahzeb Siddiqui (Pfizer)
• Miguel Dias Costa (National University of Singapore)

Agenda

• RHEL 7.3 incompatible with intel/2016b installations
  • cfr. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1377895 (Red Hat issue opened by LLNL) + https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20019 (upstream glibc issue)
• update on 2017a common toolchains
  • foss/2017a: https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/3968
  • intel/2017a: https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/3969
• update on EasyBuild v3.1.0
• Q&A

Notes

RHEL 7.3 incompatible with intel/2016b installations

• also happens on Ubuntu 16.04
• issue with libintlc.so.5 in Intel PSXE 2016.3 and 2016.4
• copying this library from PSXE 2017.1 into 2016.3 seems to fix the problem (but is this OK?)
• recompiling on RHEL 7.3 with 2016.3 doesn't fix this, still segfaults
• Kenneth contacted Ben Woodard on LLNL w.r.t. suggested workaround from Intel support
• Damian: JSC can open Intel support ticket too on this issue?
• Rob: also contact TACC?
• [update 20170119] Intel published an article where copying libintlc.so.5 is a confirmed proper workaround, see https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-compiler-version-16-not-compatible-with-recent-libcso6

2017a toolchains

• foss/2017a WIP PR: https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/3968

  • still on hold for OpenMPI 2.0.2...

• intel/2017a WIP PR: https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/3969

  • install Intel PSXE 2017.x as a whole rather than as individual components (icc, ifort, impi, imkl)
  • impact on hierarchical module naming schemes?
    • still need icc/ifort separately anyway if Intel compilers are combined with other MPI/LAPACK libs
    • intel module in HMNS with PSXE installed a whole would expand both Compiler and MPI module subtrees
  • requires changes in framework w.r.t. intel toolchain definition, maybe also custom easyblock for intel-psxe
  • custom easyblock needed for Intel PSXE with proper sanity check
  • specify components so only icc/ifort/impi/imkl
  • also ITAC, IPP, etc. would be included in PSXE install?

EasyBuild v3.1.0

• ETA last week Jan'17
  • anything ready by then will be included
• no v3.0.3 release
  • FFTW easyblock is considered too 'big' to include in bugfix release

Other

• Shahzeb: some trouble with getting Intel Python with IntelBase
  • Damian: some benchmarks on GCC vs Intel build of Python showed recently, were on par (excl. numpy/scipy)
• EasyBuild User Meeting: recording/streaming?
  • Alan: recording should work, streaming may be possible (but slightly delayed since it passes via YouTube)
  • tour of facilities?
    • would everyone join or would group be smaller?