12 Feb Fully reproducible analysis on cloud architecture
To make the High Performance Computing facility (HPC) ready for the future we realised new workflows and authentication procedures. These components are crucial to the future of Life Science research, because they allow researchers to develop analysis that are fully reproducible and can also run on cloud architectures.
Workflows
Researchers from the Princess Maxima Center have taken the initiative to test a Cromwell setup on the HPC. The positive results of this trial give cause to evaluate whether this set-up is ready for further deployment, or if additional testing is required. A parallel pilot set-up of Arvados integrated with Jupyter notebooks is now complete, and will also be evaluated by users in the coming months.
Authentication
Being able to run analysis on different systems requires users to authenticate across those systems in a uniform and structured manner. The HPC team started a pilot project with SURF on their newly developed Science Collaboration Zone. This system allows Dutch institutes to share their credentials easily and securely for computing resources. Researchers will identify as a unique entity across the entire system, regardless of institute or architecture.
New HPC management
The biggest update from the HPC team is that Joep de Ligt has left us. At the end of January he started work in New Zealand as Head of Bioinformatics at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research. Joep has been instrumental in leading the HPC facility for the past few years, and his contribution has ensured that the HPC is ready for the future. We thank Joep for his great work and wish him all the best for the future.
Ies Nijman has been appointed as our new HPC coordinator, and will of course be supported by the trusty and knowledgeable HPC team.
HPC-user meeting
The HPC community is constantly growing, and we are looking for opportunities to connect the relevant users to these pilot projects so they can give feedback and ideas on the future direction of the HPC. In addition to an HPC-council meeting for PIs, we will also organise a user meeting on Wednesday, 6 March, from 13:00-14:00. Location: UMC Utrecht, Stratenum, Vondelzaal (3.108).
Please join the meeting to get yourself up-to-date about the new possibilities and to help us tune the system to your needs where possible.