maintenance/talks/bosc-2017/outline.org

Optimized & Reproducible HPC Software Deployment

• current HPC software environments are broken
  • distros are old and inflexible, not upgraded
  • thus, sysadmins write their own modules
  • hand-maintained modules break, still inflexible
  • modules may be removed behind your feet
  • thus, users hand-build software in $HOME
  • possibly using language-specific package managers
  • => it's a mess
• fixing this chaos
  • first approach: easybuild & spack
    • layered on top of the existing distro
    • good: packaging work is shared among HPC users, some QA
    • bad: everyone builds in $HOME -> waste of resources
    • bad: uses host tools -> not reproducible [screenshots]
  • second approach: app bundles
    • we have the bits, not the source
    • 100% reproducibility, but prevents experimentation
    • wrong level of abstraction: we don’t care about bits, but about packages
  • third approach: can we have our cake and eat it too?
• Guix
  • what it is
  • example commands
  • isolated builds: 100% reproducible
  • reproducible yet customizable [RepPar paper]
  • package variants, personal packages
  • sharing environments
• HPC & non-root usage
  • the problem: guix-daemon runs as root because that's the only way to get repro build envs
  • solutions:
    • running guix-daemon as non-root: doesn't work
    • user namespaces: unfortunately not widely available
    • relocation: yay!

https://fosdem.org/2017/schedule/event/hpc_deployment_guix/ Sat. 11:30, H.2213

current HPC software environments are broken

distros are old and inflexible, not upgraded

thus, sysadmins write their own modules

hand-maintained modules break, still inflexible

modules may be removed behind your feet

thus, users hand-build software in $HOME

possibly using language-specific package managers

=> it's a mess

fixing this chaos

first approach: easybuild & spack

layered on top of the existing distro

good: packaging work is shared among HPC users, some QA

bad: everyone builds in $HOME -> waste of resources

bad: uses host tools -> not reproducible [screenshots]

second approach: app bundles

we have the bits, not the source

100% reproducibility, but prevents experimentation

wrong level of abstraction: we don’t care about bits, but about packages

third approach: can we have our cake and eat it too?

Guix

what it is

example commands

isolated builds: 100% reproducible

reproducible yet customizable [RepPar paper]

package variants, personal packages

sharing environments

• symbolic sharing: manifests
• share the bits: “guix pack” (with Docker support)

HPC & non-root usage

the problem: guix-daemon runs as root because that's the only way to get repro build envs

solutions:

running guix-daemon as non-root: doesn't work

user namespaces: unfortunately not widely available

relocation: yay!