Dear users,
We will be performing software and hardware maintenance on the Baobab HPC cluster from 25 to 28 08 2026, starting at 08:00 +0100.
You’ll receive an email when the maintenance is finished. The cluster will be completely unavailable during this time, with no access whatsoever (not even to retrieve files).
We remember you that you our two other HPC clusters are available during the maintenance!
When submitting a job, make sure that the expected wall time (duration) doesn’t overlap with the start of the maintenance, or it will be scheduled after.
What will be done during this maintenance
- All compute nodes will be reinstalled with latest Rocky 9
- Upgrade Slurm to version slurm-26-05-3
- Install new Ethernet switches to have a 100Gb backbone
- Upgrade BeeGFS to next major version (8.4)
- Update all servers to the latest security and bugfix releases.
During the maintenance period we are very busy and provide limited user support.
Thank you for your understanding.
Best regards,
The Baobab HPC Team
Dear users,
The maintenance on the Baobab HPC cluster has been successfully completed and the cluster is now available again.
Unfortunately, this maintenance took longer than initially planned. During the migration to the new Ethernet switches, we encountered unexpected network issues that required additional troubleshooting. We also experienced problems related to the upgrade to BeeGFS 8, which is a major release and required further investigation before the cluster could be safely returned to service.
The following work has been completed:
- Replacement of the Ethernet switches with new hardware, enabling our new 100 Gb/s network backbone.
- Upgrade of the BeeGFS storage system to the new major release, BeeGFS 8.
- Upgrade of all systems to Rocky Linux 9.8.
- Upgrade of Open OnDemand to version 4.2.
We will closely monitor the BeeGFS 8 deployment over the coming days to ensure everything operates as expected.
Please note that a few BeeGFS quota reporting tools have not yet been updated and are currently unavailable:
- beegfs-get-quota-home-scratch.sh
- The corresponding quota page in Open OnDemand
We are working to restore these services as soon as possible.
We apologize for the extended downtime and thank you for your patience and understanding.
Best regards,
The Baobab HPC Team