The Agave supercomputer will be moved from the ASU Tempe campus to the Iron Mountain Data Center in Phoenix, AZ. The Agave supercomputer will be reconfigured for better performance and it will be renamed the Phoenix supercomputer.  Please read this timeline and FAQ from ASU Research Computing regarding this transition.

High Level Timeline:

• March 2024

  • (11th) Remind private partition and node owners in advance of any moves into Phoenix

  • (19th) Reminder to Agave users of Agave access and scratch data removal for May 13th, 2024

  • (25th) Move the 1st Wave of Agave private nodes into Phoenix

  • (26th) Remind Private Partition Users and node owners in advance of any moves into Phoenix

• April 2024

  • (1st) Reminder to Agave users of Agave access and scratch data removal for May 13th, 2024

  • (1st) Remind Private Partition Users and node owners in advance of any moves into Phoenix

  • (22th) Reminder to Agave users of Agave access and scratch data removal for May 13th, 2024

• May 2024

  • (1st, and each day for those with data remaining) Reminder to Agave users of Agave access and scratch data removal for May 13th, 2024

  • (13th) Physical move, upgrade, and rebuild of remaining equipment into Phoenix

• June 2024

  • Public access to Phoenix. Date to be determined

FAQ:

• Why is this happening?

  • The Agave supercomputer is being moved to Iron Mountain, to be adjacent to Sol. With this move, Agave will be upgraded to include the same software stack as Sol, its back-end networking will be revamped for additional redundancy, and the /scratch file system is being rebuilt.

• When will this happen?

  • This migration will occur throughout 2023 and 2024, starting in July 2023. ASU Research Computing will provide a “Agave-to-Phoenix Research Computing” communication campaign for more information and updates. 

• How will this impact me?

  • Capacity on the Agave supercomputer will gradually diminish as systems are migrated over to the Iron Mountain Data Center, where they will be incorporated into the new Phoenix supercomputer. 

  • Once all computing systems have been migrated, the Agave /scratch directory will be deleted in preparation for an optimized rebuild of the file system.

  • ASU Research Computing anticipates having all computing systems moved and the /scratch system ready for decommissioning by May 13, 2024. 

  • After this date, all computing and data capacity from Agave will be rebuilt as the Phoenix supercomputer, and the Agave system will no longer be available.

• What are my options? 

  • Get an account to the Sol supercomputer.

  • Use the Phoenix supercomputer once available. 

  • Remain on Agave until it is taken offline and then migrate to Phoenix or Sol.

• How will Phoenix be different from Agave?

  • Location: The Phoenix system will be hosted off-campus in the Iron Mountain Data Center, which has more resilient power and cooling systems than ISTB1. 

  • Operating System: The newest Rocky operating system, Rocky Linux 8, will replace the end-of-life CentOS 7 operating system.

  • Scratch: The /scratch filesystem and its supporting metadata servers will be upgraded for better reliability and performance.

  • Network: To properly integrate with the new Phoenix supercomputer network, your nodes may need newer Infiniband network cards. ASU Research Computing will cover the costs of any necessary network card upgrades.

  • Software: Modules on the Phoenix supercomputer will be named and managed similarly to how they are on the Sol supercomputer.

  • Hardware: The Sol supercomputer will continue to be a homogeneous system consisting of a select few types of nodes. Phoenix will continue to be a heterogeneous system consisting of a wide variety of CPUs and GPUs. 

• What about my data on Agave?

  • All data in the /home and /data directories on Agave will remain available during this transition. No action is required at this time for data on the /home and /data directories. 

  • Once all computing capacity has been migrated into the Phoenix supercomputer, data in the Agave /scratch directory will be deleted to allow the filesystem to be rebuilt for better performance and stability. 

• What about my data on /scratch?

  • All data on /scratch will be deleted by May 13, 2024. This data needs to be moved in order to be preserved. Please see this guide for how to easily move your data from the /scratch filesystem to the Sol supercomputer.

• What do I need to do in preparation for this migration?

  • Get an account on the Sol supercomputer. 

  • See this new user guide on using Sol. 

  • See this document on migrating data from Agave to Sol.

  • See this document on transferring files to and from the Sol.

  • Come to office hours for additional assistance. 

  • Join ASU Research Computing for their monthly Beginner’s Guide to Research Computing workshops. 

  • Join ASU Research Computing for data transfer workshops.

  • See the new user guide on using Phoenix. More details coming soon! 

• For how long will Agave be available?

  • Agave will be intermittently available starting July 2023 and compute capacity will gradually diminish until Agave’s availability is disabled on May 13, 2024. 

  • An “Agave-to-Phoenix Research Computing” communication campaign will also be provided for more information and updates.  

• When will Agave be available?

  • Agave will no longer be available after May 13, 2024. 

• When will Phoenix be available?

  • The Agave to Phoenix transition will start in the fall of 2023 and the Phoenix supercomputer will be publicly available in the spring of 2024. ASU Research Computing anticipates the Agave to Phoenix transition to be complete by the summer of 2024.

For Owners of Private Partitions on Agave:

• What if I purchased a node that is hosted on Agave?

  • As nodes are reviewed and scheduled, a member from the ASU Research Computing team will contact you for your node’s migration. Please reach out to the Research Computing team at rtshelp@asu.edu if you have additional questions about these nodes. 

• How will my partition be impacted? 

  • Phoenix will use a different partition hierarchy and private partitions naming convention will not be carried over. ASU Research Computing will be reaching out to you and your team with information on how to access your private partitions and to offer one-on-one assistance with you and your team.

• Will the wildfire QOS remain? 

  • No, but a preemptable mechanism will be offered for faculty-owned systems.

• When will my partition be available?

  • The Phoenix supercomputer is scheduled to be publicly available in February 2024. Private partition owners and their groups will be contacted prior to this release to test their software needs.

Have additional questions?

Reach out to the ASU Research Computing team at rtshelp@asu.edu.