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Re: Debian in HPC

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On Mon, Jan 15, 2024 at 08:03:36AM +0100, Loris Bennett wrote:
> Stuart Barkley <sab22@4gh.net> writes:
> 
> > I think some places are moving to Ubuntu.  The thought is that Ubuntu
> > keeps more up to date with software.  I preferred to keep the OS
> > minimal and build the user software independently since there usually
> > were complex dependencies and Debian should be fine in that case.
> >
<snip>
> >
> > On January 6, 2024 4:04:51 PM UTC, "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> wrote:
> >>Michael: This discussion has also been taking place periodically in
> >>the main Beowulf lists over at Beowulf.org (https://www.beowulf.org)
> >>
> >>See, for example, their archives from May-November 2023 for the thread.
> >>
> >>For anyone interested in HPC, I commend the Beowulf list - very small
> >>numbers of extremely motivated, extremely competent people.
> >>
> >>(amacater@debian.org)
<snip> 
> Thanks for the info - I'll have a look at the beowulf.org list.
> 
> Personally I can't see Ubuntu being a viable option.  For HPC I don't
> see any advantage regarding software relative to Debian.
> 

As ever, it depends. It also depends on the vendor who made your HPC
if you bought it from somewhere like HPE/Cray.

The secret sauce is in the detail of interconnects and device drivers:
Canonical is a commercial company and can afford to deal with NDA
/ special terms and conditions or whatever it takes to get an
Ubuntu system running well on HPC - it can build closed-source
modules if need be.

If you're in academia, then the fact that Ubuntu has the PPA system
to install latest/greatest/(maybe broken) software that's newer
than stable versions might be useful - some astrophysicist
programmer somewhere publishes his program as a PPA so you *need*
Ubuntu.

Also: an HPC is an expensive beast - accountants want someone to sue
if it melts :)

Ironically, maybe the one thing you don't need is paid distro support
because you have your own sysadmin/programmers sitting running the thing
and when you ring $Big_commercial_distro with a problem, they don't know
HPC.

Andy
(amacater@debian.org)
(who has been interested from the sidelines in HPC for many years
- I could probably play a sysadmin on TV :) )

> Cheers,
> 
> Loris
> 
> -- 
> Dr. Loris Bennett (Herr/Mr)
> FUB-IT (ex-ZEDAT), Freie Universität Berlin
> 

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Re: Re: Debian in HPC "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2024-01-06 17:10 +0100
  Re: Re: Debian in HPC Stuart Barkley <sab22@4gh.net> - 2024-01-08 23:40 +0100
    Re: Debian in HPC "Loris Bennett" <loris.bennett@fu-berlin.de> - 2024-01-15 08:30 +0100
      Re: Debian in HPC "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2024-01-15 09:40 +0100

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