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Sprint 26-07 Release Notes

  • XNAT: Version upgraded from 1.8.1 to 1.9.1.
  • XNAT: BlazerID credentials now used to login.
  • CODE.RC: GitLab upgraded from 17.7.7 to 18.2.8

2026-01-30 Cheaha Head Node Migration

We will be moving the Cheaha head node from GPFS4 to GPFS5. Maintenance is scheduled from 5:00 PM January 30th, 2026 to 6:00 AM January 31st, 2026. During this time Cheaha will be unavailable. This move marks the final part of our storage infrastructure upgrade and data migration.

How will this impact your work?

  • Cheaha will be unavailable, including via Open OnDemand (OOD at https://rc.uab.edu) and SSH.
  • The Slurm scheduler, database, and supporting services will be offline.
  • All jobs are submitted with a time limit. If the time from submission until maintenance is shorter than a job's time limit, that job will be held in queue until maintenance ends. This means jobs will not run during maintenance, ensuring jobs maintain a consistent state and do not need to be re-run.

Cheaha Data Migration

User Impact Summary

  • All user and project data will be migrated to a new storage systems on a rolling basis over the coming weeks
  • Users will receive two day notice before their account is migrated
  • During migration, user accounts will be placed on hold preventing access. All queued and running jobs will be requeued and held
  • The migration window is 2 days. Please plan for your account to remain on hold for the duration. We hope to complete migrations prior to the end of this window and will remove account holds as soon as migrations are complete.
  • Once migration is complete, account certification will be required through the web portal.
  • Wait times for jobs are expected to increase during the migration. Please see our expected impact for more details.

Planned Maintenance Window

Cheaha compute nodes located at the Technology Innovation Center on campus will be undergoing maintenance from June 16-22, resulting in reduced CPU and GPU capacity during those days, as well as reduced memory limits for jobs. Please plan Research Computing needs around the maintenance window.

Planned Maintenance Window

  • Planned Start: 2025-04-21 12:00 AM
  • Anticipated End: 2025-04-28 12:00 AM
  • Impacted Resources: Cloud.rc, Cheaha "amperenodes," "pascalnodes," and "intel-dcb" partitions.

Cloud.rc (OpenStack) and Cheaha nodes within DC Blox will be undergoing maintenance during the week of April 21, 2025. Cloud.rc and Cheaha "amperenodes,” "pascalnodes,” and "intel-dcb" partitions will be inaccessible during maintenance. Note this means all GPU nodes will be inaccessible. Planned growth requires us to move hardware within the DC BLOX data center. Please plan your Research Computing needs around this maintenance window. If you need additional assistance, please reply to this email or reach out to support@listserv.uab.edu.

Reduced LTS Transfer Speeds on Globus

We are aware of increased transfer times into and out of LTS when using Globus. Transfer times are taking substantially longer than expected. The issue is occurring because of a bug in our version of Ceph, the LTS backend storage system. A bugfix is in the works by the vendor and we will communicate once we know more.

2025-09-11 Planned Maintenance Window

Note

This window applies only to researchers using GPFS5.

We will be performing upgrades on the GPFS5 storage system to optimize stability. During this process, researchers on the GPFS5 side will be unable to login via SSH, and Open OnDemand (https://rc.uab.edu) will appear unresponsive.

The maintenance window is scheduled for the morning of Tuesday, September 16, 2025, from 6:00 AM through 6:00 PM. We expect the process to take no more than 12 hours. We will restore service as soon as work is complete.