News

The "Cloud Management" working group of the ZKI e.V. met on November 13/14, 2024 at the SCC of the KIT to discuss cloud strategies and experiences.

Translated with DeepL.com
 
Dr. Martin Nußbaumer, Director of SCC, and Torsten Prill, Chairman of ZKI e.V., welcomed the 58 participants to KIT Campus South. The agenda focused on two main topics - on the one hand, the different aspects of the cloud strategies of universities and colleges and, on the other hand, practical experience with the cloud computing models Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service.
 
The presentations on "Cloud strategies of the federal states and universities" showed a wide range of possible ways of dealing with "the cloud" and inspired a very lively exchange, as did the "(Practical) experiences with the use of IaaS and PaaS, especially at universities".
 
However, both focal points only represent small sections of the overall complex of the "Cloud Management" working group, as the joint identification of topics for the future of the working group showed. In addition, the report Cloud Management - Changes in administrative and provisioning processes, to which many working group members contributed, has now been officially published.
 
Patrick von der Hagen, Ulrich Weiß

On October 31, Daniel Coquelin defended his dissertation and successfully completed his doctorate at the KIT Department of Informatics with this important step.

Mr. Daniel Coquelin successfully completed his dissertation on 31.10.2024. His research focus in recent years has been on distributed machine learning.
Mr. Coquelin has made valuable contributions to distributed machine learning, particularly in the area of data parallel neural networks. His early work focused on communication-avoiding approaches to data parallel training. He then investigated the behavior of neural networks during training, observing that the orthogonal basis of weight matrices tends to stabilize during training. Based on this insight, he developed a novel method for training low-rank neural networks on distributed memory systems. This method allows for efficient scaling of training across multiple devices, leading to compressed neural networks that can outperform their full-rank counterparts. His work has implications for large-scale applications like natural language processing and computer vision. Mr. Coquelin's work was funded by the Helmholtz Analytics Framework (HAF) project and the Helmholtz Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Unit (Helmholtz AI) platform.
SCC congratulates Mr. Coquelin on the successful completion of his doctorate and wishes him all the best for his future career.
[1] Prof. Ina Schäfer (KIT, Chair of the Examination Board), Prof. Achim Streit (KIT, first supervisor), Prof. Håkan Grahn (Blekinge Tekniska Högskola (BTH), Sweden, external examiner/opponent), Prof. Ralf Reussner (KIT, examiner) , Prof. Thorsten Strufe (KIT, examiner)
 
Achim Grindler

Tim Niklas Uhl from KIT was one of the winners of this year's Golden Spike Awards. They were presented at the 27th Results and Review Workshop. The conference took place on October 10 and 11, 2024 at KIT.

On October 10 and 11, 2024, the 27th Results and Review Workshop took place at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The two-day conference, which brought together users of the supercomputers of the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) and the Scientific Computing Center (SCC), highlighted modern applications of high performance and supercomputing (HPC) and provided a platform for presenting research results and discussing issues of application performance and scalability of HPC.
Prof. Dr. Martin Frank (Director of the SCC, KIT) and Prof. Dr. Thomas Ludwig (Director of the DKRZ, Hamburg and Chairman of the Steering Committee) welcomed the participants to the event.
Current research results from computational fluid mechanics, climate research, computer science, reactive flows and other disciplines such as chemistry and materials science, bioinformatics, astrophysics and particle physics were presented in 21 lectures and a poster session. In addition to traditional HPC simulations, machine learning methods and strategies for improving energy efficiency were also discussed.
One of the highlights was the presentation of the Golden Spike Awards to outstanding research projects. Among the award winners was Tim Niklas Uhl (Institute for Theoretical Computer Science, KIT), who was honored for his work on scalable algorithms for big data applications.
Presentations from the KIT
Numerical Study of Shock-Wave Interaction with a Fully-Resolved Cloud of Immobile Particles (Swagat Kumar Nayak and Markus Uhlmann, Institute for Water and Environment) Modeling of Composition-Climate Interactions with ICON-ART (R. Ruhnke, P. Braesicke, L. Feld, P. Dietz, V. Hanft, K. Satitkovitchai, B.-M. Sinnhuber, M. Sinnhuber and S. Versick, Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Environmental Research) Providing Climate Information Inferred from Kilometer-Scale Modelling (Hendrik Feldmann, Marie Hundhausen, Evgenii Churiulin, Christine Mihalyfi-Dean, Joaquim G. Pinto, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research - Tropospheric Research) Climate Change and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: High-Resolution Dynamical Climate-Malaria Transmission Modeling near Victoria Lake, Kenya (Mame Diarra Bousso Dieng and Joël Arnault, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Environmental Research, KIT-Campus Alpin) Scalable Discrete Algorithms for Big Data Applications (Lukas Hübner, Florian Kurpicz, Peter Sanders, Matthias Schimek, Dominik Schreiber, Daniel Seemaier, Tim Niklas Uhl, Institute for Theoretical Computer Science - Algorithm Engineering) Posters from the KIT
DNSPImpJets_HLRS: Reynolds Analogy in Smooth-Wall Turbulent Impinging Jets (Francesco Secchi, Institut für Strömungsmechanik) Turbulent Drag Reduction on a Transonic Airfoil with Shockwave Blades (Davide Gatti, Niccolo‘ Berizzi, Sergio Pirozzoli, Maurizio Quadrio, Institut für Strömungsmechanik) Anharmonic Correction to Adsorption Free Energy of O-Species on Pt(111) Surface from Thermodynamic Integration Using MLFF-MD Simulations (Thanh-Nam Huynh und Dmitry I. Sharapa, Institut für Katalyseforschung und -technologie) Further information:
www.hlrs.de/event/2024/review-ws-27 www.hlrs.de/news/detail/winners-of-the-2024-golden-spike-awards Carolin Breitzke

This year's bwHPC anniversary symposium took place on September 25 and 26, 2024 with over 80 participants in Freiburg im Breisgau.

On September 25 and 26, 2024, the 10th bwHPC Symposium took place at the University of Freiburg. This year's anniversary event attracted over 80 participants, who presented current developments in the field of high-performance computing (HPC). Over the course of two days, the bwHPC Symposium provided a platform for the exchange of knowledge and ideas in order to strengthen the role of HPC in research. Numerous scientists from all over Baden-Württemberg contributed their work. KIT was also represented by 23 researchers and contributed in the form of a tutorial, a poster presentation and two talks.
Contributions from KIT
On the first day of the symposium, Dr. Robert Barthel, with the help of Martje Armbrecht and Peter Weisbrod, led a tutorial on Introduction to HPC, which offered participants a comprehensive introduction to the use of the bwHPC infrastructure. The tutorial began with an introduction to the infrastructure and the objectives of the bwHPC-S5 project and provided information on how to access the resources. In addition, bwHPC services such as proactive user support were discussed. The first steps for using the bwForCluster and file transfer under Linux and Windows were then explained and an overview of the various data storage services was given. This was followed by an explanation of how to set up and run jobs on a cluster. Another important aspect was the use of different file systems on the clusters. This practice-oriented tutorial enabled participants to get straight into working with HPC clusters and gain valuable experience for their research.
KIT was also represented at the poster session. Ludmilla Obholz and Uwe Falke, with the help of co-authors Andreas Petzold and Serge Sushkov Evdoshenko, presented a poster on the Large Scale Data Facility at KIT (LSDF2), which is the central online data storage system available to all scientists and plays a key role in the storage and processing of large scientific data sets.
Sebastian Brommer's presentation on High Performance Computing Infrastructure for Particle Physics: The Experience of the Karlsruhe Groups was particularly exciting. Brommer explained the essential role of flexible and scalable computing resources for particle physics. At the Institute for Experimental Particle Physics (ETP) in Karlsruhe, the Overlay Batch System (OBS) is used as a uniform access point, which dynamically integrates additional computing resources from external locations using the meta-scheduling tool COBalD/TARDIS. The bwForCluster NEMO is a central resource that is used for simulations and data analyses in the context of large collaborations such as ATLAS, CMS and Belle II.
Another important contribution was made by Matthias Schnepf, who emphasized the role of the NEMO cluster in research into particle physics and dark matter in his presentation Belle II on NEMO: Flavour and Dark Matter Physics. He emphasized how HPC systems efficiently support the analysis of the enormous amounts of data generated in these physics experiments, sometimes through simulations.
About bwHPC
The bwHPC program is an initiative of the state of Baden-Württemberg that offers researchers access to high-performance computing resources for data-intensive research projects. The annual bwHPC symposium promotes exchange and interdisciplinary cooperation in the field of high-performance computing.
The symposium takes place every year, and we are already looking forward to participation and attendance at the bwHPC Symposium 2025!
 
Further information on the symposium can be found on the bwHPC website.
 
Carolin Breitzke

In collaboration with DLR, researchers at Helmholtz.AI are developing an AI-supported heliostat optimization. Heliostats are sun-tracking mirrors for solar thermal power plants. This significantly increases the efficiency of the power plants.

At a test facility in Jülich, operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), nearly 2,000 mirrors are aligned to reflect sunlight onto an absorber atop a tower. These solar tower power plants can complement wind and photovoltaic energy as a renewable energy source. The heat they concentrate can be used to generate electricity, power thermal industrial processes, or even stored for use during nighttime or in calm wind conditions. Like other renewable technologies, solar thermal power plants face significant cost pressures. To stay competitive, cost-saving measures are essential. Given that heliostats are a key expense, optimizing their production and performance is crucial. Currently, the mirrors are not perfectly flat, leading to uneven heat distribution at the tower, requiring high safety margins and thus reducing efficiency.
Researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), together with consultants from Helmholtz.AI at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) and SCC at KIT, have therefore developed a new AI-based method to easily detect irregularities in the mirrors. Their results have been published in Nature Communications.
Further information on the Helmholtz.AI website Publication in Nature Communications  
Contact at SCC: Dr. Markus Götz
 
Achim Grindler
 

From 10 to 12 September 2024, the NFDI-MatWerk Summer School on Research Data Management in Materials Science and Engineering took place in Bremen.

From 10 to 12 September 2024, the NFDI-MatWerk Summer School on Research Data Management in Materials Science and Engineering took place in Bremen, hosted at the University of Bremen and organized by the scientific consortium National Research Data Infrastructure for Materials Science & Engineering (NFDI-MatWerk).
The aim of this summer school was to guide researchers to put FAIR principles into practice focusing more on the research area Materials Science & Engineering.
Dr. Rossella Aversa and Sabrine Chelbi, both from SCC, held two lectures: “The journey towards Metadata Management”, representing the theory part about understanding the importance and the added value of metadata, and “Metadata Management in practice using MatWerk tools”, including specific metadata management tools offered by NFDI-MatWerk as well as various tutorials and hands-on activities.
The attendees participated actively and manifested their positive feedback in the final survey.
Dr. Rossella Aversa, Sabrine Chelbi

High school students can still apply until October 23, 2024.

In 2024, enthusiastic students can once again apply to conduct research at the SCC as part of projects related to computer science and mathematical modeling. The projects are supervised by SCC scientists and deal with topics from simulation, high-performance computing, management and analysis of large amounts of data.
More information at s.kit.edu/fssw
 
Achim Grindler

SCC held an International User Forum for the High Performance Storage System (HPSS) from September 9 to 12. The Forum is an exchange platform for all institutions that use and operate HPSS.

SCC held an International User Forum for the High Performance Storage System (HPSS) from September 9 to 12. There were 60 participants from 26 HPSS facilities. Of these, 30 were from Europe, 24 from America and Canada and 6 from Asia. The User Forum is an exchange of all facilities that use HPSS.
The HPSS storage software fulfills the most demanding requirements for long-term scalable storage requirements. Magnetic tape is the most economical storage solution for infrequently accessed data and is often referred to as "zero-watt storage". However, read access to tape data can also be scaled efficiently with the right installation. There is no one way to set up an HPSS, and each facility adapts it very precisely to its own needs. Typically, an HPSS is used by facilities that want to store large amounts of data over a long period of time. Many of these institutions deal with weather or climate research data, which is usually kept for a long time. The SCC certainly does not operate the largest installation, but it is one of the most active and innovative facilities that gets the maximum out of the hardware and achieves very good throughput rates. The German Tier 1 center for the Large Hadron Collider GridKa operated at SCC and the bwDataArchive service use an HPSS as tape storage technology. A disaster recovery installation for the Large Scale Data Facility to store large volumes of scientific data is also being set up.
During the user forum, both the developers reported on the next innovations and the use of their installations and the associated peculiarities. There were also reports on how and with which tools the systems are monitored. Efficient system monitoring is essential, as bottlenecks or problems need to be identified quickly in order to be able to react accordingly.

The HPSS community describes itself as a "big friendly family" in which a good exchange is maintained and people help each other.
During the four days:
shared operational experiences and the various HPSS upgrades and lessons learned Techniques for managing workload performance were presented in order to organize data on tape and optimize tape drive access. HPSS monitoring tools and scenarios of how end-user interfaces utilize HPSS were presented Diagnostic and troubleshooting guides for tape drives explained told "horror stories" from sites and how they overcame them and last but not least, reports on new projects that the sites are working on. In addition to the many technical presentations and lively discussions, there was a GridKa tour and a social get-together with a delicious tarte flambée meal at the SCC. The Schlosslichtspiele Karlsruhe were a highlight of the social program and the excellent conference dinner was accompanied by a museum tour about AI at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM).
 
Doris Ressmann

In the User Portal (UP), approvers can now set up substitutions directly in the inbox to ensure a smooth transition for approval processes in the event of absences.

Since mid-August, substitutes for the approval of HR tasks (time bookings, absence requests) can be set up in the Inbox. To do this, open the Inbox and then select the "Manage my substitutes" function via the button for your own profile at the top right. You can create planned and unplanned substitutions, which must then be activated by the person taking over the substitution.

With the introduction of the easyBANF app, the successor system for the SRM procurement system, planned for September 18, substitutions for the approval of shopping baskets can also be set up.
More information on the inbox and setting up substitutions.
The UP(up.scc.kit.edu) is constantly being expanded with new functions. Current information can be found in the news app in the UP or on our website.



(translated with DeepL.com)

The new SCC News is online, including these topics: HoreKa receives highly energy-efficient extension; workflow system for digital approval processes; power consumption measurements for sustainable AI.

Download SCC-News 1/2024

Dear reader,
IT companies such as Google and Microsoft are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) in their products. The huge computing power required for this is usually provided by state-of-the-art graphics processing units (GPUs). These in turn require a lot of electrical energy to process AI algorithms. But how can modern computer systems run more efficiently and sustainably without slowing down progress? In this issue, SCC shows you some of the changes that can be made.

First, it is important that computer systems can perform more calculations with less energy. Our supercomputer HoreKa has demonstrated this impressively after its new upgrade. It is now the sixth most energy-efficient computer in the world (p. 20). Another option is to generate the required electricity locally from renewable energy sources. KIT is currently installing several large solar systems on the roofs of its institutes. The roof of the SCC buildings alone will have a peak output of about 500 kW.

There is also room for improvement in software. Initiated by SCC the research community has started to discuss how measuring the power consumption of AI software can serve as a sustainability metric (p. 23). However, it is not only energy saving that contributes to sustainability in IT. One example is the sustainable storage of research data. The SCC is developing concepts that will enable researchers from different disciplines and locations to work efficiently with existing data (p. 5 and 27).

Finally in this SCC News, we talk about digitalisation of KIT's business processes – i.e. electronic workflows – which will further reduce errors, working time, and paper consumption (p. 16). Speaking of paper: starting with this issue, we will be sending out SCC News exclusively in digital form and in a new layout.
Enjoy reading!
Martin Frank, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit
 
Achim Grindler

Prof. Dr. Nadja Klein leads the newly established research group Methods for Big Data (MBD). It develops novel statistical and mathematical approaches at the intersection of Bayesian statistics and machine learning.

In August, Professor Nadja Klein was jointly appointed to the Professor Methods for Big Data by the Department of Informatics and the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) at KIT. Previously, Prof. Klein was Professor for Statistics and Data Science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
At SCC, Prof. Dr. Nadja Klein leads the newly established research group Methods for Big Data (MBD), which develops novel statistical and mathematical techniques for the quantification of uncertainties in statistical and machine learning by leveraging Bayesian statistics. MBD also tries to make models more robust and data-efficient via the integration of prior knowledge. The research activities of the MBD group focus on both theoretical and empirical aspects as well as on interdisciplinary projects where theoretically-based methods are tailored to applications. Further details about the group’s activities can be found at kleinlab-statml.github.io.
 
 
Achim Grindler

From 12 to 14 June 2024, the NFFA-Europe Summer School on Data Management and Virtual Access took place. The school in numbers: 3 days in Heraklion, 8 sessions, 29 participants, 12 instructors, 3 of which from SCC

From 12 to 14 June 2024, the NFFA-Europe Summer School on Data Management and Virtual Access took place in Heraklion (Greece), hosted at the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), as part of the training activities organized by NFFA-Europe, a Research and Innovation Action under the H2020 Work Programme. Dr. Rossella Aversa (one of the scientific organizers), Thomas Jejkal, and Nicolas Blumenröhr, all from SCC, travelled to Greece to hold their lectures.
The aim of the three-day Summer School was to guide researchers to effectively put FAIR principles into practice and to make use of Virtual Access services, a novel set of cloud services offered by NFFA-Europe, which includes innovative online simulation services, databases, machine learning services, data analysis and metadata management.
The instructors introduced specific data and metadata management tools (data management plans, repositories, metadata schemas) as well as each of the Virtual Access services. The sessions were widely supported by dedicated tutorials and hands-on activities.
The attendees, including technicians, graduate students, post-docs, and young researchers from academic and industrial communities, participated actively and manifested their positive feedback in the final survey.
 
Dr. Rossella Aversa, Thomas Jejkal

From mid-July 2024, the digital process for commissioning authorizations in the User Portal (UP) will replace the PDF application forms used to date, offering numerous advantages.

From July 10, 2024, a new function called "Request authorizations" will be available to KIT employees in the User Portal (UP). This is a digital form that KIT employees can use to apply for authorizations in the UP for themselves or for third parties and for authorized persons to approve them.
The digital form replaces the previously used PDF application forms, which will only be accepted until July 22, 2024. 
The following authorizations can be applied for and approved via the digital procedure.
Finance and HR reports with BW Creation and approval of shopping carts in SRM Correct signature and approval of incoming invoices in AREB Administration of guest and partner Approval of person days Once the application has been submitted, the person for whom the authorizations have been requested must first approve the application. The responsible manager then receives a notification by email to approve or reject the application via a link contained therein. If approved, the application is forwarded to the SCC and processed there as before.
The new digital process offers numerous advantages:
Support when completing the form: Users are guided through the form and, for example, are only given the valid account assignment elements (cost center, WBS elements) to choose from, depending on the information provided Simpler approval: Approvers receive a notification email and can approve the request via a link. Signatures or digital signatures are no longer required. Transparent and traceable process: The responsible line manager is automatically determined from the centrally stored information in the organizational management and the funds center plan. Applicants can track the status of the approval process. Further information on the digital procedure or on authorizations in general can be found on Authorizations for UP. If you have any further questions, please contact our SCC Service Desk. 
SCC Service Team

The way is clear for the cloud-based software platform Microsoft 365 at KIT. The Executive Board decides to provide such a platform for all employees.

At the end of May 2024, the Executive Board of KIT decided to provide all KIT employees with the cloud-based software platform Microsoft 365 (M365). The associated goal is to achieve a balanced use of the software in terms of maximum possible functionality on the one hand and data protection precautions and information security on the other. The Digital Office and the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) are commissioned to take care of the implementation and the further necessary steps in accordance with the roadmap for the extended use of M365 at KIT.
At the end of May 2024, the Executive Board of KIT decided to provide all KIT employees with the cloud-based software platform Microsoft 365 (M365). The associated goal is a balanced use of the software in terms of maximum possible functionality on the one hand and data protection precautions and information security on the other.
To this end, the SCC has developed a roadmap for the extended use of M365. We are gradually providing the following functionalities, among others:
Guest access to M365 services for collaboration with external parties M365 access accounts for all employees OneDrive and SharePoint-Online as online storage services Intune for managing apps and settings on mobile devices Hybrid provision of Microsoft Exchange for groupware functionalities, such as calendar use in MS Teams The roadmap, aspects of security and data protection and the next steps were presented and discussed at the meeting of IT appointees in May 2024.
 
Achim Grindler

Based on the successful AARC Blueprint Architecture model, AARC TREE takes the integration of research infrastructures to the next level.

Collaboration and sharing of resources is crucial for research. Authentication and Authorization Infrastructures (AAI) play a key role in enabling federated interoperable access to resources.
The AARC Technical Revision to Enhance Effectiveness (AARC TREE) project takes the successful and globally recognized Authentication and Authorization for Research Collaboration (AARC) model and its flagship deliverable, the AARC Blueprint Architecture (BPA), as a foundation to drive the next phase of research infrastructure integration: Expanding federated access management to integrate user-centric technologies, expanding access to federated data and services (authorization), consolidating existing capabilities, and avoiding fragmentation and unnecessary duplication.
SCCs participates in AARC-TREE to continue developing the Blueprint Architectures. Here we contribute to technical recommendations, as well as to policy development. Since SCC is also a core member of the IAM project of the german NFDI, we can raise the awareness of NFDI requirements in AARC, as well as feed new developments back to NFDI, in a very timely manner.

Contact at the SCC: Dr. Marcus Hardt
Achim Grindler

More than 250 IT representatives (ITB) from KIT attended the 27th meeting to find out about new developments in the IT infrastructure and the IT services offered at the SCC.

The meeting of the SCC takes place twice a year in an online format.
This time, a total of 260 people from around 100 organizational units were welcomed.
In addition to the main topic of the introduction of Microsoft cloud services, which was the subject of lively and critical discussion, the agenda also included topics, changes and plans in the areas of studying and teaching, research and administration.
For example, the introduction of HISinOne STU in June 2024 and a state service with Jupyter (bwJupyter currently in the pilot phase) were reported on, as well as current information on plans in the User Portal (UP) for EasyBanf, new ESS/MSS functions and the assignment of authorizations. 
The authentication and authorization infrastructure (AAI) operated centrally at the SCC is already used nationwide and is to be expanded. In future, further identities, including BundID, will be integrated into the AAI software RegApp developed by the SCC.
The presentation of this event, as well as all previous presentations, can be viewed by all members of KIT on the SCC's Partnership Cooperation website. 
IT representatives (ITB) have the opportunity to report topic requests to the SCC at any time in the run-up to the next event in November 2024 and beyond. Employees should contact the ITB in their organizational units directly to submit any IT-relevant topics.


Birgit Junker

The Karlsruhe high-performance computer (HoreKa) is currently one of the fastest computers in Europe. A recent upgrade also puts it in 6th place in the biannual Green 500 list of the world's most energy-efficient computers.

The Karlsruhe high-performance computer(HoreKa) is being upgraded to a new level, including for use in high-scaling calculations with artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve complex scientific questions. The new components are combined in a separate partition, HoreKa-Teal (see photo), and contain 88 NVIDIA H100 accelerator processors. The systems are hot-water cooled and, with an energy efficiency of 63 GigaFLOPS (billions of computing operations) per watt, are among the top 10 most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world. HoreKa-Teal ranks 6th on the current Green500 list. This represents another significant improvement on the result when it was commissioned in 2021 (13th place). The total performance of HoreKa thus increases to over 20 quadrillion computing operations per second (20 PetaFLOPS).
To the press release of the KIT
 
Achim Grindler

In the ARTIST project "AI-enhanced differentiable Ray Tracer for Irradiation-concentrating Solar Towers", researchers are developing a digital twin to optimize solar power plants.

Thermal solar tower plants are renewable energy facilities that use mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver. Here, the heat energy is collected and used for industrial processes or electricity generation without greenhouse gas emissions. Together with the German Aerospace Center, researchers at the SCC are creating a comprehensive digital twin of thermal solar power systems that can simulate how sunlight travels through these plants and collects at the receiver. Based on ray tracing principles, this simulation improves predictions of how much sunlight the mirrors will receive, thus optimizing their alignment to maximize the energy yield without overheating the receiver.
In the new ARTIST project, we aim to enhance a physics-based raytracer with artificial intelligence to create a data-driven digital copy of the power plant, which can then be used to design, control, predict, and diagnose issues during daily operations. This AI-enhanced system can optimize various aspects of the plant's operation, such as the mirror aimpoint, based on real-time conditions. In addition, we can explain certain operative actions in the plant's operation. We will test our digital twin at a real power plant in Jülich, Germany, marking a major milestone towards fully automated solar tower power plants.
 
Dr. Marie Weiel

The SOL-AI project, in which SCC is also involved, aims to accelerate the development and optimization of photovoltaic materials using state-of-the-art AI models.

In the SOL-AI project, KIT and partners combine the development of new generations of solar cells with state-of-the-art approaches to artificial intelligence (AI/AI) and machine learning (ML). The Scientific Computing Center (SCC) of KIT is represented by tenure-track professor Sebastian Krumscheid. Sebastian Krumscheid is a research group leader at SCC and an expert in uncertainty quantification (UQ). AI and ML are also used here in the design of new and more efficient materials for photovoltaics. The goal is to create an AI model that adapts to the diverse challenges of materials science.
The Helmholtz Association is funding a total of four projects on basic models for artificial intelligence. KIT is involved in two of these projects (see KIT press release).
Contact at SCC: TT-Prof. Dr. Sebastian Krumscheid
 
Achim Grindler

As part of the joint project “Materialized Holiness”, SCC researchers have the unique opportunity to visit one of the most valuable collections of literature in the world.

Admittedly, the words “Vatican Library” or “Sacred Manuscripts” do not immediately bring to mind computer science or the SCC. But digital research data management bridges the gap between the Vatican Library's valuable books and manuscripts and modern information science methods. As part of the joint project “Materialized holiness” funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), researchers from the SCC are working with experts in Jewish Studies and materials science to investigate medieval Torah scrolls and their transformation into the digital world. In particular, the question arises as to how the multi-perspective information content of the Torah scrolls can be converted into machine-readable, structured objects and data in order to enable targeted computer-aided analyses and visualizations. In order to study and collect this information, it is essential to view the real objects.
The Vatican Library's collection contains two medieval Torah scrolls as well as many other interesting manuscripts relevant to the project. In April, Laura Frank and Dr. Danah Tonne (both SCC) were granted access to the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana together with the Jewish Studies experts to examine these treasures. Under strict supervision and after many security checks, the researchers were allowed to examine the ancient, valuable objects for any special characteristics and differences. Laura Frank and Danah Tonne were not only able to gain deep insights into the work of the humanities scholars, but also clarify many questions about the data models designed and the technical implementation of their own research work.


Laura Frank

The AI4EOSC project announces the first Open Call for new Use cases! The goal is to onboard researchers, businesses, and innovators developing innovative solutions and support them by taking advantage of AI/ML/DL technologies.

AI4EOSC platform recently had its first release. It provides a user-friendly workbench and toolbox for developing and running AI models, tightly integrated with the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud).

With its first release, the AI4EOSC project announces the first Open Call for new Use cases! The goal is to onboard researchers, businesses, and innovators developing innovative solutions and help them improve their products and services by taking advantage of AI/ML/DL technologies and models within the EOSC. Research organizations, researchers, start-ups, spin-offs or, SMEs from EU countries (eligible for HE) are invited to apply for this Open Call.
For details: please, see this announecement
Deadline: extended to May 15, 2024, 11:59 pm CEST
Dr. Valentin Kozlov

SCC now also checks internal e-mails that may pose a potential threat to the IT infrastructure at KIT. There is a particular risk potential when sending specific files as e-mail attachments.

E-mails with potentially dangerous files attached have long been blocked when sending to or receiving from external parties (see also Policy changes to incoming mail systems), as these files, such as Office files containing macros, are often used by attackers to infiltrate malware (so-called macro viruses). In order to close this popular gateway for attackers, SCC will increase the security of e-mail communication within the KIT and, for example, check e-mails for such potentially dangerous files and block them if necessary. The mail routing for KIT mailboxes will be adapted for this purpose.
From Tuesday, April 23, 2024, e-mails sent from KIT mailbox to KIT mailbox will also be checked. From this date, emails with potentially dangerous files attached will therefore be rejected and will no longer reach the target addresses.
This applies in particular to e-mails with the following attachments
RTF files or Word/Excel documents with macros (*.docm and *.xlsm) IMPORTANT: Please note the following information!
If it is necessary to send documents with such potentially dangerous document types internally, use mail encryption (S/MIME) or use the services provided for exchanging documents:
File exchange and online storage for desktop data (bwSync&Share) KIT team pages KIT data storage (OU directory) MS Teams matrix etc. Depending on the confidentiality of the data contained in these documents, use the appropriate file exchange service. Get also user guidance via the various service documetation.
Note
After the implementation of this extension and the associated improvement of IT security at KIT, sending e-mails via the smtp.kit.edu service from outside will again be possible without a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Information about this change can also be found in our operational messages.
SCC Support Team

Sebastian Krumscheid erarbeitet mit Studierenden Konzepte für Problemlösungen aus aktuellen Anwendungsbeispielen. Er erhält für seine herausragende Lehre den KIT-Fakultätslehrpreis 2024: Mathematik.

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Sebastian Krumscheid lehrt an der KIT-Fakultät Mathematik und leitet am SCC die Forschungsgruppe Uncertainty Quantification (UQ). Seine Gruppe entwickelt moderne mathematische und numerische Techniken zur Behandlung und Quantifizierung von Unsicherheiten in komplexen Rechenmodellen.
An der KIT-Fakultät Mathematik vertritt Sebastian Krumscheid das Fachgebiet Uncertainty Quantification in der Lehre. In seinen Vorlesungen lernen die Studierenden moderne Methoden der angewandten Mathematik zu beherrschen. Sie lernen, die Unsicherheiten in mathematischen Modellen und komplexen Berechnungsmodellen zu quantifizieren und untersuchen gemeinsam mit Sebastian Krumscheid aktuelle Anwendungsbeispiele des maschinellen Lernens, den Wirtschaftswissenschaften oder den Naturwissenschaften, um Lösungskonzepte zu entwickeln.
Die KIT-Fakultät Mathematik ehrt Sebastian Krumscheid für seine innovativen und praxisorientierte Lehrkonzepte zu hochkomplexen mathematischen Methoden mit dem Fakultätslehrpreis.
Das SCC gratuliert Herrn Krumscheid herzlich zu dieser Auszeichnung.



Achim Grindler

SCC is launches the pilot phase of the "JupyterHub for Teaching" service. The aim of the project is to strengthen research-oriented teaching at KIT, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, simulation and modeling.

In the summer semester 2024, SCC will start the pilot phase of the new JupyterHub for Teaching service for teaching. The aim of the project is to strengthen research-oriented teaching, especially in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, simulation and modeling, by providing a KIT-wide JupyterHub.

Computer-aided modeling and simulation has long been used not only in the natural sciences and technology, but also in almost all areas of research, from social sciences and humanities to medicine.

Especially in the rapidly growing field of AI, the application possibilities are endless. This results in new demands on the skills of graduates from all disciplines. In order to be able to use the numerous tools effectively, training must include not only subject-specific topics but also teach knowledge of common programming languages and their use in computer-aided computing. In order for this to succeed, the entry level should be as low-threshold as possible and the handling should be simple.
The open-source software JupyterHub offers this possibility. The web-based, interactive environment enables students to test and execute code from the most common programming languages (including Julia, Python and R) without having to install software on their own computer. The service is therefore independent of device and location, allowing students to use it conveniently from anywhere.
The pilot phase involves 30 courses with a total of around 2000 students. The service is to be expanded further in the coming winter semester. JupyterHub for Teaching will also be integrated into the ILIAS learning platform at KIT to make it easy and efficient to use in teaching.
 
Achim Grindler

The Research Software Engineering Community at KIT has launched a new website as a source of information

The new page www.rse-community.kit.edu serves, among other things, as a starting point for those looking for information, events and services on the broad topic of Research Software Engineering (RSE). It is also intended to stimulate the exchange of knowledge on interesting RSE topics and issues.
Take a look and find out more about this new website: Here you can find out exactly what research software is and what we mean by Research Software Engineering. You will also find an extensive collection of links to sources of information at KIT, nationally and internationally. Feedback is possible and expressly welcome via the e-mail address given in the footer.
To the Website RSE-Community
 
Achim Grindler

These three workshops give a detailed insight how to develop AI/ML/DL models and applications in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)

The AI4EOSC (Artificial Intelligence for the European Open Science Cloud), an EU-funded project that delivers an enhanced set of advanced services for the development of AI/ML/DL models and applications in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), organises a series of online workshops:
AI development in the EOSC
Day 1, March 22nd, 10:00 - 12:00 CEST: AI4EOSC platform introduction Day 2, April 8th, 14:00 - 16:00 CEST: Image processing with AI4EOSC Day 3, April 22nd, 14:00 - 16:00 CEST: Federated learning in the EOSC  
For the overview, agenda and registration, please, visit ai4eosc.eu/events/ai4eosc-workshops-on-ai-development-in-the-eosc/
 
Contact at SCC: Dr. Valentin Kozlov

Login names for KIT employees in the form "vorname.nachname@kit.edu" will be discontinued. Authentication on systems can thus only be carried out via the personal KIT account in the form "ab1234" or "ab1234@kit.edu".

At currently, KIT employees log in to central KIT IT services (KIT mailbox, computers in kit.edu, etc.) with the currently valid login names in the form "kit\<ab1234>" or "<firstname.surname>@kit.edu".
The variant "<firstname.surname>@kit.edu" for KIT employees will now be changed to the new login name "<ab1234>@kit.edu".
The intention is to make the login name of a user account independent of a person's name change and to standardize the login name across all systems.
In addition, by standardizing the login name, for example, people who have agreed to use Microsoft Teams via https://my.scc.kit.edu will be able to use their Exchange calendar under Microsoft Teams in future. 
The change will take place successively from 09:00 on Monday, 18.03.2024.
The login names will be changed successively, i.e. the individual user accounts of all KIT employees will be converted one by one. After the conversion of a user account, it will no longer be possible to log in to the central IT services of KIT with "<firstname.surname>@kit.edu" for this account. From this point on, the new login name "<ab1234>@kit.edu" of the user account must be used where "<firstname.surname>@kit.edu" was otherwise used for login.
Employees can find further information at:
KIT > SCC > Services > Working environment > User account (password) > KIT user account > Change login name.
The IT representatives in the organizational (ITB) units, who have already been informed about the change, will certainly help. However, queries can also be sent by email to it-support@scc.kit.edu.
 


SCC Service Team

Almost the same time, on February 8 and 9, Elnaz Azmi and Oskar Taubert had the defense of their dissertations and were able to successfully complete their doctorates at the KIT Department of Informatics with this important step.

Ms. Elnaz Azmi successfully completed her dissertation on 8.2.2024. Since 2017, she has been working on the challenge of reducing the resource requirements of environmental simulations by using machine learning methods. One day later, Oskar Taubert was also able to celebrate the successful defense of his dissertation. Since 2018, Mr Taubert has been working on the machine learning of sparse data problems in biology and biologically inspired optimization algorithms adapted to high-performance computing (HPC).
Ms. Azmi has worked extensively with simulations in the environmental sciences, which are essential for the understanding of complex natural phenomena. Due to their high spatial and temporal resolution, these often impose high demands on available computing resources. In her research, Ms Azmi worked on increasing the efficiency of computationally intensive simulations by applying approximation and optimization approaches to examples from hydrology and climate science. The aim was to use machine learning to recognize similarities in time and space within the simulations and thus develop a method to reduce redundancies. By integrating an unsupervised learning module directly into the simulation code and replacing part of the simulation with a neural network, Ms. Azmi showed that by identifying model redundancies and reducing computational complexity, the efficiency of the simulations can be increased, thereby reducing resource requirements.
Mr. Taubert applied machine learning to the prediction of the structure of biomolecules. In order to make the best possible use of the limited training data available, he combined various methods: self-supervised neural networks, fine-tuning and gradient boosted decision trees. The parameterization of these complex model processes is made possible by algorithms adapted to the computing environment, which use the given computing resources efficiently to propose new models and train them. The contributions researched by Mr. Taubert on models generated with sparse data and on model architecture search should also be used in scientific machine learning in the future. Mr. Taubert's work was funded by the Helmholtz Analytics Framework (HAF) project, a "Google Faculty Research Award" received in the Multiscal Biomolecular Simulation research group and the Helmholtz Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Unit (Helmholtz AI) platform.
SCC congratulates Ms. Azmi and Mr. Taubert on successfully completing their doctorates and wishes them all the best for their future careers.
Dissertation of Elnaz Azmi: Approximation and Optimization of Compute-Intensive Environmental Simulations through Machine Learning Methods
Dissertation of Oskar Taubert: Machine Learning from Evolution
 
Achim Grindler
 

The SAP web portal was shut down at the end of 2023. The User Portal (UP) is now the central portal for employees for SAP-based digital administrative processes at KIT.

Translated with DeepL.com
Previously, KIT employees had access to various digital administration services (e.g. Employee Self Service, the Business Warehouse (BW) for financial and personnel reports and Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) for procurements) via the SAP web portal.
At the end of 2023, the SAP web portal was shut down and replaced by the User Portal (UP), which had been productive in parallel to the SAP web portal since fall 2022. UP is based on current SAP technologies and concepts, is now available in two languages - German and English - and can also be used on mobile devices with common web browsers. Over 15 apps are already available in UP. UP will be continuously expanded and new functions and apps added in 2024.
The replacement of the SAP web portal with the new portal is an important interim step in updating KIT's SAP system landscape. The next milestone is the planned replacement of the previous SRM system for self-service processes in procurement by the easyBANF solution integrated in UP in mid-2024.
Current information can be found in the UP service description
 
Martin Hengel
 

The new SCC News is online, including these topics: GitLab – Core Service for collaborative Software Projects; Data Efficient Machine Learning of Biomolecules; New Work at SCC: collaborative, flexible, agile – innovative.

Download SCC-News 2/2023
Dear reader,

At the beginning of a new year, we can reflect on the successes and challenges of the past year, on days and weeks that were beautiful and fulfilling, and on those difficult and exhausting. In this issue, we want to look back with you at what we have realized and how it builds on what we have already achieved. Over the past three years, the coronavirus pandemic has brought about several changes in our working world - home offices, virtual meetings, etc. At KIT, this has led to the question of how we can combine the advantages of the “old world” with the “new work” in a meaningful way to reach even greater satisfaction, agility, and flexibility in our work (p. 33).
Already ten years ago, the SCC was operating a central platform for collaborative software development at KIT. Gradually improved and following a sharp increase in demand from projects the platform is being modernized and expanded - a long way to go (p. 18). When looking at high-performance computing in Karlsruhe from its beginnings 40 years ago to the present day, the first “supercomputer” went into operation at the University of Karlsruhe in 1983. Since then, more than 30 supercomputers have been operated at KIT and its two predecessor institutions, which we properly celebrated with a festive colloquium (p. 35 and front page).

Sometimes however, it is worth looking back even further and asking whether the ancient processes of evolution also reveal clever approaches that help us to develop efficient algorithms to solve current problems. A new paper by SCC researchers on data-efficient machine learning of biomolecules confirms just that (p. 24).
And now on a personal note: from 1 January 2024 we will be looking into the future with a new name - Scientific Computing Center - but still with the same abbreviation SCC (p. 39) and wish you
happy reading.
Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit


Achim Grindler

At the end of September 2023 the first set of Virtual Access (VA) services was released and integrated into the NFFA-Europe research infrastructure.

VA is a novelty in NFFA-Europe Pilot, which makes available online simulation and machine learning services, as well as data and metadata services, to the whole scientific community. The services currently target specific use cases, corresponding to the initial scientific needs they were designed for. The SCC strongly encourages feedback and contributions by the community in order to cover new use cases and to enhance the offer!
 
Project article on the NFFA-Europe website


Dr. Rossella Aversa

With the renaming, KIT is distancing itself from the namesake of the SCC, Karl Steinbuch. From January 1, 2024, Scientific Computing Center (SCC) will be the new name.

Translated with DeepL.com
Karl Steinbuch is considered a co-founder of computer science. The Information Technology Center of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has been called the "Steinbuch Centre for Computing" since 2008. New findings now show that Karl Steinbuch, who researched and taught in Karlsruhe, already identified with unacceptable acts of war as a young man during the Nazi era. Regardless of his professional achievements, KIT is distancing itself from Steinbuch due to the new research findings and will therefore rename the KIT Information Technology Center the "Scientific Computing Center".
After Karl Steinbuch had shown a moderate political orientation in his scientifically creative phase, he turned to far-right positions after his retirement. Since it was already known in 2017 on Karl Steinbuch's 100th birthday that his views moved away from the political center with increasing age, that he turned to right-wing extremism after his retirement and regularly published articles in journals close to the far-right NPD at an advanced age, the KIT Executive Board expressly combined the recognition of Karl Steinbuch's professional achievements with the statement that KIT did not share the political views that Steinbuch held at an advanced age.
New findings about Karl Steinbuch
There are now new findings on Steinbuch's biography that show that even as a young man during the Nazi era, Karl Steinbuch identified with unacceptable acts of war (Anton F. Guhl: Kurskorrekturen eines Technokraten - Die politische Rechtswendung des Nachrichtentechnikers und Zukunftsforschers Karl Steinbuch nach 1970; Technikgeschichte Vol. 87 (2020) H. 4, pp. 315-334).
Name change from January 1, 2024
KIT has therefore decided to change the name of the Information Technology Center of KIT. The decision was confirmed in the KIT committees. KIT will implement the name change to "Scientific Computing Center" from January 1, 2024.
To the identical press release of KIT (german only)
 

SCC and Helmholtz-AI, in cooperation with FZJ and DLR, publish a study in Communications Biology that proposes how modern and classical deep machine learning methods can be combined in a data-efficient manner.

Translated with DeepL.com
Life is determined at the cellular level by various biomolecules. They constitute the machinery of living organisms and play a crucial role in the functioning of each cell. Machine learning is increasingly being used to study their function and related structure. Members of the Multiscale Biomolecular Simulation research group and the Helmholtz AI team, in cooperation with Forschungszentrum Jülich and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), have now proposed a method to combine modern and classical deep machine learning methods to build models even in data-poor scenarios.
The researchers use a deep learning approach to predict spatial neighborhoods between RNA building blocks (called nucleotides). Similar to what happens in a LEGO model, when individual Lego bricks are replaced in one location, the bricks in the neighborhood must adjust so that the entire structure still fits together. The BARNACLE model proposed in the study uses this idea for RNA: nucleotides that are spatially close together in RNA are also more likely to mutate together during evolution. And it is precisely these emergent mutation patterns that the model looks for. To train the model, it relies on a combination of self-supervised pre-training on lots of sequence data and efficient use of the few structural data. BARNACLE showed significant improvement with this approach over established classical statistical approaches but also other neural networks. It also shows that the method is transferable to related tasks with similar data constraints.
The results of this study were published in the paper "RNA Contact Prediction by Data Efficient Deep Learning" in the journal Communications Biology.
To the Communications Biology paper Contact persons at SCC: Dr. Markus Götz, Oskar Taubert  
 
Achim Grindler
 

The Worldwide LHC Computing GridKa Tier-1 center is massively expanding its storage. An additional newly installed 71 petabytes of online storage are available. Data migration is now complete for almost all experiments.

In spring 2023, the expansion of the online storage system for the GridKa Tier-1 center in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid at KIT was put into operation. The newly installed 71 petabytes are available to the LHC experiments ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb and the experiments Belle-II, Pierre Auger Observatory, Icecube and DARWIN and also replace 30 petabytes of storage hardware that will be decommissioned after six years. In total, GridKa now has 99 petabytes of online storage.
Unfortunately, the commissioning was delayed by a year due to the chip and logistics crisis following the Corona pandemic and the Ukraine war. The new installation consists of high-density Seagate CORVAULT systems with a total of 4664 18-terabyte hard drives, 70 servers and Infiniband switches that were integrated into the existing Infiniband network fabrics. IBM Storage Scale is used as the software-defined storage tier. The existing file systems were not extended, but new file systems were created. This allows new NVMe-based metadata storage systems to be deployed and new features of IBM Storage Scale to be used. The data for almost all experiments has already been migrated and the systems are in productive operation.
 
Contact at SCC: Dr. Serge Sushkov
 
Achim Grindler

On September 14, KIT celebrated the 40-year era of high-performance computing in Karlsruhe with a festive colloquium. The invited guests enjoyed the opportunity to learn and exchange information about the entire range of HPC in Karlsruhe.

Translated with DeepL.com
On September 14, 2023, the SCC celebrated the era of high-performance computing, which has already spanned 40 years in Karlsruhe, with an internal festive colloquium. The invited guests from research policy and management, data center planning, construction and operation, as well as scientists, both former and active, were able to learn first-hand about the entire range of 40 years of high-performance computing in Karlsruhe during lectures, panel discussions, as well as an exhibition and guided tours. There was plenty of room to review successes and challenges, to philosophize a bit about the future, and of course to celebrate together and share interesting stories.
In his welcoming remarks, Peter Castellaz, the head of the department responsible for HPC at the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK), highlighted the state's bwHPC strategy, with which the SCC has not only implemented important aspects of content, but also played a leading role in an intensively lived culture of cooperation. "In addition to the HPC-specific resources and the associated methodological knowledge, KIT has successfully contributed in particular with its expertise in the field of data and research software", says Peter Castellaz. He finds words of praise for the state-wide federated identity management bwIDM, with which the SCC, together with other state institutions, has developed decisive basic requirements for cooperatively provided services - also beyond HPC. In order to accentuate not only technological developments but also the topics of research software and sustainability, a comprehensive state strategy is being worked out until 2032, Peter Castellaz lets it be known.
In her welcoming remarks, KIT Vice President for Digitization and Sustainability Kora Kristof is impressed by the community that has developed over a long period of time in the HPC environment, starting with the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS) and continuing with the different centers at the Tier-2 (Gauss Alliance) and Tier-3 levels, nationally and in Baden-Württemberg. "What has been developed in HPC by KIT and other institutions at the state level has also helped shape developments nationally, and special thanks are due for that," Kora Kristof notes. In addition, KIT has combined high-performance computing with the topic of energy efficiency and achieved outstanding successes with it. Here, the German Computing Center Award 2017 for ForHLR II and 13th place on the international best list of the most energy-efficient computers for HoreKa speak for themselves. "And in the future, many interesting topics that shape sustainability will also occupy us in the HPC environment - this concerns sustainable buildings and infrastructures, the use of sustainable materials and resource conservation, as well as aspects of sustainable software" predicts Kora Kristof.
Transitioning to the technical presentations, Martin Frank, director of the SCC, characterized the HPC business as a mix of something very dynamic and something conservative. "The dynamic can be seen very clearly in the development of HPC systems over the last 40 years, the conservative is, for example, in the handling of very complex processes such as procurement and the secure operation of the infrastructure," Martin Frank concretizes in his welcoming speech, knowing that experience and innovation are the important poles in the HPC business that make the SCC an important player in national high-performance computing. "All this ensures that scientists are supported in the best possible way in their research with high-performance computers and research software."
In the first technical lecture, Eric Schnepf introduced the beginnings of high-performance computing in Karlsruhe and covered developments up to the present. He made his first IT experiences in the 1970s at the University of Karlsruhe with Algol programs, which he created on punched tape using a Siemens T100 teletype and ran on the Zuse Z 23. In the 80s, in addition to universal computers, he was able to familiarize himself with vector computers, on which it was possible to compute applications more accurately and faster. Eric Schnepf dates the beginning of the HPC era in Karlsruhe to May 1983, when a state vector computer, a Cyber 205, was installed and operated at the University Computing Center in Karlsruhe after previous tests on a similar machine at the University of Bochum. User support was provided by a team from the University of Karlsruhe and what was then the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center (KfK). "The procurement only came about because a large community worked very well together: university, KfK and industry partners" affirms Eric Schnepf in his presentation. In addition to many interesting technical excursions into the world of the computer systems installed at the university at that time, Eric Schnepf also gave examples of applications - for example, from climate research - and went into detail about the ODIN cooperation created between Siemens-Nixdorf and the university, which stands for Optimal Data Models and Algorithms for Engineering and Natural Sciences on High-Performance Computers. A milestone was the first TOP500 list of supercomputers, which appeared in 1993. The original handout shows the German list with the two first-placed S600/20 systems from Karlsruhe and Aachen. Eric Schnepf rounded off his presentation with an overview slide of the most important HPC systems of the last 40 years in Karlsruhe, placing them in the borderlines of the TOP500 (rank 1 .. rank 500). "From Cyber 205 (1983) to HoreKa (2023), that's eight powers of ten performance increase, so on average every 10 years factor 100 acceleration. I think that's something to be proud of," says Eric Schnepf, appreciating the development at the HPC in Karlsruhe.
Klaus-Peter Mickel, physicist and former director of the SCC, was already working as a programmer for the IBM machines at the Computing Center of the Karlsruhe Research Center (FZK) at the end of the 1960s and also experienced and shaped the developments of the high-performance computing systems in Karlsruhe from the very beginning. When he accepted a position at the Karlsruhe Computing Center in 1970, he took over the supervision of university employees who wanted to use the FZK machines. After various professional stations, Klaus-Peter Mickel then took over the management of the computer center at the FZK in 1996. In his review of the years between 1966 and 1996, Klaus-Peter Mickel describes the intensive cooperation between the computer experts at the university and the FZK, which finally, starting in 1996, led to the planning of a sophisticated technical and organizational cooperation between the two scientific computer centers - the Virtual Computer Center Karlsruhe was founded. Virtual, yes, because it did not come to a joint computing center of both institutions at one location, as originally considered, but to an association with a legally secured cooperation agreement. There was a joint management committee and different architectural focuses on both sides, each with mutually contributed resources. The university focused on massively parallel computers and the FZK on vector computers, which were very powerful at the time. A dedicated data line connected the two computing centers over 10 km as the crow flies, reaching the respectable speed of 155 megabits per second at the time. Many positive effects were achieved by setting up the virtual data center. In addition to a high level of efficiency, because both sides did not have to maintain both architectures, there was a great benefit for the user groups because they had both architectures at their disposal.
In his lecture, Rudolf Lohner gave an intensive insight into the origins of the university's computing center and the associated development as well as the operation of the massively parallel computers in Karlsruhe, the so-called computing clusters. Rudolf Lohner worked for 20 years for the mathematics professors Alefeld and Kulisch, whom he credited as pioneers of the first hours and founders of the university computer center. He then moved from the Mathematics Institute to the Computing Center at the University of Karlsruhe in the 2000s and was an expert on energy efficiency in high-performance computing centers at the SCC until the end of his active career. In the mid-1990s, massively parallel computing clusters became increasingly common, and such systems have also been operated for research purposes at the university's computing center over the last few years, right up to the present day. Rudolf Lohner presented in an entertaining ramble not only the different cluster systems, but also some important projects and application scenarios. The spectrum ranges from the mathematical simulation of sailboat characteristics for the America's Cup, to the generation of precise weather forecasts, to the development of the institute's own cluster management systems. For the Karlsruhe High Performance Computer (HoreKa) operated today at the SCC and its predecessor systems ForHLR I and ForHLR II, Rudolf Lohner designed the extremely efficient energy and operating concept together with the HPC team. The associated new building was completed in 2015 and houses HPC systems that can be used throughout Germany at KIT's North Campus. A few months ago, the necessary structural and technical preparations were completed to make the building fit for future, even much more powerful computing systems with up to 2 megawatts of power consumption.
Following the exciting technical presentations, which highlighted the entire 40 years of HPC in Karlsruhe from various angles, guests were able to take part in guided tours of the HPC infrastructure as well as admire data center exhibits from the last 40 years in a specially designed exhibition room.
The SCC would like to thank the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, the KIT Presidium, all those involved in shaping and consistently developing 40 years of HPC in Karlsruhe, as well as the organization team of this festive colloquium around Simon Raffeiner (see photo), and of course all its guests.
 
Achim Grindler
Photos: Markus Breig (KIT)

The new SCC News is online, including these topics: Helmholtz-Cloud – interconnected IT services for cutting-edge research; Carbon-free combustion: A look into the future; Mentoring program for female STEM Students – Warp4IT

Download SCC-News 1/2023
Dear reader,
the cloud remains trending. Increasingly services that were operated locally are moved to the cloud or they operate in the cloud from the very beginning. Not only in industry, also in scientific institutions the number of cloud applications continues to increase. Following suit, the Helmholtz Centres have started to build a common cloud (p. 8). Each centre contributes services and applications which are offered via a user-friendly portal. For the joint service and quality concept the centres intensively exchanged information to reach agreement on common procedures and standards. This is why, among other things, services for digital communication played an important role while developing the Helmholtz Cloud.
However, remote communication may not always be sufficient for collaborating effectively. People from SCC have started travelling and meeting again at international conferences (p. 15) or went to longer research stays all over the world. On page 16, we discuss research that was conducted by Thorsten Zirwes during a DAAD scholarship at the prestigious Stanford University, on the feasibility of achieving CO2-free combustion of ammonia in porous materials.
The spectrum of scientific cooperation and communication at KIT is immense. Junior research groups or mentoring programs bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Charlotte Debus and Sebastian Krumscheid (cover photo) started their new research groups at SCC (p. 22) and female scientists at SCC have set up a mentoring programme for female MINT students at KIT. The program involves overseeing computer science projects for female students and providing them with an understanding of what everyday scientific life entails (p. 18 and 23).
Enjoy reading the new issue of SCC-News
Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit


Achim Grindler

After a successful pilot operation, the SCC has now set up the IT infrastructure for central version management with GitLab. The service "GitLab at KIT" can be used by all employees and students at KIT from the beginning of July 2023.

In software development, "git" has become the de facto standard as a tool for decentralized version management in recent years. Based on this, GitLab offers a web application for project management, documentation, bug tracking, build creation and deployment including continuous integration.
Possible application scenarios at KIT include courses on programming as well as software development in research (also RSE). In addition, the platform is also suitable for managing text-based documents, e.g. in the markup languages like LaTeX or Markdown.
After the discontinuation of SVN and a successful pilot operation of git.scc.kit.edu, the SCC has set up the cluster operation for the new central service "GitLab at KIT" in the last few months and now makes the development platform available for use by all KIT members.
Information about the features of the service and their possible uses can be found in the service description for the "GitLab at KIT" service.
However, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us using the contact information provided in the service description.

From 31.5-2.6.23, the SCC hosted the HPC Status Conference of the Gauss Alliance, which for the 12th time provided researchers with a platform for interdisciplinary exchange and networking in the field of high-performance computing in Germany.

SCC hosted the 12th annual status conference of the Gauss Alliance, which focused on sustainable computing and AI. In times of energy crises, climate change and the beginning of the Exascale era, HPC centers are facing numerous challenges. To reconcile the race towards ever larger and faster systems with the scarcity of resources, clever solutions are needed in both the hardware and software areas.
VP Prof. Kora Kristof addressed these tensions in her welcoming address and emphasized the importance of the SCC not only as an HPC provider for researchers at KIT, but also our role in the state network bwHPC and the national network NHR.
For the first keynote speech we welcomed Dr. Stefan Schenk from BASF, who focused on HPC applications in the chemical industry. Today, simulations have become an integral part of every economic field and are used everywhere from medical research to detergent development.
The BMBF-funded GreenHPC projects presented projects such as ESN4NW and WindHPC. They aim to create data centers directly where energy is produced: in wind turbines. The massive towers offer sufficient protection and storage space, the green energy is fed in directly and the height of the mast is utilized for the necessary cooling.
But the hardware sector is not the only area that is undergoing exciting changes. The software sector is likewise preparing for the Exascale era. The BMBF's so-called ScaleExa projects have set themselves the goal of developing scalable and innovative methods to be able to use future systems in a time and energy-efficient manner. The SCC is represented within the EXASIM project by the junior research group FiNE. The goal is to link the open source software OpenFOAM to the Ginkgo library via a special software layer which then enables OpenFOAM to run on GPUs. This shortens the computing time and thus saves energy.
With exciting new tools such as ChatGPT or Mindjourney, there is a gold-rush atmosphere in the AI sector. Driven by ever new fields of application, the AI research landscape is growing rapidly. Growing demand for computing resources coupled with the uncertain development of energy costs increases the need for collaborations between HPC providers and HPC users.  In the closing keynote speech on "AI in the age of exascale computing" our junior research group leader Dr. Charlotte Debus explored these and other questions that will be faced by the HPC and AI community in the coming years.


Dr. Jasmin Hörter

Propulate is a software that solves very general optimization problems using genetic algorithms. It is specifically designed for high-performance systems, easy to use and publicly available.

With Propulate, we provide a software for solving optimization problems that is especially adapted to the HPC setting. It is openly accessible and easy to use. Compared to a widely used competitor Propulate is faster - for a set of typical benchmarks at least an order of magnitude - and in some cases even more accurate. 
Propulate is inspired by biology, in particular by evolution, that is selection, recombination, and mutation. Propulate uses mechanisms inspired by biological evolution, such as selection, recombination, and mutation. Evolution begins with a population of solution candidates each with randomly initialized genes.  It’s an iterative process where the population at each iteration is called a generation. For each generation, the fitness of each candidate in the population is evaluated. The genes of the fittest candidates are incorporated in the next generation (see explanatory video). 
 
Like in nature, propulate does not wait for all compute units to finish evaluation of the current generation. Instead, the compute units communicate the currently available information and use that to breed the next candidate immediately. This avoids waiting idly for other units and in consequence a load imbalance. Each unit is responsible for the evaluation of a single candidate. The result is a fitness level belonging to the genes of that candidate, allowing to compare and rank the candidates. This information is sent to other compute units as it becomes available. When a unit is finished evaluating a candidate and communicating the resulting fitness, it breeds the candidate for the next generation using the fitness values of all the candidates it evaluated and received from other units so far.  
 
Propulate can be used for hyperparameter optimization and neural architecture search. It was already successfully applied for several accepted scientific publications. Applications include grid load forecasting, remote sensing, and structural molecular biology. 
 
Further Information:
 
Propulate Code Repository Explanatory video Paper Massively Parallel Genetic Optimization through Asynchronous Propagation of Populations
Contact at SCC: Dr. Marie Weiel, Oskar Taubert
Achim Grindler

As part of an internal KIT project to establish Research Software Engineering (RSE) at KIT, people interested in RSE meet for the first RSE workshop. More than 60 people participated in the afternoon of May 9, 2023.

Software has become a key component of scientific work, and there is hardly a research discipline today in which software does not have an important role. Therefore, research software must meet the same stringent requirements that researchers place on their data, samples, equipment and infrastructures. Software, like any other infrastructure, must be continuously developed, maintained and supported, sometimes for decades. Successful and sustainable software projects often rely on strong, thriving communities and always require long-term funding.
Other countries in Europe are already a step ahead of the German science system in this regard. The Netherlands eScience Centre already demanded in its strategy paper in 2019: "Research software must be treated on an equal footing with research data and publications at the policy level and in practice" [1]. The UK Software Sustainability Institute states simply: "Better Software, Better Research" [2].
Within the scope of the field of action "Digitization" as part of the KIT umbrella strategy "KIT 2025", an internal flagship project on research software and research software engineering was therefore initiated by the KIT Presidium, which started at the end of 2022. Under the leadership of the SCC and participation from the Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics (IAI) and the service units Legal Affairs (RECHT) and Innovation and Relations Management (IRM), various work packages were defined. One of them addresses the needs of the research software community as well as the establishment of a research software community at KIT. In order to promote the establishment of such a community, more than 60 people from KIT - across many scientific disciplines - participated in the first workshop on Research Software Engineering at KIT on May 9, 2023, in the Senate Hall at South Campus and intensively exchanged ideas.
The workshop was professionally organized by Heidi Seibold (heidiseibold.com/, twitter.com/HeidiBaya) and moderated. After short introductory presentations, participants discussed and worked on different questions such as "Which IT services for RSE would you like to use?" or "What do you expect to get from an RSE@KIT community?" to "What can you contribute to an RSE@KIT community?". The answers to these questions were collected collaboratively in a group brainstorming session on pinboards, weighted together by all participants and finally presented. The program was concluded by eight so-called lightning talks from among the participants, which provided interesting and exciting insights into the development of research software engineering at KIT and beyond. The participants had the opportunity to discuss these and other topics of the workshop in detail during a pleasant conclusion of the event.
Parallel to the workshop, a new KIT-open mailing list for Research Software Engineering (RSE) at KIT named rse-announce@lists.kit.edu was established, in which interested KIT members are welcome to subscribe.
 
Prof. Dr. Achim Streit
 
 

As part of the gradual upgrade of the SAP system environment, the SAP ERP database is migrated to HANA

From 07 to 12 June 2023, the SAP ERP database will be migrated to HANA. During this period, SAP systems, including SAP Web Portal and User Portal (UP), will not be available.
HANA is SAP's current database technology and a prerequisite for using SAP's new generation software products such as S/4HANA. In addition to the development of the User Portal (UP) as the successor to the SAP Web Portal and the project to replace SRM with easyBANF, the database migration is another important step in updating the SAP system environment.
The migration to HANA does not initially have any significant changes for the users of the SAP systems. However, it is a necessary technical basis for future optimizations.


Martin Hengel

Reciting a rhyme about crown and digital methods, the project "Materialized Holiness" achieved 1st place in the poster slam at the 9th conference of the association "Digital Humanities in the German-speaking world" in Trier.

The poster of the interdisciplinary research team, consisting of experts from Jewish Studies (FU Berlin) and Research Data Management (SCC-DEM), presents both the research project of the BMBF-funded project Materialized Holiness and its digital methodology. The focus is on medieval, European Torah scrolls and their optical peculiarities in the typeface. In this project, SCC is developing a digital data infrastructure including a research data repository and tools for the controlled recording and editing of annotations. This digital approach offers multiple access points to new insights, linkages of contexts, and metaphysical analyses of Torah scrolls.
At the Poster Slam, contributors can present their poster within one minute to arouse interest in the audience to visit the poster in the subsequent poster session. There are no limits to creativity: A total of 22 contributions consisting of short videos, acting performances, imaginative presentations, and funny texts formed the colorful mix of this year's slam. With the title "Digital Scriptural Tradition: Ritually Pure Torah Scrolls in the Jewish Diaspora," the project team "Materialized Holiness" presented the associated poster as an imaginative rhyme, winning the Best Poster Slam Award with the loudest applause!
Contact: Laura Frank

A team of SCC scientists won an award for the best poster at the Materials Research Data Alliance Annual Meeting conducted from 21.02.23 to 23.02.23.

At the Materials Research Data Alliance (MaRDA) annual meeting, held Feb. 21-23, a team of SCC researchers received an award for the best poster.
The poster describes the tool Metadata Extractor and Schema Mapper, that automates metadata collection from instruments, enabling researchers to extract the metadata without manual effort and map it to a well-defined metadata schema. A browser based GUI facilitates the use of the tool for the researchers, requiring no programming expertise from them. The pilot version supports TIFF images generated by Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) manufactured by Zeiss.
This tool has been developed in the frame of the German Research Data Infrastructure for Materials Science NFDI-MatWerk, the NFFA-Europe Pilot (NEP), the Joint Lab "Integrated Model and Data-driven Materials Characterization", the SDL-Materials Science and the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration (HMC) platform.
In the department Data Exploitation Methods Division (SCC-DEM) researchers develop novel methods and technologies for describing and exploring huge research data collections.
 
Contact: Reetu Elza Joseph
Link to poster: doi.org/10.21955/materialsopenres.1115090.1

From the end of March, new additional functions will be available in the User Portal (UP) for SAP applications

The User Portal (UP) is available to all KIT employees (except auxiliary staff) at up.scc.kit.edu and is the successor to the SAP Web Portal. Starting at the end of March, the following new functions/apps will be published in UP in addition to the already existing ones (My Profile, My Certificates):
Automated invoice receipt processing (AREB). Recording of person days Approval of person days My leave requests (corresponds to the absence overview in the SAP Web Portal, e.g. for submitting leave requests). The functions/apps are only displayed if the person has the appropriate authorization (e.g. only participants in the ESS see the "My leave requests" app). With the exception of the AREB, the functions/apps are offered in German and English. Further information on UP can be found in the service description. If you have any questions or problems regarding the use of UP, you can contact the SCC Service Desk.
Hengel, Martin (SCC)

14 Members of the SCC research groups CSMM, FiNE, RAI and SSPE attended the SIAM CSE conference in Amsterdam. The event was a huge success for both groups, with many interesting talks and interdisciplinary interactions taking place.

14 Members of the SCC research groups CSMM, FiNE, RAI and SSPE attended the SIAM CSE conference in Amsterdam. The event was a huge success for both groups, with many interesting talks and interdisciplinary interactions taking place. This experience has helped establish new connections to researchers across fields, which will benefit KIT in the long run.

The FiNE group was present with 8 group members at the SIAM CSE 23 conference. Overall, the group gave 8 talks in 7 sessions. Prof. Hartwig Anzt was also part of the early career panel (PD2) [1] which saw wide community engagement and tried to answer young scientists' concerns in the CSE community, including topics such as research software engineering vs science, conflict management, work-life balance, scientific vs industrial career, and more.
The talks given by FiNE were centered around various aspects of the Ginkgo portable sparse linear algebra framework [2] and reflected the community’s interest in the software.  The team provided two overview talks, one by Terry Cojean on research software engineering best practices [3], and one by Hartwig Anzt giving a historic overview of how the Ginkgo library evolved to answer the needs of the various scientific applications [4].  Other presentations detailed new functionalities developed for specific scientific applications.
The first area of focus was the batched iterative sparse solvers and preconditioners where Pratik Nayak presented the general scheme in a session dedicated to this new area of research [5]. Building on this, Yen-Chen Chen presented the specific case for tridiagonal and banded matrices with an implementation outperforming all existing vendor solutions [6]. An external speaker, Paul Lin from LBNL, USA, mentioned the use of Ginkgo’s batched iterative solvers to accelerate the XGC Plasma Fusion application [7].
The next area of focus was mixed-precision functionality, with Yu-Hsiang (Mike) Tsai’s presentation of Ginkgo’s performance portable Algebraic Multigrid (AMG) featuring multiple precision formats for the different levels [8]. Prof. Enrique S. Quintana-Orti from UPV, Spain, presented the performance and energy benefits of leveraging mixed precision at the example of the Ginkgo library’s mixed-precision functionality [9]. Another functionality that received large community interest is the new GPU-resident sparse direct methods presented by Tobias Ribizel, which were developed for the US Exascale Computing Project’s ExaSGD for power grid simulations [10]. Also targeting the acceleration of applications were two talks from the new BMBF ExaSim and PDExa projects by Gregor Olenik and Marcel Koch, respectively. ExaSim focuses on the acceleration of the OpenFOAM CFD software by using Ginkgo as a portable and efficient backend with promising early results [11]. PDExa aims at leveraging Ginkgo’s mixed-precision and batched functionalities to accelerate implicit or semi-implicit time stepping of hyperbolic-parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) discretized with discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods [12].

The Computational Science and Mathematical Methods (CSMM) research group was represented by four members, including Gayatri Caklovic, Pia Stammer, Steffen Schotthöfer, and Jasmin Hörter.
Gaya organized a minisymposium on Parallel in time methods [13,14] and presented her work on PInT for hyperbolic nonlinear equations [15]. Pia presented her research on Proton transport for cancer therapy, with a focus on dynamical low-rank approximations [16]. Steffen presented his research on Model order reduction with moment methods, with a focus on neural network-based minimal entropy closures [17].
Charlotte Debus from the junior research group RAI presented results for Predicting ILU(0) Effectiveness for Sparse Matrix Systems via Explainable Machine Learning and René Caspart from the SSPE-team talked about Sustainable Software Development on HPC Systems.
Overall, the conference was a success and we look forward to attending similar events and representing KIT in the future.
 
 
Achim Grindler

Thorsten Zirwes, a scientist at SCC, received the Distinguished Paper Award from the Combustion Institute for his collaboration on laminar flame research.

Every two years, the Combustion Institute selects outstanding contributions to the International Combustion Symposium that have made a particularly significant advance in our understanding of fundamental and applied combustion. This year, an international jury selected papers from thirteen different topics to be recognized with the Distinguished Paper Award.
Thorsten Zirwes, who has been studying combustion processes using high-performance computers at the SCC since 2016, has investigated ignition processes at low temperatures in cooperation with Peking University (PKU) and the Engler-Bunte Institute at KIT. These ignition processes play an important role in engine combustion, among other things, and can lead to engine damage if they are not suppressed. A better understanding of the physics of these processes is therefore important to develop more efficient engines for ships and other heavy transport vehicles. Thorsten Zirwes has developed simulation software that can model such ignition processes in high detail.  The paper on this topic, which Thorsten Zirwes co-authored, was awarded the Distinguished Paper Award this year in the category “laminar flames”.

Contact: Dr. Thorsten Zirwes
Source: https://www.combustioninstitute.org/resources/awards/distinguished-papers/
 
Achim Grindler
 

The new international online journal ing.grid is now accepting submissions addressing FAIR data management in engineering sciences. The interdisciplinary editorial team is looking forward to your contributions.

The international online journal ing.grid is now accepting submissions addressing FAIR data management in engineering sciences. With an open access policy, the journal bridges a gap in the field, offering a platform and recognition for sound scientific practice in generating research data, developing reusable tools for processing that data and curating the data to make it findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR).
The editor-in-chief, Professor Peter F. Pelz, would like to invite all the interested community to bring forward their contributions related to the seven core topics of ing.grid: data literacy, data infrastructure, data governance, data economics, data ethics, data sets, and data management software.

More information: Editor-in-Chief Newsletter (Call for Papers Flyer).
 
Contact at SCC and member of the editorial team:Prof. Dr. Achim Streit

DFN-PKI will stop issuing server certificates at the end of the year. Therefore, new procedures for certificate issuance have to be implemented at KIT.

The DFN-PKI and therefore also the KIT-CA G2 will not generate any new server certificates after 30.12.2022. All certificates issued up to that date will keep their validity until the end of validity specified in the certificate.
At KIT, there will be two new possibilities to obtain globally valid x509 certificates in the future:
Let's Encrypt with KIT-specific DNS plugin (https://docs.ca.kit.edu/acme4netvs/en/) GÉANT Trusted Certificate Services (the official successor service of the DFN-PKI) However, the SCC recommends that the affected service operators switch to certificates from Let's Encrypt as soon as possible and automate the process for this.
The use of GÉANT TCS is currently not yet usable for various reasons and is therefore not currently recommended. In 2023, however, the SCC will also provide a process for GÉANT TCS and document it at www.ca.kit.edu.
Last year, the SCC provided detailed information about this changeover and the planned procedure in the IT expert group [1][2]. In addition, affected certificate holders were informed directly by mail in order to be able to take action at an early stage.
For further support, the CERT team has offered several consultation hours for interested parties to jointly clarify questions that have appeared and problems with the implementation of the SCC-recommended solution with Let's Encrypt.
Noch bis zum 15.12.2022 können Serverzertifikate nach dem bisherigen Verfahren. beantragt und bis Ende 2023 genutzt werden. Damit ist die Umstellung durch Dienstbetreibende auf das neue Verfahren erst im Laufe des kommenden Jahres 2023 erforderlich.
Server certificates can be applied for using the previous procedure until December 15, 2022, and used until the end of 2023. This means that service providers will not have to switch to the new procedure until the coming year 2023.
[1] https://www.ca.kit.edu/downloads/018c9d1dc502dc123ca7a1b63a19f01c9b143de800ddc8f30e19c0e69a5d204f.pdf
[2] https://www.ca.kit.edu/downloads/fc91dd1b222da5bd902063ce3f5eb1ef9a6b14e908e60189ea7328bfaf802a51.pdf

The EOSC symposium 2022 shows progress and readiness of the European Open Science Cloud and contributions from SCC.

The EOSC Symposium provides a forum for researchers, research communities, Horizon Europe projects, cluster projects, digital and research infrastructures, policy makers and many other stakeholder groups who are working together on the co-creation of the European Open Science Cloud. From 14-17 November over 400 participants attended more than 60 sessions at the symposium in Prague, during which direction and activities of projects that are building the federated research infrastructure for Europe were presented and discussed. SCC is partner of several key constituting projects and represents KIT as member in the EOSC Association.
For the project EOSC Future, SCC delivered presentations in several sessions e.g., in the session ‘Implementing the EOSC Interoperability Framework’, and delivered to reports of the EOSC synergy, EOSC-Pillar, DICE and EGI-ACE projects. Taking place in parallel to the symposium, SCC was represented at the assembly of the EUDAT CDI council.
Do you want to (re)visit a particular session or discussion? All EOSC Symposium 2022 session presentations have been added to the session descriptions in the Agenda Page. The plenary session recordings can be found on the Home Page of the Symposium.


Jos van Wezel

Thorsten Zirwes, scientist at SCC, receives the Blanc & Fischer Innovation Award at the yearly meeting of the KIT Freundeskreis und Fördergesellschaft e.V.

The KIT Freundeskreis und Fördergesellschaft e. V. (KFG), annually awards the Blanc & Fischer Innovation Award together with the KIT to honor the best dissertations in the field of engineering. The winners are selected with an emphasis on high innovative potential of the methods developed during the doctorate, successful transfer into practice, and excellent oral and written communication. The award is sponsored for three years by the company Blanc & Fischer.
The Innovation Award, which was awarded for the first time this year, was presented to Thorsten Zirwes together with two other awardees. During his doctorate, Thorsten Zirwes developed new methods to speed up detailed simulations of chemically reacting flows on high-performance computers. His methods and simulation tools are currently used by more than thirty groups worldwide and are also used in industrial applications, such as the optimization of pollutant emissions in gas turbines. Thorsten Zirwes is currently conducting research at Stanford University as part of a DAAD funding program and attended the award ceremony online.

These are the award-winning topics:
Dr. Thorsten Zirwes: "Memory Effects in Premixed Flames: Unraveling Transient Flame Dynamics with the Flame Particle Tracking Method." Dr. Theresa Hanemann: "Usability and Limitations of Scaling Laws in Laser Powder Bed Fusion" Dr. Florian Stamer: "Dynamic Delivery Time Pricing in Variant-Rich Production: An Adaptive Approach Using Reinforcement Learning"  
More press information:
www.ciw.kit.edu/img/content/2022-11-28_BLANC%20FISCHER%20Innovationsprei.pdf www.moebelkultur.de/news/innovationspreis-fuer-herausragende-doktorarbeiten/  
Achim Grindler

As in the previous year, Helmholtz AI researchers joined a benchmarking study to analyze the center’s position in the computing infrastructure market — and the results are finally out!

The rushed development of AI methods and tools can make it difficult to keep up with all available options for computing, and even more difficult to identify the best alternative for a given task. This is why benchmarking values are key to compare and choose the best AI hardware option available. Benchmarking platforms give an overall view of relevant aspects like performance, environmental impact, efficiency, training speed, etc.
That’s why, as in the previous year, Helmholtz AI members from the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) at Forschungszentrum Jülich have jointly submitted their results to the MLPerf™ HPC benchmarking suite. And we are proud to announce that our infrastructures run on the best performing AI chips!
The initiative to submit was jointly coordinated by Helmholtz AI members, Daniel Coquelin, Katharina Flügel, and Markus Götz, from SCC and Jan Ebert, Chelsea John, and Stefan Kesselheim from JSC. The results cover our two units in those centers: the HoreKa supercomputer at SCC and the JUWELS Booster at JSC. Both run using NVIDIA A100 GPUs, one of the best performing according to the benchmark. The JUWELS Booster in particular used up to 3,072 NVIDIA A100 GPUs during these measurements.
The MLPerf™ HPC benchmarking suite is a great opportunity to fine-tune both code-based and system-based optimization methods and tools. For example, based on the CosmoFlow benchmark (Physical Quantity Estimation From Cosmological Image Data), we were able to improve our submission by over 300% compared to last year! While fine-tuning our IO operations, for example, we discovered ways for our filesystems to more rapidly and reliably deliver read and write performance. Thanks to this, the recent CosmoFlow benchmark results, featured by IEEE Spectrum and HPCWire, HoreKa achieved the runner-up position behind NVIDIA's Selene system and the top spot for academic and research institutions in terms of fastest training time, outcompeting even larger systems like RIKEN's Fugaku.
As the impacts of climate change become more apparent, it is also imperative to be more conscious about our environmental footprint, especially with respect to energy consumption. To that end, the system administrators at HoreKa have enabled the use of the Lenovo XClarity Controller to measure the energy consumption of the compute nodes*. For the submission runs on HoreKa, 1,127.8 kWh were used. This is slightly more than what it takes to drive an average electric car from Portugal to Finland. 
The MLPerf™ HPC benchmarking suite is vital to determining the utility of our HPC machines for modern work flows. We look forward to submitting again next year!
 
Contact at SCC: Dr. Markus Götz
 
*This measurement does not include all parts of the system and is not an official MLCommons methodology, however it provides a minimum measurement for the energy consumed on our system. As each system is different, these results cannot be directly transferred to any other submission.
 
 

EOSC-Pillar held its final conference last October in the Bibliothèque National de France François-Mitterrand in Paris an comes December 31 2022 to it's end.

The EOSC-Pillar project supports the development of the european open science cloud EOSC and is one of four regional EOSC implementation projects. In EOSC Pillar, scientific and institutional partners from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy work together on widening the services portfolio of EOSC, on engaging the research with EOSC, on supporting the coordination and harmonization of national initiatives relevant, e.g. NFDI (Nationale Forschungsdaten Infrastruktur), and help integrating scientific IT services with the EOSC framework. During the final conference the project showcased highlights of its results from the past three years for an audience with representatives of the EOSC Association and the European Commission. The conference was also used to gather the latest insights on topics like business models and the role of regions and individual countries on EOSC development during lively panel and interview sessions.
In the project, SCC was the German liaison to the national initiative and research landscape, guided a study on the gaps in GDPR (EU Global Data Protection Regulations) and IPR (intellectual property rights) national law implementations and designed a framework for the validation and qualification assurance of IT services before they are onboarded in the services catalog of EOSC. SCC plays a significant role in the development of EOSC with its contributions to EOSC-Pillar and in the EOSCpilot, EOSCsecretariat, EOSC-hub and EOSC Future projects.


Jos van Wezel

The User Portal (UP) for SAP applications is now available to all KIT employees. UP is the next version of the current SAP web portal and is based on the new concepts and technologies of SAP.

With immediate effect, the User Portal (UP) for SAP applications is available to all KIT employees (except auxiliary staff) at up.scc.kit.edu. UP is the new version of the SAP web portal and is based on the current concepts and technologies of SAP. It currently contains three apps with Employee Self Service (ESS) functions:
My Profile: Viewing and updating your own data My Certificates: Retrieval of own certificates from payroll accounting News: Latest news on UP Further apps are already in preparation and will be released gradually in UP. In addition to UP, the SAP web portal will continue to be available with the previous functions.
Like the SAP web portal, UP can only be used from the KIT network and with two-factor authentication. Unlike the SAP web portal, however, UP is designed for use with mobile devices (via common web browsers). In addition to the German version, there is also an English version. Note, however, that for legal reasons, certificates such as the remuneration statement are displayed in German in the English version.
More information about UP including a documentation can be found in the description of the service. If you have any questions or problems regarding the use of UP, please feel free to contact the SCC Service Desk .

For more than two years, the SCC has been operating dedicated AI resources for AI research within the Helmholtz Association, HAICORE@KIT for short. A new operating model now simplifies access even further and increases capacities.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) encompass technologies that will impact industry, science and society in unprecedented ways. Speech and image recognition are just two of the tangible examples of applications that have proven to be reliably applicable in recent years.
HAICORE: Resources for AI/ML
Research and education in AI and ML primarily require large amounts of computing power, most of which is provided by GPUs. To meet the short-term demand for AI hardware, dedicated hardware platforms for all researchers working on AI in the Helmholtz Association have been created with the "Helmholtz AI Computing Resources" (HAICORE) at both the SCC (HAICORE@KIT) and the Forschungszentrum Jülich (HAICORE@FZJ).
HAICORE@KIT, with its 72 NVIDIA A100-40 GPUs, is primarily geared towards a prototypical usage mode of the resources, e.g. for interactive use with Jupyter, and the easiest possible access. For projects with higher demand, the large GPU systems such as HoreKa at SCC are available in addition to HAICORE@FZJ.
Self-registration and more capacity
Access to HAICORE@KIT was already very low-threshold, but required some manual steps such as filling out a short application form or maintaining guest and partner accounts for all non-KIT users.
Therefore, as of Sept. 22, 2022, the previous operating model was changed. Employees of all 18 Helmholtz institutions can now log in to the Federated Login Service (FeLS) of the SCC via the Helmholtz-AAI with their usual accounts and register themselves for the new HAICORE@KIT service. Access to up to four GPUs simultaneously per job is thus immediately enabled. An increase of this limit is possible on request.
The new feature "Multi Instance GPU" (MIG) is used to further increase the capacity of HAICORE@KIT. This allows multiple users to access the same GPU at the same time without processes interfering with each other.
More information about HAICORE@KIT can be found on the Helmholtz AI website or in the user documentation.

Simon Raffeiner

On October 15, 2022, the new Matrix service will be launched at KIT. It supports secure, encrypted real-time communication in a simple way. Users can send text messages and audio or video calls can be made.

Matrix is an open protocol for real-time communication. It can be used with various programs (also called "clients") to send text messages and make audio or video calls. End-to-end encryption is active by default, and it doesn't matter which operator the other user is registered with. Users can communicate with other KIT users as well as with users at other institutions which operate a Matrix instance, e.g. TU Dresden. It is also possible to communicate with private persons using Matrix via matrix.org.
Since July, Matrix has already been made available at KIT as a test run. Productive operation will start on October 15, 2022.
To make it as easy as possible to get started, KIT provides a client as an Internet page. You can reach it at element.matrix.kit.edu.
Detailed documentation and help pages with illustrations are available at help.matrix.kit.edu.
Service description: Matrix
 

TT-Prof. Krumscheid leads the newly established junior research group Uncertainty Quantification (UQ). It develops modern mathematical and numerical techniques for the treatment and quantification of uncertainties in complex computational models.

In August, TT-Professor Sebastian Krumscheid was jointly appointed to the tenure-track position of Professor Uncertainty Quantification by the Institute of Applied and Numerical Mathematics (IANM) of the Department of Mathematics and the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) at KIT. Previously, Mr. TT-Prof. Krumscheid was Junior Professor for Mathematics for Uncertainty Quantification at RWTH Aachen University.
At SCC, Mr. TT-Prof. Krumscheid leads the newly established junior research group Uncertainty Quantification (UQ), which develops state-of-the-art mathematical and numerical techniques for the treatment and quantification of uncertainties in complex computational models. The research activities of the UQ group focus on both theoretical and methodological aspects as well as on interdisciplinary projects where theoretically based methods are tailored to applications.
Further information: Junior Research Group Uncertainty Quantification
Contact: TT-Prof. Dr. Sebastian Krumscheid

On Sept. 1, a new AI junior research group starts under the leadership of Dr. Charlotte Debus, further expanding AI research at SCC. The group emerges from the successfully acquired BMBF project EQUIPE, which is funded over 3 years.

On September 1, the new junior research group Robust and Efficient Artificial Intelligence starts at SCC under the leadership of Dr. Charlotte Debus. The group emerges from the BMBF project EQUIPE, which Dr. Debus successfully funded in a call for proposals for AI junior research groups within the framework of the BMBF guideline for the promotion of young researchers [1]. The EQUIPE project aims to develop scalable and efficient methods for quantifying uncertainties in AI-based time series prediction and will fund the group leader and two additional PhD students over 3 years.
Dr. Charlotte Debus, who has been researching AI topics in the field of energy as a member of a Helmholtz AI Consultant Team at SCC since October 2020, is excited about the opportunity to further advance AI research at KIT and to support much-needed young scientists.
Ms. Debus studied physics at the University of Heidelberg and did her PhD there at the German Cancer Research Center on AI-based improvement of radiation therapy for brain tumors. After 2 years as a PostDoc, she moved to the German Aerospace Center in Cologne in 2019, where she established contact with Markus Götz and the SCC through the Helmholtz Analytics Framework project.
For her, applying for an independent junior research group means another step towards more freedom of design and personal responsibility in research at KIT. At the same time, she would like to continue to maintain and expand the good relations with her original department and especially the Helmholtz AI team. "There are many synergies between the different groups, and we will continue to apply for and carry out projects together to strengthen the AI expertise at SCC," says Ms. Debus.
 
Contact at SCC: Dr. Charlotte Debus
 
Achim Grindler

The new SCC News is online, including these topics: With “Future Technologies” to the HPC systems of tomorrow; Of Crowned Letters and Metaphorical Words; First AI-HERO Hackathon on Energy Efficient AI.

Download SCC-News 1/2022
Dear reader,
What our ancestors developed and worked on together, is also essential for our success and the success of those who come after us. The English language makes this impressively clear because the word “successor” contains “success”. The evolution of hardware and software technologies over 50 years shows how developments successfully built on each other and are possibly opening the door for subsequent technical revolutions. Inspired by this, SCC’s National high-performance computing centre, NHR@KIT, offers a hardware and software test-bed equipped with future technologies. Researchers can test and apply the innovative and disruptive components of the NHR@KIT at an early succession stage (p. 19).
In June, computer science professor and Turing Award winner Jack Dongarra visited us to talk about his research on software and hardware in high-performance computing (HPC) over the past 50 years. Building on this work of his mentor, Hartwig Anzt is conducting research with his research group on software concepts for future supercomputers. After five years at SCC, he has accepted the offer to succeed Jack Dongarra at the University of Tennessee (centre cover and p. 28).
Centuries-old religious scrolls of our ancestors are being studied by an interdisciplinary collaboration of humanities and computer science experts in the Project “Materialisierte Heiligkeit”. The SCC is contributing expertise in research data management to this project with focus on building a research data repository, adding state-of-the-art annotation, analysis, and visualization tools (p. 23).
Speaking of young talent. Guided by our AI team, young scientists studied the energy efficiency of AI algorithms on HPC computers and came up with particularly energy-efficient computing solutions at a Helmholtz programming competition in February (p. 32).
Enjoy reading the new SCC-News
Martin Frank, Martin Nußbaumer, Bernhard Neumair, Achim Streit


Achim Grindler

Pupils conduct research in teams using mathematical methods and computers to address research questions from companies and university institutes. On August 26, 2022, they will present their results at the North Campus.

Translated with DeepL.com
From August 21 - 26, 2022, the MINT-EC Academy CAMMP week will again take place in Karlsruhe. This is the modeling week that has been held since 2011, in which students interested in mathematics are supported by doctoral students of the SCC for a week of research on a real problem. The problems originate from current research of companies or university institutes, which are currently unsolved.

We invite you to be surprised by the results of the young researchers at the final event. The presentations will take place on August 26, 2022, starting at 10:30 a.m. in Lecture Hall 140 in Building 449 at KIT North Campus. We are looking forward to your visit!

Registrations (for external/non-KIT members) are due by August 25: to registration.


Contact: Stephan Kindler

Thorsten Zirwes, a scientist at SCC, receives the Bernard Lewis Fellowship at the 39th International Symposium on Combustion.

The Combustion Institute has been awarding the Bernard Lewis Fellowship [1] to young scientists since 1996 to recognize outstanding research in the field of combustion technology. The award ceremony is held biannually at the International Symposium on Combustion, the largest conference on combustion research. At this year's symposium in Vancouver, Canada, Thorsten Zirwes, a scientist at SCC, was one of six recipients of the Bernard Lewis Fellowship.
Since his PhD, Thorsten Zirwes has been working on performance optimization of simulation software to explore flames and combustion processes in more detail on modern supercomputers to improve future energy systems in terms of efficiency and pollutant formation. Thorsten Zirwes is currently a visiting postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University working on the simulation of energy conversion in porous media.

Contact: Thorsten Zirwes
[1]: https://www.combustioninstitute.org/news/2022-bernard-lewis-fellowship-recipients/
 
Achim Grindler

A small but visible change in the antivirus service "Virus protection at KIT

After McAfee Enterprise and FireEye merged to Trellix, now Trellix (trellix.com) completes its rebranding with the new agent version 5.7.7.378! 
In the future, don't look for the familiar red McAfee icon on your workstation terminal when you want to check the status of your antivirus agents, for example. 
Trellix recently announced the adjustment with version 5.7.7.
"Trellix Agent 5.7.7 is now available - Trellix continues its exciting evolution and our customers will see our solutions reflect our new name and brand. In this release, we have updated McAfee Agent with the Trellix name. For Trellix Agent, this rebranding requires no effort on your part."
As soon as version 5.7.7 of the antivirus software is installed on the workstations, you will find the new Trellix antivirus agent with the usual functionality instead of the McAfee agent. This version also fixes the DLL hijacking vulnerability (see SB10385 ).
 
Service description: "Virus protection at KIT" -> Trellix-Agent

On 7/22, the SCC celebrated the 20-year success story of GridKa. The hardware and software of the data and analysis center for particle and astroparticle physics has been continuously expanded and adapted over the years.

Translated with DeepL.com
On Friday July 22, the SCC celebrated the 20-year success story of the Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe GridKa. The data and analysis center for particle and astroparticle physics is one of the major research infrastructures at KIT and serves as an international user facility all four LHC experiments (ATLAS, ALICE, CMS, and LHCb) and furthermore other international experiments with German participation: COMPASS, Belle-II, the Pierre Auger Obervatory, Babar, and IceCube. The computer and storage systems as well as the required software tools have been continuously expanded and adapted over the years according to the requirements of particle physics at CERN in Geneva. Today, GridKa has approximately 61,000 CPU cores, nearly 100 petabytes of disk storage and 135 petabytes of tape storage, and 400 gigabits of network connectivity for storing and analyzing data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). As a Tier 1 center in the worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), GridKa stores about 15% of the LHC's experiment data worldwide, making it currently the largest WLCG center in the world and also a major contributor to the discovery of the Higgs particle in 2012, which would not have been possible without the data and analysis infrastructures connected around CERN.
Achim Streit, Director of the SCC, had invited external and internal guests to the celebration. Because of the Corona situation, the SCC opted for a hybrid event solution, so that about 40 people could participate in the hall and all the others (more than 60 at peak) via videoconference. After twenty years, it is appropriate not only to honor the goals achieved in 2022 in terms of capacities and functions of the data center, as well as the outstanding work of the entire GridKa team, but also to take a look back at the genesis of GridKa, because the first discussions and planning took place back in 2000. Among the guests were a representative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which has funded GridKa since its inception, as well as important GridKa companions, such as members of the GridKa Overview Board and GridKa Technical Advisory Board.
Professor Oliver Kraft, Vice President Research of KIT, addressed the participants. He particularly emphasized the important role of GridKa, especially for basic research in data-intensive computing at KIT and the emerging worldwide distributed data and information processing for research at the Karlsruhe location.
Those formerly in a management position, including Professor Reinhard Maschuw (then on the board of the Karlsruhe Research Center), Klaus-Peter Mickel (former director of the SCC) and Dr. Holger Marten (former GridKa project manager, now head of the RZ at Kiel University) reported on the exciting early days in the two-thousands with their challenges to be mastered and also on some adversity encountered along the way at various levels(slides).
After lunch, Professor Joachim Mnich, Director of Research and Computing at CERN since 2021, gave an exciting insight into the current status and an outlook on future plans at CERN, where the third data-taking phase (Run 3) of the LHC has just started, concrete preparations for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC (Run 4) are underway, and the first tender considerations are being made for the construction of a new, even larger accelerator ring (FCC)(slides).
Achim Streit expressed his thanks and appreciation to the GridKa team and the entire SCC team at the end of the event, and in a closing talk, which he gave on behalf of GridKa director Andreas Petzold, who was ill, he broadened the view from "GridKa today" to "GridKa 2030", where there is still a lot of work and challenges ahead for the SCC and KIT as well as the entire community. But don't worry: The outstanding commitment and the "good spirit" of the entire team as well as current extrapolation calculations make us confident that GridKa will be able to meet the requirements of the next generation physics experiments around the LHC at CERN and beyond in the future.
 
Achim Grindler

New service: Starting August 1, 2022, KIT students can borrow laptops from SCC-TechPoint.

As of August 1, KIT students have the possibility to borrow laptops from the student support TechPoint. The loan is intended to bridge defects of the own hardware for a short time, it is not a permanent loan. Please notify the TechPoint of your need. The laptops will be issued directly during opening hours at the TechPoint counter in the 1st basement of the SCC building at the South Campus (building 20.20, room -113).
Important: Please bring a valid ID document and your student ID with you to the loan.


Dr. Horst Westergom

What do crowns on Hebrew letters connect with research data management?

Our new project 'Materialized Holiness', funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) aims to provide answers. In this project we are investigating medieval Torah scrolls in an interdisciplinary research collaboration.
Together with experts from Jewish Studies and the Social Sciences from the Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin) and Materials Research from the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), we want to build a digital repository of knowledge that does justice to the complexity of this research subject. Unlike copies of the Bible, for example, the copying of sacred scrolls has been governed by strict regulations since antiquity, so every deviation in the typeface raises exciting research questions. The focus is not only on crowns (tagin) and ornaments (otijjot meshunnot), but also on an in-depth material analysis of the parchment and ink of the Torah scrolls.
In this project, SCC-DEM will develop a digital data infrastructure including a research data repository for the participating scholars over the next four years. As a central component, a 'virtual Torah scroll' will uncover handwritten details of the script and its significance in cultural memory.
 
Image credits: Ms. or. fol. 1216, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB00005F0A00000000
 
Danah Tonne

Thorsten Zirwes, a scientist at SCC, successfully applied for the DAAD Prime Fellowship. He conducts research currently at Stanford University in California on energy conversion processes in porous media.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) funds research projects for postdocs abroad with the "Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience"(PRIME) program. Thorsten Zirwes, a scientist at SCC, successfully applied for the DAAD Prime Fellowship in 2021. As part of the project, he is currently conducting research at Stanford University in California on energy conversion processes in porous media. In this engineering application, a chemically reacting fluid flows through a porous solid made of ceramics or metal. The heat released by the chemical reactions can be absorbed by the solid and directed in a targeted manner to better stabilize the conversion process. 
At Stanford University, these processes are already being studied experimentally using modern computed tomography. Thorsten Zirwes is working on simulating these processes, which are very computationally expensive due to the fine pores of the solid and require the use of modern supercomputers. He will conduct research at Stanford University until December 2022, after which he will continue the work in the PRIME program at SCC in collaboration with the Engler-Bunte Institute until mid-2023.
More Information: Pore-resolved Simulation of Energy Conversion in Novel Porous Media Designs (Poster)
Contact: Dr. Thorsten Zirwes
 
Achim Grindler

Rached Chaaben from Tunisia, who is completing his master's degree with an internship abroad, and Stefano Maurogiovanni, an ERASMUS+ intern from the EuroHPC partner university Pavia in Italy, talk about their first impressions at SCC in this interview.

In spring 2022, we have two international interns at the Scientific Computing Center: Rached Chaaben from Tunesia who completes his Master's studies with an international internship, and Stefano Maurogiovanni, an ERASMUS+ intern from the EuroHPC partner University of Pavia in Italy. Coming from very different scientific and cultural backgrounds, we wanted to learn more about how Stefano and Rached came to SCC, their first impressions of their new home, and their biggest challenges getting here.
Where are you from, originally? Rached: Sfax, Tunisia Stefano: Bari, Italy Can you summarize your educational background? Rached: I joined the preparatory cycle for engineering study (French equivalent to CPGE: Classe Préparatoire pour les Grandes Ecoles) where I had an intensive study cycle of 2 years focused on Mathematics and Physics. I then passed the national engineering schools entry exam and got ranked 13 out of more than 1000 candidates. This allowed me to join the Ecole Polytechnique de Tunisie, where now I am a general engineering student, track Signals and Systems (eq to M.S degree).  Stefano: I started as a bachelor's student in Bioengineering at the University of Pavia (UNIPV). During that time, I worked as a student tutor and focused on Deep Learning applications in Bioinformatics. Afterward, I enrolled for a master's degree in Computer Engineering - namely Data Science - also at UNIPV, where I spent time working as a laboratory assistant. Currently, I am in the last semester of my master's. How did you find out about SCC, and how did you end up here? Rached: At the start of this academic year, I started looking for a graduation internship that is mandatory for my studies. I was looking for a research topic that brings HPC and mathematics together. I was lucky to find Dr. Hartwig Anzt and I was amazed by the work he is doing in his group. Another man that I have known during my period of search helped me in contacting Hartwig who was open to having a meeting and fortunately accepted me to join the group as an intern. Stefano: Both the KIT and UNIPV are among the partners of the EuroHPC MICROCARD project, which I’ll hopefully be able to contribute to with my master’s thesis. As such, Dr. Hartwig Anzt and my local supervisors agreed on me to spend the summer semester of 2021/22 as a research student at the SCC. What are you working on? Rached: I am working on the implementation of a Sparse Matrix-Matrix multiplication algorithm which is an important kernel in high performance computing that is heavily used in different applications. We are planning in this internship to implement this kernel for multicore CPUs and GPUs. We also aim to contribute with this work to the Ginkgo project, a high-performance linear algebra library that is currently under active development within our research group. Stefano: I am working on implementing a distributed solver based on Algebraic Multigrid (AMG) methods for cardiac electrophysiology simulations. The code will be entirely written in C++ and heavily rely on MPI and Ginkgo, a sparse linear algebra library currently under active development within Dr. Anzt’s research group. What are your interests outside work? Rached: As sports, I was used to spending much time on Table Tennis and Volleyball. And after joining Hartwig’s group, I grew fond of Hiking. Also, I am a person that loves cooking and also enjoys giving haircuts.  Stefano: I have a thing for sci-fi novels and movies. I also enjoy basketball - which I have been playing for more than ten years - hiking, tinkering, and cooking for my friends. What was the biggest challenge in getting here? Rached: The VISA process, accommodation, that I am still dealing with it,  and all the paperwork were complex processes that Hartwig and I had to go through. I can say that it required too much effort from Hartwig’s side and I am really thankful for that. Stefano: Looking for a place to stay in Karlsruhe and enrolling at the KIT as a student were processes I could carry out quite smoothly. Probably the most time-demanding task consisted in registering my place of residence at the local city office. And your best experience so far? Rached: After more than two months with the group, I can say that I couldn’t have a more comfortable environment and teammates to work with. It’s both an enjoyable and rewarding experience.  Stefano: In honesty, working as a member of a group of skilled, motivated, and passionate people who I can learn a lot from is a great opportunity. Also, we usually come up with different activities on the weekend - most of them consist of hikes - which I appreciate as a way to bond and share something that is not just our workplace. What are your plans for the future? What will you do after this internship? Rached: I am aiming to continue in research and thus applying for a PhD position is my Plan A. That will depend on the quality of my work during this internship. Also, looking for a job could work as plan B.  Stefano: I am still figuring out whether to apply for a job or a Ph.D. position, depending on which goals I will be able to achieve within my thesis project and the feedback I will receive from the rest of the group members.

The new NVIDIA-Arm cluster joins an ever-growing number of development systems for future technologies.

Whether in engineering, the life sciences, astrophysics or materials research - cutting-edge research in many fields is only possible using powerful supercomputers. The National High-Performance Computing Center at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (NHR@KIT) operates several High-Performance Computing systems for researchers from all over Germany. 
Over the past decade, the majority of the supercomputers in the world have relied on just two different hardware architectures from three different manufacturers. Intel and AMD dominate the market for high-performance processors (CPUs) with their so-called "x86" architecture, while accelerator chips (GPUs) are almost always supplied by NVIDIA. This "monoculture" makes it easier for users to switch between systems, but the potential of alternative architectures, which may be able to achieve much higher performance and energy efficiency, remains untapped. 
To exploit these potentials, it is important to give users as well as operators the opportunity to evaluate these alternative architectures in a simple way and under real conditions. A central component of NHR@KIT is therefore the so-called "Future Technologies Partition", a hardware and software test bed for novel, disruptive technologies that have not achieved market penetration yet and are therefore not yet available in the large high-performance computers. This category also includes processors with the Arm architecture. Arm chips are not only being used in mobile devices anymore, but for example also in the currently fastest supercomputer in the world, the Japanese "Fugaku", or in current Apple systems. 
NVIDIA is planning to enter the market for high-performance processors based on the Arm architecture in 2023. These chips are to be used together with its next GPU generation, codenamed "Hopper", in future supercomputers. To enable the porting of applications right now, NVIDIA offers its partners special development kits. Each of these kits consists of an Ampere Arm Processor with 80 CPU cores, two NVIDIA A100 accelerators and two BlueField-2 Data Processing Units (DPU) with InfiniBand connections. 
One of the racks of the Future Technologies Partition,
where the new systems were installed. "The transferability of the results obtained in the Future Technologies Partition is very important to us," said Simon Raffeiner, HPC Operations Manager at NHR@KIT. "Most of the computations on the large main systems like HoreKa run on more than a single server system at the same time. That's why KIT is the only site in the world that has procured not just a single NVIDIA Arm HPC Developer Kit, but an entire cluster. Only in this way is it possible for our users to test their applications under realistic conditions."
The new systems join a steadily growing number of development systems in the Future Technologies Partition. These include special accelerators for artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) from Graphcore, existing Arm systems by other manufacturers or new types of all-flash data storage.
"We try to staff the Future Technologies Partition symmetrically, as far as possible," Raffeiner explains further. "For example, if there is a system with an x86 CPU and NVIDIA GPUs, there is also a system with an Arm CPU and NVIDIA GPUs." To round out the current matrix of systems, Arm systems with AMD GPUs are also in influx - a combination that is not in use anywhere else. "We're also porting our own cluster software stack to the Arm architecture, so that the differences on the software side are as small as possible."
Ideally, users should not immediately notice they are using a different hardware architecture and be able to focus on porting and optimising their applications. But it's often a long way to get there, Raffeiner says. "For example, we can currently only access one of the large parallel file systems using a workaround because the manufacturer does not yet offer its software for Arm systems. Here we are jointly working on a solution." The result will then also benefit other operators, who only switch to such novel architectures much later.
The new systems are currently being equipped with suitable software in cooperation with NVIDIA and are expected to be available to users in a few weeks. For more information on the Future Technologies Partition, HoreKa and the National High Performance Computing Center NHR@KIT, please visit www.nhr.kit.edu/. 
 
Contact at SCC: Simon Raffeiner
 
 
Achim Grindler

The dpa photographer Uli Deck from Karlsruhe succeeded particularly well in staging the LED illumination of the new supercomputer HoreKa at KIT. The photo receives a 1st place in the competition "dpa Pictures of the Year 2021".

Translated with DeepL.com
A visit to the computer room of the supercomputer HoreKa (Karlsruhe High Performance Computer), which will be officially inaugurated in July 2021, makes a big impression on photography enthusiasts. The ceiling lighting in the room remains off for visitors for the time being when they enter. The darkness, the noise of the computing machine, the warmth, and the smell in the room all put the senses on standby. Slowly, the eyes get used to the twilight. You can't see the computing power, but you are all the more impressed by the flickering play of lights from thousands and thousands of green and blue LEDs on the back of the computing cluster, which you can already see from the entrance door. The inner workings of the computer are accessible via a so-called cold aisle. Entering it is a highlight on every visit to the SCC at the KIT North Campus.
Not only the technology is fascinating, but also the effective play of light with which it is illuminated. A remote control elegantly controls the light sources in the various areas of HoreKa's interior. Color and light intensity for the illumination of the supercomputer can be adjusted so that different-looking photos are always possible. Technology can be so photogenic! If it weren't so cold and noisy there, this unusual place could invite people to linger and promote inspiring ideas and thoughts.

The resulting "mirror image" of the high-performance computer captured by Karlsruhe-based dpa photographer Uli Deck at HoreKa's inauguration ceremony is particularly impressive. With this picture, he won 1st prize in the category of symbolic images in the highly acclaimed "dpa Picture of the Year" competition. The SCC is happy with him. Congratulations!

To the press release: dpa: dpa Picture of the Year
 
Achim Grindler
 

Seven successful projects in the second NHR@KIT Call for Collaboration

The National High-Performance Computing Center at KIT (NHR@KIT) has recently concluded the review of the second NHR@KIT Call for Collaboration. In this call scientists from the application fields Earth System Science, Materials Science, Engineering in Energy and Mobility, Particle and Astroparticle Physics, and other disciplines were invited to submit proposals for collaborative research projects bridging the expertise of domain scientists and HPC experts. Following a competitive, external review of all submitted proposals, seven projects were selected and will receive funding for up to a 3 year period.
The successful proposals cover the full range of scientific domains at NHR@KIT and will be performed in close collaboration within either the Simulation and Data Life Cycle Labs (SDLs) or the Software Sustainability and Performance Engineering Team (SSPE). We congratulate the successful projects and we look forward to the start of the collaborative projects
 
Contact at SCC: René Caspart

The systems of the instant messaging service based on XMPP (Jabber) will be switched off on 1 July 2022.

The SCC will discontinue the "Instant Messaging Service (IM)" based on XMPP (Jabber) at the end of June 2022. The maintenance of the systems used and their supply with security updates are only guaranteed until 30 June 2022, so that a shutdown is necessary by this date at the latest.
In the past, several other communication services have been introduced at KIT, so that members of KIT have a number of tools at their disposal for online communication. A list of the tools provided, as well as their possible uses, can be found on the web pages of the Information Security Officer at https://www.isb.kit.edu/136.php.
The IT officers at KIT were already informed about the shutdown of the XMPP service in the ITB meeting in November 2021 and in the last IT expert group.

The new SCC News is online, including these topics: Operating models for IT end-user devices; bwNET2020+ to Drive Network Architecture Innovations; Video conferencing and online voting for committees and KIT institutions.

Download SCC-New 2/2021
Dear reader,
under the motto "The Human in the Center of Learning Systems", KIT organised the first Science Week - an event to present and discuss science and its instruments and methods with citizens and to register their reactions. With lectures on high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning as well as simulations, scientist from SCC also participated in the citizens' dialogue and with an active museum on mathematics and AI in medicine (front page). Interested citizens could visit the high-performance computer HoreKa inaugurated last summer (see SCC News 1/2021). Of course, under strict protective conditions for people and technology.
This issue of SCC News impressively shows how multi-layered networking is. It ranges from networking among people, through networking of people with technology, to networking within technologies. To optimally network the technology of tomorrow, the bwNET2020+ project researches and develops innovative network technologies and network architectures (p. 26). Networking between people and technology is examined in the articles on operating models for workplace terminals (p. 9) and on IT support in Corona times (p. 13).  Today people increasingly network via video conferences. You can read about how this is implemented at KIT, especially for governance bodies, and how the necessary voting tools work (p. 14).
Networking is also the focus of this issue's research topics. To optimally support the Earth System Sciences, the Simulation and Data Life Cycle Lab Earth System Sciences has started its work. The experts in high-performance computing, Data Sciences and Simulation Sciences at SCC will from now on interact even more closely with Earth System scientists at KIT and with the wider Earth System science community opening potential and enabling new insights (p. 30).
Enjoy reading the new SCC-News.

Martin Frank, Martin Nußbaumer, Bernhard Neumair, Achim Streit


Achim Grindler

With the oidc-agent software developed by SCC, OpenID connect tools are available on the command line under Debian Linux.

Since 2.1.2022 the SCC software "oidc-agent" is part of the Linux distribution DEBIAN. Currently still part of the newly included software, the so-called unstable branch, the SCC development can now be easily installed on DEBIAN Linux.
oidc-agent includes a set of tools for managing OpenID Connect tokens and makes them easily usable from the command line. It is based on the design of ssh-agent, so that users can handle OIDC tokens in a similar way to ssh keys. oidc-agent is started at the beginning of an X session or a login session. By using environment variables, the agent can be found and used to manage OIDC tokens.
The software is also available for a number of other Linux distributions via a repository server at SCC.
Further information can be found on the oidc-agent homepage and in the GitBook.

Contact person for oidc-agent: Gabriel Zachmann.
 
Dr. Marcus Hardt

From mid-January 2022, TechniData IT-Service GmbH will support end-user devices at KIT. This makes it easier to deal with a temporary high workload in the organizational units.

On 17 January 2022, TechniData IT-Service GmbH will start as a contractual partner to provide support of IT end-user devices at KIT. The  agreement was concluded with TechniData to cover high workloads for device support in KIT's organisational units (OU). The work can be assigned to the partner via individual requests by the IT appointees of the OUs.
SCC takes care of the end-user devices at KIT to different extents. In the above mentioned interaction with the OUs, KIT offers external support to cover high workloads in the support of end-user devices. The individual assigned orders include tasks such as installation, configuration, troubleshooting of individual end-user devices.
SCC carries out also the training of TechniData's team in all applicable guidelines and is in a cooperative exchange with them for the provision of the services. The contract period is 1 year with the option to extend for a further one. For further information about the services covered by the agreement see this service description.
The team of TechniData IT-Service GmbH will introduce itself at the next meeting of KIT's IT experts, on 19 January 2022.
We look forward working together.

National High Performance Computing Center NHR@KIT first operator in Germany to give researchers access to an IPU-POD16 system.

Algorithms and methods from the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) are taking on an increasingly important role in modern science. The successful application of these methods depend on a very high amount of computing power. Since the performance of conventional standard processors is usually not sufficient, researchers and data center operators often rely on special accelerator processors that can perform the required computing operations (such as matrix multiplications) very quickly.
Up to now, these processors have almost exclusively been close relatives of the graphics processors that are also being used in conventional PCs or gaming consoles. The internal structure of these chips is also suitable for many scientific calculations, including in the field of AI/ML. For use in data centers, however, more powerful models with additional functions required for professional environments are being used. The Scientific Computing Center (SCC) now operates more than 1,000 of these accelerator processors in total, including the almost 700 in the new „Hochleistungsrechner Karlsruhe“ (Karlsruhe High-Performance Computer, HoreKa) and more than 130 in the bwUniCluster 2.0 system.
The currently used accelerators from NVIDIA (A100 and V100) and AMD (MI100) deliver both a level of computing performance and energy efficiency that is about a factor of 10 higher than conventional standard processors can do. Thanks to its A100 accelerators, HoreKa made it to 13th place on the list of the world's most energy-efficient computers (as of June 2021). However, there is still great potential for further optimization in the field of AI/ML.
UK-based startup Graphcore, founded in 2016, is one of several companies working on corresponding products. Graphcore calls its processors "Intelligent Processing Units" (IPUs). The current GC200 model has 59 billion transistors, making it one of the largest chips in production worldwide, and bears the nickname "Colossus".
In contrast to the chips from NVIDIA and AMD, which support the entire range of scientific applications, "Colossus" processors are primarily focussed on computational operations with reduced precision data types important for AI/ML. Up to 250 trillion of these special computational operations per second (AI Floating Point Operations, AI FLOPS) can be performed by a single chip. The IPU-POD16 system now put into operation by the National High Performance Computing Center NHR@KIT as part of the so-called "Future Technologies Partition" has 16 Colossus processors. It is the first system of its kind in Germany.
Researchers with access to HoreKa or from the National High Performance Computing Alliance (NHR-Verbund) can get access to the Future Technologies Partition on request. This hardware and software test bed for innovative and distruptive technologies also sports systems with AMD processors, AMD accelerators, ARM processors and other hardware.
More information about the new Graphcore systems is available in the NHR@KIT user documentation. Information on National High Performance Computing at KIT can be found on the NHR@KIT website.
 
Contact: Simon Raffeiner

Wie soll man religiöse Erfahrungen beschreiben oder gar erklären, wenn ihr ultimativer Gegenstand – das Transzendente – niemals wörtlich artikuliert werden kann?

In der religiösen Sinnbildung sind Metaphern häufig das Mittel der Wahl, um das Transzendente in unserer Realität zu verankern. Der ab dem 01.01.2022 erstmals von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) geförderte Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) 1475 „Metaphern der Religion: Religiöse Sinnbildung in sprachlichen Prozessen“ stellt diese Phänomene in den Mittelpunkt eines interdisziplinären Forschungsverbundes.
Der an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) angesiedelte SFB 1475 möchte den religiösen Gebrauch von Metaphern über Zeiten und Kulturen hinweg verstehen und methodisch erfassen. Dazu untersuchen die Teilprojekte eine Vielzahl von Schriften aus Christentum, Islam, Judentum, Zoroastrismus, Jainismus, Buddhismus und Daoismus, die aus Europa, dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten sowie Süd-, Zentral- und Ostasien stammen und die Zeitspanne von  3000 v. Chr. bis heute umfassen. Erstmals werden in durch diesen Verbund vergleichende Studien in einzigartigem Umfang ermöglicht.
SCC-DEM leitet im Sonderforschungsbereich gemeinsam mit den Kolleginnen und Kollegen des Centrum für Religionswissenschaftliche Studien (CERES) und der RUB das Informationsinfrastrukturprojekt „Metapher-Basislager“, in dem die digitale Dateninfrastruktur für alle Teilprojekte entwickelt wird. Zentrale Komponente wird ein Forschungsdatenrepositorium mit modernsten Annotations-, Analyse- und Visualisierungswerkzeugen für die geisteswissenschaftlichen Daten. Wir freuen uns auf spannende Fragestellungen und – metaphorisch gesprochen – die gemeinsame Reise!


Kontakt am SCC: Danah Tonne

Researchers and Helmholtz AI members from the SCC and the Jülich Supercomputing Center have jointly submitted their results from a competitive initiative using the HPC benchmarking software MLPerf™ to the Supercomputing Conference 21.

In the Helmholtz AI platform, Germany's largest research centers have teamed up to bring cutting-edge AI methods to scientists from other fields. With this in mind, researchers and Helmholtz AI members of the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) at Forschungszentrum Jülich have jointly submitted their results for the MLPerf™ HPC benchmarking suite. This initiative was started in 2020 by companies like Baidu, Google and GraphCore as well as researchers from Stanford, Harvard and Berkeley to precisely study large-scale AI applications. The Helmholtz AI team of SCC successfully executed training runs of the DeepCAM application with up to 512 Nvidia A100 GPUs on the HoreKa supercomputer located at SCC and additionally the CosmoFlow application on the JUWELS Booster system at JSC.
DeepCAM, the Gordon-Bell prize award winning application in 2019, is an artificial intelligence deep-learning software that allows for the recognition of cyclones in climate data. Early detection of these rotating tropical storm systems in the Indian and South Pacific Ocean is key in preventing material damage and loss of life, as well as in identifying potentially arable dry regions. Using HoreKa, Daniel Coquelin in Markus Götz's team was able to complete more than 100 quadrillion calculations required by DeepCAM in just 4 minutes and 21 seconds.
While striving for performance, it is vital to also balance the own climate impact of such large-scale measurements. With HoreKa and JUWELS ranking among the top 15 on the worldwide Green500 list of energy-efficient supercomputers, the computing resources in Helmholtz AI are both computationally and energy-efficient, making them Europe’s fastest and greenest systems for AI workloads. These benchmarks have not only helped us in better understanding our current systems, but also show us pathways for improvements of future systems, in providing us with testing tools to show administrators and users alike the carbon footprint of each individual computing job.
As Helmholtz AI, we hope to be part of this challenging, yet exciting, competition again next year. For this, we plan to not only partake in the so-called closed competition, i.e. measuring existing, official applications as-is, but also to showcase some advanced large-scale training approaches in the open competition.
Further Information:
www.fz-juelich.de/SharedDocs/Meldungen/PORTAL/DE/2021/2021-11-18-mlperf-hpc.html blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/11/17/mlperf-hpc-ai/ https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/mlperf-hpc-v1-0-deep-dive-into-optimizations-leading-to-record-setting-nvidia-performance/  
Contact at SCC: Markus Götz


Achim Grindler

Possibility for collaborative projects within the framework of NHR@KIT

The National High Performance Computing (NHR) Center at KIT is opening a second round of a call for collaborative research projects. In the scope of these projects, collaborative research activities of PhD students and postdocs can be funded. The call for proposals is open for collaborative projects of scientists from NHR@KIT and from the fields of Earth System Science, Materials Science, Engineering in Energy and Mobility, and Particle and Astroparticle Physics collaborate.
For more information and the call for proposals, please visit nhr.kit.edu/collaboration-call
Contact: René Caspart

The National High Performance Computing Network (NHR Network) has founded its own graduate school. The NHR Center at KIT, NHR@KIT, is also participating.

The NHR Alliance has been organizing high-performance computing on a national level since January 1, 2021. The nine NHR centers, including the NHR center at KIT, NHR@KIT, jointly coordinate the resources and services offered to researchers from all over Germany. In order to adequately train young scientists in high-performance computing and to promote their networking, a dedicated graduate school has now been established.
The offer is addressed to graduates of a master's program in computer science, mathematics, natural sciences, or engineering who aim at a doctorate in one of the research areas covered by the NHR centers. At KIT, these include, for example, efficient numerical methods for exascale systems, sustainable software development of scientific applications, or data-intensive computing.
Members of the graduate school will be accepted into a regular PhD program at the location of one of the NHR centers, but are also expected to work at another NHR center for at least six months. In addition, the NHR Graduate School offers its own curriculum in areas of particular relevance to HPC, individual supervision (mentoring) and courses to teach "soft skills".
Up to nine applicants per year will be accepted, who will also receive a stipend for 36 months. Applications for the 2022 graduate programme are open until 15 December 2021 and are also open to interested parties from outside the European Union.
Further information: www.nhr-gs.de/ueber-uns/nhr-graduiertenschule.
 
Contact at the SCC: Martin Frank
 
Achim Grindler

With the KIT-WLAN@Home service, KIT employees also receive the campus WLAN at home. For this purpose, they receive a special Remote Access Point (RAP), a device configured by the SCC.

The new KIT-WLAN@Home service enables KIT employees to receive KIT WLAN in their home offices. Thus, they use the same network access in the home office as at the workplace in KIT. By using these special remote access points (RAPs), the KIT, KIT-IoT, and eduroam WLAN SSIDs are broadcast in the home office.
To reduce the administrative effort, the SCC has developed its own software that handles the application process as well as the administration of the service. The application for the KIT-WLAN@Home service for employees is made via their IT representative of the organizational unit. The respective employees will then receive all information regarding the collection of their RAP by e-mail.
Currently, the service is free of charge for KIT organizational units. If you are interested in this service, you will find further information in our service catalog under KIT-WLAN@Home.


Dominik Rimpf, SCC-NET

Talented children can apply for the funding programme until 20 October 2021.

The Scientific Computing Center (SCC) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has set itself the goal of contributing to the promotion of particularly gifted pupils. As part of the "Simulated Worlds" project, pupils from the 11th grade onwards are allowed to conduct research on a project that combines computer science and the natural sciences. In the course of the school year, the pupils meet about once a week with their supervising scientist at the SCC. There is a choice of various topics from engineering sciences, physics, meteorology and medical technology in which simulations, high-performance computing and big data are used. This includes the opportunity to work on the High Performance Computera, which are operated at the SCC. Depending on their commitment, the students receive a scholarship of up to 1000€.
Applications are possible until 20 October 2021 at daniela.piccioni@kit.edu. Further information and a list of the necessary documents can be found at www.scc.kit.edu/forschung/11727.php.

Contact: Daniela Piccioni Koch

The IPv6 rollout at KIT is completed. At KIT, all users of the IT infrastructure are provided with IPv6.

IPv6 is now available for all users at KIT. Regardless of whether they are connected to the KIT network via fixed network, WLAN or VPN, they are all provided with IPv6.
Thus, services that are only offered within KIT can be switched to IPv6only. Central services of the SCC are already almost completely IPv6 capable.
However, IT services at the SCC or in the organizational units are currently still offered with dual stack (IPv6 and IPv4). However, the goal is to switch purely KIT-internal services to IPv6only due to the time-consuming administration and troubleshooting involved in using dual stack.
Due to the availability of IPv6 in all KIT networks, it is now possible to switch off IPv4 everywhere where it is no longer necessary.
It should be noted that IPv4 is still required in any case for IT services that have to be accessible from the Internet, since it cannot yet be assumed that all users are provided with IPv6.
When procuring hardware or software, the SCC generally recommends making sure that it supports IPv6.
Software or firmware that does not support IPv6 should no longer be procured!
Klara Mall

The new SCC News is online, including these topics: Software Suite provides opportunistic Resources; Materials Science Workflows made easy; Research Software Engineering in Education and Advanced Training.

Dear reader,
in the past weeks there has been a lot of talk about the Olympic spirit of sports and also about the motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together”. In a figurative sense, this issue of SCC News is equally driven by such “sporting spirit”. The motto “Together more innovative, sustainable, and productive” frames the articles presented here. The high-performance computer HoreKa was officially inaugurated on July 30 and already achieved top rankings for its energy efficiency and speed in June (p. 18). To ensure that the KIT SAP system also continues achieving top rankings in the future, it is currently undergoing a training camp (p. 4). In order to make face-to-face teaching “together” at KIT more secure, the KONKIT electronic contact tracking system has been developed (p. 20).
Research Software Engineering (RSE), which fosters the development of scientific research software, particularly focuses on innovation, openness, sustainability, and productivity. Even in times of pandemic, the Series of Online Research Software Events (SORSE) maintained the vital dialogue between experts (p. 30). A worthwhile approach is also to introduce students early to the methods of developing sustainable research software (p. 44).
With innovation and team spirit, a group of RSEs has created a software suite that smartly combines computing resources from grid, cloud and HPC infrastructures to transparently provide them to researchers as a virtual cluster (p. 8). Yet fast and efficient computing is only one success factor in science; its workflows should also be as productive as possible. To this end, a project group of the DFG-funded Research Training Group GRK 2450 has developed an open-source tool that automatically creates workflow applications for computational materials research (p. 35).
Enjoy reading the new SCC News
Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit
 
Achim Grindler

KIT/SCC, FZJ, DKFZ and University of Duisburg/Essen develop a self-adapting variant of dynamic particle swarm optimization of biomolecule simulations - Paper published in nature machine intelligence.

Life functions on the molecular scale through a complex interplay of biomolecules, for which the structure of the biomolecules involved plays a central role. Experimental methods can determine such structures and are based on the evaluation of primary data, but their interpretation is not always unambiguous. Molecular simulations are a powerful tool to evaluate such ambiguous experimental data.
An essential challenge is to weight the experimental interformation against the underlying physical simulation model. In a collaboration of FZJ, KIT, DKFZ and the University of Duisburg/Essen, a self-adaptive variant of the dynamic particle swarm optimization was developed to solve this weighting problem. Each individual parameter is learned at runtime, resulting in a dynamically evolving and iteratively refined search space topology. It has been shown for several biomolecular systems that the method makes very efficient use of computation time while yielding highly accurate structures. Since such parameter problems are common in molecular simulations, applications such as material simulations are conceivable in addition to biomolecular simulations.
To the paper: Dynamic particle swarm optimization of biomolecular simulation parameters with flexible objective functions
 
Contact person at SCC: Prof. Dr. Alexander Schug
 
(translated wirh DeepL.com)

Forschungszentrum Jülich, Fritz Haber Institute Berlin and SCC are developing a novel intelligent battery management system in the i2Batman project that optimizes charging cycles based on an AI and a digital twin of the battery.

Fast charging and the service life of electric batteries are important prerequisites for the wider application of electric vehicles. For this purpose, the so-called battery management system offers great potential for optimization. Since too little is known about the interrelationships between these two requirements and the internal battery parameters, the battery management systems currently in use "play it safe" and often impose unnecessarily strict safety restrictions on the operation of the batteries.
Together with partners at the Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, we have set ourselves the goal of developing a novel intelligent battery management system that can make better decisions about battery charging cycles using a detailed surrogate model ("digital twin") of the battery and artificial intelligence (AI). Our task in the project is to develop this battery replacement model at the level of the individual battery cells using the Gaussian process method. In doing so, the model is parameterized with parameters of different equivalent circuits and the state of charge of each cell. The model is trained using both experimental spectroscopy data and data from physical equivalent circuit models. In addition, the use of the Gaussian process allows for a determination of the model uncertainty (Uncertainty Quantification), which is required for the AI to function.
In a first test phase, the battery management system equipped with the AI will be implemented on simple hardware. During this process, data will still be collected and stored during operation so that the AI can continue to improve. In the final phase, the AI battery management system will be tested with a fully characterized battery.
The i2Batman project is one of 19 funded projects of the Helmholtz Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Unit.
Contact at the SCC: Dr. Ivan Kondov
(Translated with DeepL.com)

NFDI-MatWerk: Networked research data infrastructure for materials science receives five-year funding within the framework of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI)

The NFDI-MatWerk consortium receives a five-year grant within the framework of the National Research Data Infrastructure(NFDI) for the development of a joint materials research data space. NFDI-MatWerk stands for Materials Science and Engineering to characterize the physical mechanisms in materials and develop resource-efficient high-performance materials with the most ideal properties for the respective application.
Data from scientific groups distributed across Germany are to be addressed via a knowledge-graph-based infrastructure in such a way that fast and complex search queries and evaluations become possible.
At KIT, the Scientific Computing Center and the Institute for Applied Materials(IAM) are involved. In the SCC, we will establish the Digital Materials Environment with the infrastructure services for research data and their metadata together with the partners.
Contact: Achim Streit
 
Achim Grindler
 

From July 2021, the new KIT-IoT WLAN with WPA-PSK and individual key per device will be available for IoT devices at KIT.

In the past, it was not possible at KIT to connect IoT devices that do not support authentication via WPA-Enterprise to the WLAN. This is now made possible by the KIT "KIT-IoT" WLAN introduced in July 2021 using Multi Pre-Shared Key (MPSK) technology. For this purpose, each device receives its own WPA key, which is assigned to the MAC address and VLAN.
IT administrators can now also register wireless clients with their MAC address via the NETVS network services portal using the "MACAuth" menu item and generate a WPA key.
The clients are thereby - comparable to WiFi2VLAN - hung in the VLAN in which they were entered.
To use the service, the corresponding VLAN must be enabled.

The Karlsruhe HoreKa high-performance computer is one of the fastest computers in Europe. On the TOP500 list, the HPC system is ranked 52nd. In terms of energy efficiency, it is in an excellent 13th place in the international ranking.

On June 1, KIT, as the National High Performance Computing Center(NHR@KIT), started scientific operation of the new high-performance computer "HoreKa". In the current Top 500 Spring List, the system is among the fifteen fastest computers in Europe; in a worldwide comparison, it ranks 52nd. In terms of energy efficiency, HoreKa reaches 13th place in the international ranking.
The hybrid system consists of a computing accelerator based on graphics processing units (GPUs) and a partition equipped with standard processors (CPUs). The GPUs from NVIDIA guarantee extremely high performance, which is required for certain computing operations such as equation system solvers or algorithms for applications in artificial intelligence. The latest generation of Intel CPUs, which were only officially introduced with the start of the HoreKa test run, are also optimized for certain operations. HoreKa cleverly combines the strengths of both architectures so that maximum performance is achieved. Overall, the system achieves a peak performance of 17 PetaFlop/s. The ThinkSystem from Lenovo was supplied by pro-com Datensysteme GmbH.
 
Contact: Dr. Jennifer Buchmüller
Further information: kit.edu/kit/pi_2021_059_supercomputer-of-the-kit-one-of-the-15-fastest-in-europe.php
 
Achim Grindler

New supercomputer goes into operation for research purposes after succesful pilot phase

The National High Performance Computing Center at KIT (NHR@KIT) has put the new "HoreKa" supercomputer into operation for research purposes today after successful completion of the trial operations. The system is now available to scientists from all over Germany for research projects.
Thanks to the new supercomputer, researchers will be able to gain a more detailed understanding of highly complex natural and technical processes, particularly in materials science, earth system science, energy and mobility research in engineering, and particle and astroparticle physics.
Innovative high-performance system with a big hunger for data
HoreKa is an innovative hybrid system with nearly 60,000 Intel processor cores, more than 220 terabytes of main memory and 668 NVDIA A100 GPUs. A 200 GBit/s non-blocking InfiniBand HDR network is used as the communication network, and two parallel Spectrum Scale file systems with a total capacity of more than 15 petabytes are used for data storage.
A key consideration during the design of the system were also the enormous amounts of data generated by scientific research projects. To keep up with the growing needs, HoreKa's compute nodes, InfiniBand network and parallel file systems each deliver up to four times the storage throughput of its predecessor ForHLR. A multi-level data storage architecture will additionally guarantee further high-throughput processing on external storage systems.
HoreKa is housed in a dedicated computer building on KIT's North Campus, which was newly constructed in 2015 for its predecessor ForHLR. The award-winning, energy-efficient hot water cooling concept is continued with the new system.
New platform for project applications
The application for computing time projects on HoreKa is now possible via the digital application platform. In addition, the new NHR Support Portal provides an integrated platform for all questions related to application submission as well as technical and professional support. Organizational questions about HoreKa can also be sent to horeka-info@nhr.kit.edu.
The official inauguration ceremony of HoreKa will take place in mid-July. An invitation will follow.
_ _ _
More information about HoreKa:
https://www.nhr.kit.edu/userdocs/horeka/
With bwUniCluster 2.0, KIT operates a second supercomputer in state service:
https://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/bwUniCluster_2.0.php


Dr. Jennifer Buchmüller

Druva Insync, the tool for backing up data on mobile devices, has been disabled. IBM Spectrum Protect can be used as an alternative.

Druva Insync has discontinued on-premises operation. The cloud variant of Druva Insync can no longer be used at KIT for data protection reasons. Therefore, Druva Insync, the tool for backing up data on mobile devices (laptop and notebook) has been shut down on 20.05.2021.
Thus, data backups with Druva Insync are no longer possible.
As an alternative, mobile devices can be used with the backup and archiving tool IBM Spectrum Protect (formerly TSM), which is already in use.
Interested users register their device via the registration website using the online form valid for their operating system.
Afterwards, the registered users - or one of the contact persons named in the form (ITB/IT administrators) - receive all necessary installation instructions for securing the specified device by e-mail.
The SCC had tested many alternative tools in advance. But unfortunately none of these tools proved to be an applicable alternative.
However, the SCC will investigate other possible solutions for backing up mobile devices.
If you have any questions about our "Backup & Archive" service, please contact the SCC's backup team directly.

Possibility for collaborative projects within the framework of NHR@KIT

Within the scope of National High Performance Computing (NHR) at KIT, research activities of PhD students and postdocs can be funded in collaborative research projects. In these projects, scientists from NHR@KIT and from the fields of Earth System Science, Materials Science, Engineering in Energy and Mobility, and Particle and Astroparticle Physics collaborate. We are opening a call for project proposals from researchers in these fields.
For more information and the call for proposals, please visit nhr.kit.edu/collaboration-call

Contact: René Caspart

The Helmholtz Association honors Achim Streit for his continuous involvement in the Helmholtz Incubator - an initiative to bring together and further develop the community's expertise in the thematic field of Information & Data Science.

Otmar Wiestler, Präsident der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, ehrt Achim Streit, Direktor am SCC, für sein nun fünf Jahre kontinuierliches und herausragendes Engagement im Helmholtz-Inkubator mit der Incubator Honorary Needle. Neben Achim Streit erhielt auch Uwe Konrad vom Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) diese Auszeichnung im Rahmen des 10. Inkubator-Workshops (s. Bild).
Vor fünf Jahren wurde der Inkubator ins Leben gerufen, um die Expertise der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft im Themenfeld Information & Data Science zusammenzuführen und weiterzuentwickeln. Besonders die Stärken der Gemeinschaft sollten in diesem Think-Tank weiter ausgebaut, ihre ambitionierte Digitalisierungsstrategie mit Leben gefüllt und Anknüpfungspunkte für nationale und internationale Partner im genannten Themenfeld geschaffen werden.
Zum Auftakt des zehnten Workshops, der am 28.04. stattfand, dankt Otmar Wiestler Achim Streit in einem Brief: "Sie waren von Anfang an dabei, haben in sehr prominenter Rolle am Erfolg des Inkubators mitgewirkt und unter anderem die Helmholtz Information & Data Science Academy aus der Taufe gehoben." Darüber hinaus konnten durch die Inkubator-Plattformen Helmholtz AI, HIFIS und HMC signifikante zusätzliche Erstmittel ans KIT geholt werden.
 
Achim Grindler

Girls' Day took place digitally this year. 25 schoolgirls from all over Germany participated in the workshop "Data of today - Medicine of tomorrow" offered by IAI and SCC staff.

Four researchers from the HelmholtzInformation & Data Science School for Health (HIDSS4Health) and three colleagues from IT at the Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics (IAI) and the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) met with 25 schoolgirls from all over Germany for a digital workshop.
In small groups, the girls were able to test interactively and playfully how to recognize structures such as organs and bones in a computed tomography (CT) image. The fact that so-called segmentation, which is used, for example, in cancer research to detect tumors, served as a vivid example here. The students recognised the challenges of this task and asked questions about the methods used to recognise cancer. In two short presentations, Pia Stammer and Alexandra Walter - both of whom conduct research in the Computational Science and Mathematical Methods (CSMM) working group at SCC - explained how artificial intelligence is used in the evaluation of medical image data in cancer research.
 
Sabine Grindler/ Claudia Greceanu

Startup of HoreKa also marks the beginning of the shutdown of predecessor ForHLR II

Karlsruhe - SCC has started pilot operation of the new supercomputer "Hochleistungsrechner Karlsruhe" (High Performance Computer Karlsruhe), or “HoreKa” for short. While HoreKa will be ramped up to its full capacity in the coming weeks, this also marks the beginning of the shutdown of its predecessor, ForHLR II, after five years of successful operation.
When KIT's “Forschungshochleistungsrechner II” (High Performance Research Computer II, short ForHLR II) was commissioned in March 2016, it was one of the few computers in the world that could reach a computing power of more than one PetaFLOPS - i.e. one quadrillion computing operations per second. More than 1150 compute nodes with almost 24,000 CPU cores and 74 terabytes of main memory in total were required to achieve this level of performance.
KIT was not only at the forefront in terms of computing power with ForHLR II, though: The system was not cooled with cold water, but used “hot” water at temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius. This was a novelty in the field of High-Performance Computing and also the reason for the construction of a new data center building for the supercomputer at KIT's Campus North. The SCC was awarded with the German Data Center Award in 2017 for the energy-efficient overall concept.
Three years of preparations for HoreKa
The planning for a successor system to ForHLR II already started in 2018. In 2019, the project was named "High Performance Computer Karlsruhe" - HoreKa for short - and the procurement process was started. But HoreKa will not just be a worthy successor to ForHLR II. With 769 compute nodes, nearly 60,000 CPU cores, more than 220 terabytes of main memory and 668 GPUs, the system will achieve a theoretical peak performance of more than 17 petaFLOPS, making it 17 times faster than its predecessor. The system is thus expected to be among the ten fastest computers in Europe in mid-2021.
Thanks to the new supercomputer, researchers will be able to gain a more detailed understanding of highly complex natural and technical processes, particularly in materials sciences, earth system sciences, energy and mobility research in engineering, and particle- and astroparticle physics. Of course HoreKa can also be used by scientists conducting research to understand the SARS-CoV-2 virus, helping to combat the COVID-19 disease.
Computing and storage go hand in hand
A key consideration in the design of the system were the enormous amounts of data created by scientific research projects. Depending on the application, several hundreds of terabytes can be generated from a single simulation. To keep up with the growing needs, HoreKa's compute nodes, InfiniBand network and parallel file systems each deliver up to four times the throughput of the previous ForHLR II system.
A Multi-level data storage concept also guarantees fast data processing on external storage systems. HoreKa is connected with speeds of up to 45 gigabytes per second to the "Large Scale Data Facility" (LSDF) at SCC, which has been providing a modern infrastructure for the storage, management, archiving and analysis of research data since 2010.
Full operation of HoreKa begins on June 1, 2021
HoreKa was built up alongside ForHLR II over the past months. The first user groups have already been granted access to be able to port and optimize their applications. Over the next few weeks, the system will be ramped up to its full capabilities and pilot operation is expected to seamlessly transition into full operation. Starting on June 1, 2021, HoreKa will then be available to scientists from all over Germany. Applications for computing time can already be submitted right now.
Since the data center building at Campus North cannot supply both systems at the same time, ForHLR II has to be gradually shut down in parallel. By mid-April, the system will no longer be available. The record after five years of operation is extremely positive: almost one billion CPU hours of computing time have been provided to more than 140 different research projects.
More Information about HoreKa and how to file applications for computing time on the new system: www.nhr.kit.edu/userdocs/horeka/
 
More information on COVID-19 research at KIT:
www.kit.edu/kit/corona-pandemie-forschung-und-hilfsaktivitaeten-am-kit.php (in German) www.scc.kit.edu/en/aboutus/13531 With bwUniCluster 2.0, KIT operates a second supercomputer as a state service: www.scc.kit.edu/en/dienste/bwUniCluster_2.0
 
Jennifer Buchmüller
Simon Raffeiner

Hartwig Anzt, head of the Helmholtz junior research group FiNE, presents first experiences in software porting for Intel Xe GPUs.

In the article "Preparing for the Arrival of Intel's Discrete High-Performance GPUs" published on HPCwire, Hartwig Anzt, head of the Helmholtz junior research group FiNE, presents first experiences in software porting for Intel's new Xe GPUs.


Hartwig Anzt 's team is one of the first worldwide to develop software for the expected discrete Intel High-performance GPUs. In close collaboration with Intel and Argonne National Lab, which is planning the first exascale supercomputer based on these GPUs, the research team has developed a backend for the open-source software library Ginkgo in the programming language DPC++, which is already capable of executing numerical methods entirely on Intel GPUs.


The obove mentioned HPCwire article discusses a workflow to convert CUDA code to DPC++ code and the challenges involved. Even though Intel's GPUs and the oneAPI ecosystem are still struggling with various teething problems, the open source strategy Intel has chosen could succeed in bringing the scientific community along.

PostgreSQL will complement the range of database systems at KIT. From March 2021, employees will be able to use this new service.

The SCC has decided to add PostgreSQL to its portfolio of database systems, in addition to the database systems already offered, such as Microsoft SQL, MySQL und Oracle. Since March 1, 2021, PostgreSQL has been available to all KIT employees as an additional database management system.
A description of what is behind the open source product PostgreSQL and how it has evolved is explained in the excerpt from the book PostgreSQL 10 by Lutz Fröhlich
The PostgreSQL system operated at the SCC is used in version 13 and runs on a virtual machine. This means that, if necessary, it can be adapted to the requirements that arise at short notice in terms of memory or CPU load. Furthermore, a hardware failure is almost unlikely, so that a master-slave concept is currently not used.
Regular backups of the system as well as the prompt elimination of security gaps by applying current patches contribute to a secure and stable operation. However, short downtimes are required on a regular basis, which will be announced in advance and will usually be outside KIT's core working hours.
For further information please refer to the service description of PostgreSQL databases.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact the database team of the SCC - DB-Team@scc.kit.edu.
 
German Source: Lutz Fröhlich, PostgreSQL 10, Hanser-Verlag; Translation: deepL.com
The open-source product PostgreSQL has grown considerably in popularity in recent years. The permanent expansion with new features and the adaptation to the needs of the users have contributed to this to a considerable extent. PostgreSQL is proof that open source software can not only keep up with commercial products, but is even superior in many areas. The commercial pressure is not in the foreground and lets the developer community work freely and implement innovations.
In addition to a robust transaction core and high reliability, PostgreSQL offers many features of a modern database system and can be easily integrated into an existing IT infrastructure. Due to the high degree of compatibility with Oracle, the migration effort is manageable and mixed operation is easy to implement.
PostgreSQL can be used on all popular platforms such as Linux, MacOS, Solaris or Windows. Although it is an open source product, there are now many commercial applications that use and support the product.
PostgreSQL traces its origins to the POSTGRES project, based at the University of California at Berkley in the 1980s. The first presentable version appeared in 1987 as Postgres version 1. In response to the first criticisms, the rule system still present in PostgreSQL was developed. Version 3 appeared in 1991 with a further development of the query unit. In 1993, the University of California ended the project with version 4.2 to avoid having to carry the rapidly growing support requirements.
After adding an SQL query interpreter in 1995, the software was put on the Web under the name Postgres95, with the source code of the original Berkley Postgres. At the time, the product was written entirely in ANSI C. By improving in the areas of maintainability and performance, it eventually ran 50% faster than the original.
The decision to remove the year from the product name was made in 1996, making Postgres95 PostgreSQL, and beginning the steady evolution of PostgreSQL as an open source product. Although the latter led a shadowy existence for many years in the light of the large commercial databases, but also the rapidly spreading open source database MySQL due to the Internet boom, its consistent further development was carried out by the community.
Today PostgreSQL presents itself as mature and stable. It fulfills (almost) all requirements of a modern relational database system. Surprising for many: The performance is comparable to some commercial products.
(German Source: Lutz Fröhlich, PostgreSQL 10, Hanser-Verlag; Translation: deepL.com )

Das SCC betreibt ein Videokonferenzsystem auf Basis von BigBlueButton, das eine sichere Online-Kommunikation bietet. Ab Mitte Dezember 2021 steht der Dienst auch für Einrichtungen und Fakultäten des KIT allgemein zur Verfügung.

Das SCC betreibt ein Videokonferenzsystem auf Basis der Software BigBlueButton (BBB), das von Anwenderinnen und Anwendern, die dem KIT angehören, auf den lokalen Rechnern mittels Webbrowser nutzbar ist. Dieses Videokonfrenzsystem stand zunächst für Gremien, nun auch anderen Einrichtungen und Fakultäten des KIT zur Verfügung.

Die Verfügbarkeit des Dienstes auf einen Blick:
KIT-Gremien ab 16.11.2020
KIT-Einrichtungen (16.12.2020)
Lehrveranstaltungen (voraussichtlich ab SoSe 2021)
Weitere Informationen in der Servicebeschreibung

The new SCC-News edition is online, including these topics: Competence in AI research – The Helmholtz AI Consultant Team at SCC; Towards new challenges: Let’s go Quantum; Application and System Monitoring for SAP Systems.

Download SCC News 2/2020
Dear reader,
developing efficient and sustainable software for our energy supply systems is one of the grand challenges of the future. Increasingly based on artificial intelligence (AI) the new software among other things, enables energy distribution models that meet the changed prerequisites and requirements. For this, practical AI methods must be developed or adapted, which is where the Helmholtz AI consultant team, active since October, comes into play (cover picture). The team supports scientists doing energy research in the Helmholtz Association with specialists knowledge of AI methods, tools and software engineering. We introduce you the consultant team and their mission from page 20 onwards.
‘Off to new challenges’ is said of the another very promising field of research: quantum computing. With theoretically exponential computing acceleration it promises a high potential for innovation. If machines are to efficiently recognize structures in data, quantum computers can be far superior to todays computers. Therefore a team at SCC is researching algorithms for quantum computers and translating them into machine learning applications. Starting on page 22, we report on how young SCC scientists are motivated to take on the ‘Let's go Quantum’ challenge.
At the ‘heart’ of the business processes at KIT, e.g. for personnel and financial management, purchasing and financial project implementation as well as for various self-services, ‘beats’ the SAP system. Only through the interaction of a large number of servers, storage and application systems does it dependably supply services and applications to numerous organisational units and institutes. It is particularly challenging to keep this heart ‘healthy’ and to recognize early on whether irregularities or problems are looming. For this purpose the SAP operations team has set up a first class monitoring and diagnosis system (page 6).
Enjoy reading
Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit

From 1.3.2021, the EU will fund the “NFFA (Nanoscience Foundries and Fine Analysis) Europe Pilot” (NEP) project for a period of five years. At KIT, the SCC and the Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility (KNMFi) are involved.

From 1.3.2021, the EU will fund the “NFFA (Nanoscience Foundries and Fine Analysis) Europe Pilot” (NEP) project for a period of five years. At KIT, the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) and the Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility (KNMFi) are involved.
NEP is the continuation of the successful NFFA-Europe project, with 23 partners who provide important resources for nanoscientific research and develop new cooperative working methods. The use of innovative research data and metadata management technologies is becoming increasingly important.
In the NEP project, the SCC Department Data Explotation Methods (DEM) will contribute with new methods for metadata enrichment, development of large data collections, and the provision of virtual services to the establishment of a joint research data infrastructure.
 
Contact: Rossella Aversa
 

SCC operates a video conferencing system based on BigBlueButton that provides secure online communication for KIT committees but will also be available for KIT institutions and faculties in general in the near future.

The SCC operates a video conferencing system based on the BigBlueButton (BBB) software, which can be used by users belonging to the KIT on local computers via web browser. This video conferencing system is initially available for committees, in the near future also for other KIT institutions and faculties.
The availability of the service is planned in three stages:
KIT committees from 16.11.2020
KIT facilities (expected from December 8, 2020)
Courses (probably from Summer Term 2021)
Further information in the service description
 
 
 

Millions of Euros in Funding for Future Supercomputers at the SCC of KIT - Researchers throughout Germany can use enormous computing power from Karlsruhe.

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) becomes the Center for National High Performance Computing (NHR). This was decided today (13.11.2020) by the Joint Science Conference - the body coordinates the science funding of the federal and state governments. This will enable scientists to use even more powerful high-performance computers at KIT in the future. With HoreKa, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe will be available at the Scientific Computing Center of KIT in spring 2021. The NHR Alliance has an annual budget of 62.5 million euros, a high single-digit million amount goes to KIT every year.
 
Press Release of the KIT: pi_2020_101_kit-will-be-center-fur-national-high-performance computing.php

Press release of the GWK: pm-2020-11.pdf
 
Translated with DeepL.com
 

With JupyterLab, KIT researchers can now very easily interact with the SCC's high-performance computers directly from any workstation using a web browser. This also opens up new possibilities for courses.

The project Jupyter [1] started some years ago. It evolved into a project that today represents a complete open source ecosystem for programming, data exploration and code execution. Most importantly, Jupyter offers a new way of supercomputing that allows interactive work with kernels, text editors and data visualization on HPC systems.
Since the end of October, SCC offers Jupyter as a service [2]. In addition to the classic access via SSH, interactive access via web browser to all HPC systems of the SCC is now also possible. For the Tier-3 system, bwUniCluster2.0 + GFB-HPC, the new AI/ML-GPUs of the HAICORE partition and the Tier-2 inventory system ForHLR II, dedicated queues are reserved for Jupyter.
This minimizes waiting times and allows especially new users of our HPC systems a low entry threshold.
To use Jupyter on the HPC resources of the SCC the respective access requirements apply. Registration of access via bwidm.scc.kit.edu/ is required. The Jupyter service is only available within the KIT network. If the service is to be used from outside, a VPN connection to the KIT network must first be established.
References:
[1] A detailed documentation of the Jupyter project can be found at jupyter.readthedocs.io
[2] Further information on the Jupyter service can be found in the service description
 
Contact at SCC: Jennifer Buchmüller, Samuel Braun
 
Achim Grindler
 

In order to limit the strong spread of the corona virus, the SCC asks KIT students and employees to use the presence services only in urgent cases.

Update November 2020:
The SCC buildings at Campus North and Campus South are still open to the public.The counters of the service desk are still open. However, we ask you to contact the service desk via telephone number -8000, via the SCC ticket system or via e-mail (it-support∂scc.kit.edu). New personal certificates can still be processed by the service desk on site.The Print&Plot services are still available (see www. scc.kit.edu/dienste/printundplot.php.)Pool rooms at SCC are closed. Access to the pool computers via pool computerremote access is possible from the Internet.

The Council for Research and Promotion of Young Scientists (CRYS) confirms the Helmholtz Young Investigators Group "Fixed-Point Methods for Numerics at Exascale" (FiNE) "outstanding success" for its research work.

Leading a junior research group offers outstanding young scientists the opportunity to conduct independent and financially autonomous research at an early stage.
In order to assess the quality of the research work, some junior research groups are evaluated at KIT about one and a half years before the respective funding ends. The evaluations determine in a regulated and transparent procedure whether the group leaders have developed an independent scientific profile. The evaluation is carried out by the Council for Research and Promotion of Young Scientists (CRYS) and accompanied by the Research Funding Service Unit (FOR). CRYS prepares a recommendation for the Presidential Board, which decides on this basis whether the funded project has met expectations.
Recently, the Helmholtz Young Investigator Group "Fixed-Point Methods for Numerics at Exascale"(FiNE) headed by Dr. Hartwig Anzt was evaluated with "outstanding success". The group, which is based at the Scientific Computing Center (SCC), develops and tests numerical algorithms and makes these available to computer science researchers in easy-to-use and sustainable software libraries. The researchers' research goal is to develop algorithms that can efficiently exploit highly parallel computer systems. In addition to scalability, reduced communication and synchronization, and a certain resilience to errors play an important role. The Helmholtz Group is funded until 2022.
 
Source: News of the KIT Press
 
Translated with DeepL.com
 
 

The HelmholtzAI Local Energy Consulting Team is as of October 1st running at full power. The team is now supporting AI applications in energy research and beyond.

The HelmholtzAI Local Energy Consulting Team at SCC is complete since October 1st! We are pleased that Charlotte Debus, James Kahn, Daniel Coquelin and group leader Markus Götz are now supporting AI applications in energy research (and beyond) with their expertise.
James Kahn previously worked at KIT at the Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe (GridKa). There he supported the data management for the Belle-II experiment at the Japanese research centre KEK for particle physics. Charlotte <Charlie> Debus was previously at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne and worked on high-performance data analytics in the field of rocket propulsion. In this context, she has already contributed to the HeAT toolkit - a novel, easy-to-use software library to enable scaling methods for analyzing large amounts of data on HPC systems, which is also being co-developed by SCC. Daniel Coquelin, the fourth in the group, moved to us from Forschungszentrum Jülich in March 2020. As already there, he will continue to work on the optimization of computing and communication operations for AI algorithms on high-performance computers. His focus is mainly on data and model parallel neural networks.
The Helmholtz AI Consultants Team of the Local Unit Energy will deal with a variety of issues from the Energy Research Field. However, the four of them are particularly well versed in image, time series and graph processing, the estimation of uncertainties and the use of parallel hardware for the processing of large-scale data sets.
Further information: www.helmholtz.ai/themenmenue/our-research/consultant-teams/helmholtz-ai-consultants-kit/
 
Contact at SCC: Markus Götz
Achim Grindler

The new SCC-News edition is online, including these topics: Online Teaching and Home Office at KIT; Business Process Automation with MS Orchestrator; Peer Review 2.0

Dear reader,
Computer simulation and data analysis accelerate research enormously and promote knowledge gain. We are very pleased that SCC is one of the first institutions in Europe to put the innovative NVIDIA DGX A100 systems (front page) into operation to enable innovative AI research. However, the most modern hardware would be worthless without software. Therefore it is ever more important to shine the light on research software engineering (RSE) and its connection with open source software. On page 60 you may read how a sustainable peer review workflow, based on established processes in open source software projects, can contribute to this.
Fast pace and agility are constant companions of a modern scientific data center. Increasingly automated processes are needed to provide platforms and infrastructures for projects and research groups and deliver them quickly and reliably. On page 28 you can read how SCC using Business Process Automation, greatly reduced the effort to administer and document  the processes at SCC for allocation and handling of groupware resources.
Like in all our lives, the Corona pandemic also impacted life and work at KIT. Thanks to the concerted effort of SCC experts and many other organisational units of KIT, new IT-based tools and services for remote collaboration in research and online teaching were deployed and integrated with the KIT infrastructure in a very short time. Read more on this topic in the Corona special section (p. 4 – 12). We would like to take this opportunity to thank all contributors for their commitment and successful cooperation to secure the uninterrupted functioning of KIT during the Corona measures.
Enjoy reading.
Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit

A large-scale IT security incident forced many operators, including the KIT, to take their HPC system offline in mid-May. With the introduction of a 2-factor authentication scheme the systems can now be made available without restrictions again.

In mid-May, an IT security incident became known that affected a large number of HPC systems worldwide. It took several weeks until the systems could be made available to users again, often only with significant restrictions. The two high-performance computers ForHLR II (Tier-2) and bwUniCluster 2.0 (Tier-3) at KIT were put back into operation in mid-June. During the first out of three phases of the recommissioning process coordinated with the other operators in the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the use of SSH keys was no longer possible. This caused severe restrictions for the scientific communities, especially on the Tier-2 system, since the HPC systems could no longer be integrated into automated scientific workflows.
Within just a few weeks, the SCC has now successfully introduced 2-factor authentication (2FA) for all HPC systems using time-based one-time passwords (TOTP). So-called hardware or software tokens can be used to generate the one-time passwords. KIT employees already receive a hardware token for access to critical services such as the SAP portal or campus management. These can now also be used to access the HPC systems. A wide range of software token solutions, including apps for mobile devices, is available to users from other institutions. Registration and management of the tokens is handled by the web portal of the federal identity management system bwIDM.
In combination with the 2FA, the use of SSH keys is now possible again. These keys must also be managed via bwIDM. There are two types of SSH keys: those for interactive use and those for workflow automation (so-called “command keys”). SSH keys registered for interactive use allow the execution of any commands and require additional authentication with a time-based one-time password as a second factor. The second factor has to be entered once per hour at maximum. Command keys can be used without 2FA and thus in an automated fashion. However, they must be restricted to a single command and have to be cleared by the HPC operations team.
Other operators from the bwHPC project are planning to introduce 2-factor authentication based on the new components developed for bwIDM. The source code is available to interested parties under an open source license.
Further information on 2-factor authentication for the HPC systems can be found in the user documentations for ForHLR II and bwUniCluster 2.0.

During the school holidays in Baden-Württemberg, the hours of service of the SCC Service Desk change. The telephone is answered from 8:00 - 16:30, the counters are staffed from 9:00 - 16:30.

During school holidays in Baden-Württemberg, the hours of service of the SCC Service Desk change. The telephone is answered from 8:00 - 16:30, the counters are staffed from 9:00 - 16:30.

Beyond these hours, the telesecretary of the telephone is switched. Requests can, as before, be made to the SCC via the ticket system around the clock.

The SCC provides the KIT organizational units and their support teams with the SCC ticket system to support their own support processes for efficient and convenient request processing.

Requests addressed to a KIT service provider that cannot be answered or solved immediately can be recorded as a process (ticket) in the ticket system offered by SCC and, if necessary, passed on to other teams and persons for further processing. The forwarding is done via so-called ticket queues (queues for processes), which are created for specific topics.
The SCC ticket system provides all persons involved in the support process with an overview of the requests they have submitted to a service provider or the service provider with an overview of the processes to be processed and completed.
Access to these recorded processes is defined via an authorization concept at team level. For each queue it can be defined which support team is allowed to create, move, read or edit new requests.
For the use of the SCC ticket system in an organizational unit, a service agreement was concluded at KIT. This agreement regulates the introduction and application of the system in the service unit, as well as the purpose, the description of procedures and roles, and the admissibility of a possible performance and behavior control.
If you are interested in using the SCC ticket system in your organizational or service unit, please contact us by e-mail at it-support@scc.kit.edu. We will be happy to advise you and show you the possibilities that the OTRS-based ticket system offers you in processing your transactions.
Birgit Junker
 
 

Services that require the presence of persons or the appearance on site are back in operation. In both campus sites, south and north, the buildings are open again to the public.

Theire are no restrictions to presence services of SCC:
The SCC buildings on the north (442, 449) and south campus (20.21) are open to the public again.
  Service Desk, Print&Plot services and the certification authority KIT-CA for personal certificates are available again.
  The computer pools at SCC are still closed, access to the pool computers for students is possible via remote access: see: Remote access to centrally managed pool computers  

To ensure that researchers of the Helmholtz Association continue to be at the forefront of AI and machine learning development, KIT is now the first location in Europe to commission state-of-the-art NVIDIA DGX A100 AI systems.

Als ein Werkzeug der Spitzenforschung ist Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) heute unentbehrlich. Für einen erfolgreichen Einsatz – ob in der Energieforschung oder bei der Entwicklung neuer Materialien – wird dabei neben den Algorithmen zunehmend auch spezialisierte Hardware zu einem immer wichtigeren Faktor. Das Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) hat nun als erster Standort in Europa das neuartige KI-System NVIDIA DGX A100 in Betrieb genommen. Bei den neuen Computersystemen vom Typ DGX A100 handelt es sich um Hochleistungsserver mit jeweils acht NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs. Gemeinsam erbringen die acht Beschleuniger eine Rechenleistung von 5 AI-PetaFLOP/s. Angeschafft wurde es aus Mitteln der Helmholtz AI Computing Resources (HAICORE) Initiative, die eng mit Helmholtz AI verbunden ist.

Weitere Informationen in der Presseinformation des KIT vom 6.7.2020
 
Achim Grindler

The Helmholtz Junior Research Group "Fixed-Point Methods for Numerics at Exascale" has been included in the US Exascale Computing Project and receives research funding of more than one million Euro until 2022.

On July 29th 2015, the former US president Barack Obama founded the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) with an executive order. This national initiative aims to develop a strategic vision across institutional boundaries and a federal investment strategy in collaboration with scientific research institutes and industry partners to maximize the benefits of High Performance Computing (HPC) for the US.
The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) is part of the NSCI and aims to provide powerful Exascale supercomputers and develop a sustainable software ecosystem for scientific simulations. Due to the existing expert knowledge on the development of numerical software libraries and sustainable software development, the Helmholtz Junior Research Group Fixed-Point Methods for Numerics at Exascale (FiNE) headed by Dr. Hartwig Anzt located at the Scientific Computing Center has been included in the ECP consortium and receives research funding of more than a million Euro until 2022.
The Team headed by Hartwig Anzt (see photo) will especially focus on the development of numerical methods and production-ready codes that can operate in lower arithmetic precision, while still producing results of high precision. These so-called "mixed precision algorithms" can profit from the high performance of modern, AI-focused hardware and thus be used efficiently for numerical methods and scientific simulations.
 
Contact persons at SCC: Hartwig Anzt, Martin Frank
Further Information:
Multiprecision Effort (Exascale-Podcast mit Hartwig Anzt): insidehpc.com/2019/12/podcast-developing-multiprecision-algorithms-with-the-ginkgo-library-project/ 

The first nine National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) consortia have now been announced. KIT is involved in three consortia. SCC will take over tasks in the NFDI for chemistry and engineering sciences.

In the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), data stocks are to be systematically developed, secured in the long term and made accessible. In the consortia now announced and funded by the NFDI, users and providers of research data work together with information infrastructure institutions. KIT scientists are involved in the consortia for chemistry, engineering, and catalysis research.
Together with the Institute of Organic Chemistry (IOC) and the Institute of Biological and Chemical Systems (IBCS), the SCC is responsible for the design of the NFDI for Chemistry (NFDI4Chem), whose vision is the digitization of all important steps in chemical research.


In NFDI4Chem and NFDI4Ing, which unites engineering research communities and promotes the management of their research data, the SCC has a co-spokesperson role and is therefore also looking for interested employees.
 
Contact persons at SCC: Felix Bach, Rainer totzka, Achim Streit
Detailed information in the KIT press release of June 29, 2020

Further information on NFDI consortia with KIT participation is available at: www.rdm.kit.edu/netzwerke_nfdi.php and www.rdm.kit.edu/netzwerke_nfdi_kit.php (KIT Intranet)
 
Achim Grindler
 

Missing a lot of conferences on research software engineering this year? You've come to the right SORSE, be part of it – and participate or contribute to our series of weekly events.

Yesterday, SORSE (Series of Online Research Software Events, pronounced source) was launched. SORSE is our international answer to the COVID-19-induced cancellation of many national Research Software Engineering (RSE) conferences. Get involved in this new initiative created by a truly international committee of members from RSE communities from Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Nordic countries, United States as well as Australia and New Zealand!
To keep us all connected, collaborating and learning until the 2021 RSE Conferences, a wonderful group of volunteers has created this new series that aims to deliver a weekly event, either a talk, a workshop, a panel, a poster session, a software demo etc from the community. This is an open call to all RSEs and anyone involved with research software, worldwide, to submit an abstract. The contribution can be delivered in various languages – including German, so do not hesitate to take part!
The call will be open continuously with rolling deadlines. The first deadline is soon (12th July) and then again on the 31st July, followed by the end of each month after that. Apply at any time to be included in the next review.
Have an idea and want to collaborate on it? - Go to the Topic Bazaar – The topic bazaar is a place to encourage and create collaborations that can then be presented in a variety of formats within the conference. You can also search for existing ideas to establish new collaborations.
Want to have a say on the conference content? Go to the Wishlist – and tell us what events and guest speakers you'd like to see.

Eileen Kühn

Great joy in knowledge research: The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has approved the renewed extension of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 980.

The concept of disciplinary diversity and interdisciplinary openness, which has been practised for eight years now, convinces not only the participants but also the funding bodies, so that the CRC "Episteme in Motion" has secured the (quite rare) maximum funding period of 12 years.
The Collaborative Research Center, located at Freie Universität Berlin, investigates processes of knowledge change in European and non-European cultures in the pre-modern era. In currently 19 subprojects, around 55 employees conduct interdisciplinary research on transfer processes in the period from antiquity to early modern times, making it one of the most comprehensive CRCs in the humanities.
SCC-DEM is leading the information infrastructure project "Corpora in Motion" in the Collaborative Research Centre, in which a digital data infrastructure is being developed for all sub-projects of the CRC. The central component is the "Episteme Repository" with state-of-the-art analysis and visualization tools for the heterogeneous humanities data.
 
Contact persons at SCC: Danah Tonne and Germaine Götzelmann

For the central administration of files and directories, the SCC previously used the Apache Subversion (SVN) software. But the trend is moving towards Git & Co. SCC offers a GitLab instance and will shut down the SVN server at the end of June 2020.

For a long time, Subversion was the version control system of choice, but just as Subversion inherited the RCS (Revision Control System) and CVS (Concurrent Versions System) systems, the trend is now toward Git & Co.
SCC also runs a GitLab instance at gitlab.kit.edu, which now hosts almost 99% of all projects.
As a result, SCC will no longer migrate the Subversion server svn.kit.edu, for which support will expire in mid-year, to a new platform and will phase out the SVN service with the underlying operating system.
We recommend that all SVN users get involved with Git or GitLab (about.gitlab.com) and move their remaining SVN projects by the end of June 2020.
If you have questions about using Git, please contact the Git team directly at git@scc.kit.edu .

Critical security problems in the mail app for iPhone and iPad detected! An official warning has been issued. BSI considers the vulnerabilities to be "especially critical".

May 25, 2020 - Updates for iOS 13 and iOS 12 fix vulnerability The company Apple now distributes updates for iOS 13 and iOS 12, which especially fix the vulnerability in the standard mail app "Mail".
After updating to iOS 13.5 or iOS 12.4.7, the "Mail" app can be used again.
The updates are distributed OTA (Over the Air). You can check the deployment for your device under "Settings - General - Software update".
The SCC will provide you with a short guide to update iOS and reinstall the Mail app.
 
Notification of 8 May 2020 Apple has announced that the vulnerability will be closed with security update 13.5. Beta tests are currently running. It is therefore expected that Apple will release the update in mid-May 2020.
After installing the update, the mail app will be usable again.
Even if you are not used to the standard mail app "Mail" until then, you can still read e-mails on your iPhone or iPad by using Outlook Web Access at https://owa.kit.edu via a web browser (e.g. Safari or Microsoft Edge) to access the KIT Exchange Server.
We will inform you when the announced update from Apple is available. In addition, we are preparing instructions on the SCC website on how to reinstall the "Mail" app and put it into operation.
 
Notification of 24 April 2020 A serious vulnerability has been found in the standard mail app "Mail" of iOS devices (iPhones and iPads). Mac computers running MacOS are not affected.
According to the recommendations of the BSI, please refrain from using the "Mail" app on iPhones and iPads.
Use of the "Mail" app is temporarily prohibited for devices provided for business purposes.
Procedure: Please temporarily delete the "Mail" app from your device.
For information on how to delete apps from your iPhone or iPad, please visit support.apple.com/de-de/HT207618.
If additional mailboxes are connected to the iOS Mail app, make sure that the contents are backed up before deleting the app.
Apple has announced that the vulnerability will be closed with the soon expected security update 13.4.5. We will inform you as soon as the update is available. In addition, we will soon provide you informations on how to reinstall the "Mail" app and put it back into operation.
To continue reading mails on the iPhone or iPads, please use Outlook Web Access at owa.kit.edu via a web browser.
Sources:
www.bsi.bund.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/Presse2020/Warnung_iOS-Mail_230420.html
blog.zecops.com/vulnerabilities/youve-got-0-click-mail/

Michael Gehle

In fall 2020, KIT will make available the 1st stage of a new supercomputer for many scientific fields. The full system will be handed over to the scientific communities by summer 2021. The procurement that has now been signed is in the order of 15 mio. €

“Research using supercomputers contributes to a modern and sus-tainable society,” explained Professor Holger Hanselka, President of KIT. “With the help of supercomputers, research in key areas, such as energy, environment, mobility, and medicine, will find new solu-tions faster. HoreKa thus fits perfectly into KIT's strategy to make significant contributions to managing the challenges facing society.”
“High-performance computing stands for rapid developments. With their ever increasing peak performances, supercomputers are crucial to both leading-edge research and the development of innovative products and processes in key economic areas. Thanks to institutions like KIT, Baden-Württemberg is a European leader in supercomputing and internationally competitive in this area. It is not only the impressive computing power of the machines, but also the concentrated methodological expertise that enables our computer-assisted top-level research to achieve breathtaking results,” said Baden-Wuerttemberg Science Minister Theresia Bauer.
The new “Hochleistungrechner Karlsruhe” (German for Karlsruhe high-performance computer), HoreKa for short, is expected to be one of the ten most powerful computers in Europe in 2021 and will have a computing power of more than 17 PetaFLOPS - 17 quadrillion computing operations per second, which corresponds to the performance of more than 150,000 laptops. 
The system will be available to scientists from all over Germany. Thanks to the new supercomputer, researchers in the areas of materials sciences, earth system science, energy and mobility research in engineering, life sciences and particle and astroparticle physics will be able to gain a more detailed understanding of highly complex natural and technical processes. Of course, HoreKa can also be used by scientists studying the SARS-CoV-2 virus and, thus, will contribute to fighting the COVID-19 disease.
Computing and Storage Go Hand in Hand With HoreKa, researchers can analyze far more details in larger systems, thereby extending normal simulations to so-called multiscale simulations. “Climate simulations and Earth system models, for example, will achieve much finer resolutions and, thus, a higher level of detail,” explains Professor Martin Frank, Director of the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) of KIT. “However, in addition to pure computing power, the demands on file systems are also increasing in terms of both capacity and latency. With HoreKa, we are consistently continuing the strategic orientation of SCC towards data-intensive computing”.
“Currently, highly diverse technical developments are taking place on the hardware market,” says Dr. Jennifer Schröter, Head of the High-performance Computing Group of SCC. “Our technical requirements were demanding, but the tendering process was deliberately kept open with respect to the exact technologies used to give our bidders the opportunity to design the most powerful systems possible.”
Two Innovative Chip Technologies – One High-Performance System The result is an innovative hybrid system with almost 60.000 next-generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processor cores and 220 terabytes of main memory as well as 740 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs. A non-blocking NVIDIA Mellanox InfiniBand HDR network with 200 GBit/s per port is used for communication between the nodes. Two Spectrum Scale parallel file systems offer a total storage capacity of more than 15 petabytes. The computer systems are made by Lenovo, while general contractor pro-com Datensysteme GmbH from Eislingen near Stuttgart is responsible for project coordination, system integration, delivery, and customer support.
“We are looking forward to putting this system into operation to-gether with our partners Lenovo and KIT and to handing it over to the users,” says Oliver Kill, Managing Director of pro-com. With HoreKa, pro-com is not only celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2020, but also the largest order in the company's history.
Machine Learning Supports Human Researchers  "Artificial intelligence and machine learning can dramatically accelerate scientific computations in the most significant areas of research, where the world’s problems are being solved,” says Marc Hamilton, Vice-President of Solutions Architecture and Engineering at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs further support this accelerated research, and together with NVIDIA Mellanox InfiniBand technology, KIT’s new supercomputer will speed up scientific discovery for a broad range of important research."
Another central aspect in the system design has been the enormous amount of data generated by scientific research projects. Depending on the application, several hundred terabytes of data can be generated by a single simulation. To keep up with the growing amounts of data, the computing nodes, the InfiniBand network, and the parallel file systems of HoreKa each will provide up to four times the throughput of its predecessor system, ForHLR.
A multi-level data storage concept will guarantee high-throughput processing of data on external storage systems. With a data rate of up to 45 GByte/s, HoreKa will also be connected to the “Large Scale Data Facility” (LSDF) of the SCC which has been providing a modern infrastructure for the storage, administration, archiving, and analysis of research data since 2010.
Award-winning Energy Efficiency HoreKa will be installed in a state-of-the-art data center constructed for its predecessor ForHLR on KIT‘s Campus North in 2015. The award-winning, energy-efficient hot water cooling concept based on the Lenovo Neptune Direct Water Cooling (DWC) technology will also be used for the new system.
The SCC employees chose the name HoreKa in reference to “GridKa”, the “Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe”. It is also located at SCC and has successfully provided data storage and analysis capacities for large-scale experiments all over the world, including the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland, for more than 15 years. One of GridKa's greatest successes is its participation in the discovery of the Higgs particle in July 2012. GridKa is the largest and most powerful data center of its kind. 

More information about HoreKa:
www.scc.kit.edu/en/services/horeka.php More information on COVID-19 research at KIT:
www.kit.edu/kit/corona-pandemie-forschung-und-hilfsaktivitaeten-am-kit.php (in German)
www.scc.kit.edu/en/aboutus/13531.php With bwUniCluster 2.0, KIT operates a second supercomputer as a state service: 
www.scc.kit.edu/en/services/bwUniCluster_2.0.php
  KIT Press Release: www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2020_035_kit-procures-new-supercomputer.php

Achim Grindler

The SCC provides the web application Jitsi Meet for conducting oral examinations via video conference. In conjunction with an examination administration system, a virtual examination room is made available to examiners on the examination date.

KIT recommends the use of this service for conducting oral examinations via video conference.
The service description at www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/vc-exam provides examiners and students with a quick start and information on the course of an examination as well as on the technical and organizational requirements.
In addition, a test environment is provided to test the functionality of camera and microphone in advance. Furthermore, it is possible to test the screen-sharing function with other persons or additional devices.
The service is based on Jitsi (jitsi.org), an open-source video conferencing system, in conjunction with a examine management system developed by SCC. Authorised examiners receive a URL for the exam room via this exam management system, specifying an exam date, in order to be able to pass it on to the participants of the exam.
Basic technical and organizational information regarding oral video conferencing exams is provided by ZML at www.zml.kit.edu/english/oral-examination.php. These must be observed!

Birgit Junker

During the existing corona protection measures, the SCC provides remote access to the centrally managed pool computers. This functionality created by the bwLehrpool team is now also used at KIT.

For the duration of the protection measures during the corona crisis, the SCC provides remote access to the centrally managed pool computers. For this purpose, the bwLehrpool team in Offenburg and Freiburg has created a possibility that is now also used at KIT.
The access takes place via pool-remote.scc.kit.edu. A VPN connection to KIT is required. When dialing in via the above mentioned page, a connection to a free pool computer is automatically established.

Information about bwLehrpool can be found at: www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/10394.php. A large amount of software similar to the local Windows PC can be found at the bwLehrpool event "General Windows".
Instructions on how instructors can create the virtual machine themselves can be found at the following link: www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/10417.php
 
Contact at SCC: Ulrike Rogge
(Text translated with DeepL.com)
Achim Grindler

First results from the survey on open science and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) have been presented in a webinar.

In a survey to gain better insight on Open Science and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) the EOSC-Pillar project contacted over 2000 scientific organisations and research funders in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Belgium.
The gathered information will help to guide further development of the pan European data infrastructure. SCC carried out the German part of the survey which returned information from all large scientific organisations, research infrastructures and research funders in Germany.
The size of the survey allows statistically valid assumptions on such different subjects as the status of open science, access to scientific services, maturity of FAIR data and more. The study team presented the preliminary results in a webinar which can be viewed here:
www.eosc-pillar.eu/events/webinar-national-initiatives-survey-results 


Jos van Wezel

The central e-mail service at KIT was converted to Microsoft Exchange 2019. With the renewed software and hardware, the SCC offers all employees and students an up-to-date communication platform with extended storage capacity.

The migration of the central e-mail service at KIT from Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 to Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 was completed at the end of March 2020. By renewing software and hardware components, employees and students now have an up-to-date and expanded communication platform at their disposal.
In addition to the expansion of storage capacities, there were of course also safety-related improvements.
Only TLS 1.2
The TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.0 protocols have long been considered unsafe. Exchange 2019 therefore only supports TLS 1.2.
Older clients that do not meet these requirements can no longer access the system. This concerns for example:
Windows 7 computer: Outlook does not use TLS 1.2 by default MacOS computers older than Sierra 10.12: Mac Mail does not support TLS 1.2 Android older than 4.2: Mail App does not support TLS 1.2 More storage for the users mailbox
The standard quota of mailboxes has been increased to 2 gigabytes for students and to 8 gigabytes for employees, guests and partners, as well as functional mailboxes.
60,000 mailboxes moved
A total of almost 60,000 mailboxes were moved, which currently occupy an (active) data volume of about 48 terabytes.

All students at KIT will be able to use the customer interface of the SCC ticket system to submit user requests regarding central IT services of SCC.

The SCC uses a web-based ticket system to efficiently process service requests.
From now on, not only KIT employees but also all KIT students have the possibility to post their requests concerning the IT services of the SCC in the SCC ticket system.
The SCC recommends all students with a valid KIT account to use this communication interface!
The associated authentication saves the service desk from having to check the status of the requesting persons with regard to the student status. In addition, students can independently track the requests made in the ticket system and continue to communicate with the SCC using the ticket they have entered.
If you have any questions regarding the operation of the ticket system, please contact the
SCC Service Desk, Tel. -8000, mailto: servicedesk∂scc.kit.edu
Service description: SCC Ticket System
Customer interface: Login 
Birgit Junker

Resources of the Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe and the HPC systems of KIT support the distributed computing projects Folding@Home and Rosetta@home, which help to improve the understanding of proteins, including those of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Since the end of March, computers of the Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe (GridKa) and the HPC systems of KIT are supporting the distributed computing projects Folding@Home and Rosetta@home, for example, to improve the understanding of the proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In close cooperation with the Institute for Experimental Particle Physics (ETP) at KIT, the CPU resources of GridKa were integrated into the Cobald/Tardis system that is used otherwise to dynamically manage the opportunistic provision of resources for research in high-energy physics. Up to 10,000 logical CPU cores of GridKa are now made available for Covid-19 research.
The department Scientific Computing and Simulation (SCS) has recently put the new HPC system bwUniCluster 2.0+GFB-HPC into operation. Folding@Home could serve as a useful example for a so-called "burn-in" process and the opportunistic provision of resources that would otherwise be temporarily not used due to the regular scheduling mechanisms in an HPC system. In addition to the CPU resources, up to 132 energy-efficient NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPU accelerators are included in the calculations. 
The teams "KIT-ETP" with GridKa and "KIT-SCS" already occupy ranks among the first 1000 of the more than 250.000 teams of Folding@Home.
In the short term, these resources will also be made available to the WeNMR project. Via the HADDOCK portal operated there, individual research groups can now also use GridKa resources for calculations to combat Covid-19.
 
Contact SCS: Jennifer Schröter
Contact GridKa: Andreas Petzold


Achim Grindler

The service for the exchange of files between various users in Baden-Württemberg "bwSync&Share" is converted. The previous basic software Powerfolder is replaced by Nextcloud.

The service "File Exchange and Online Storage for Desktop Data (bwSync&Share)" was successfully switched from Powerfolder to Nextcloud at the end of March 2020. The service can be accessed with the new "Nextcloud" software at the familiar URL https://bwsyncandshare.kit.edu. Information on how to use the renewed service can be found on the website https://help.bwsyncandshare.kit.edu. The previous Powerfolder instance will be available in read-only mode under the URL https://powerfolder.scc.kit.edu until 30.4.2020.

Service description
bwSync&Share - https://www.scc.kit.edu/en/services/bwSyncAndShare.php

In order to limit the spread of COVID-19, the SCC is closing its buildings to the public. Various services that require the presence of people or their presence on site are severely restricted.

Until further notice, there are restrictions on public access to the SCC. This means concretely:
The SCC buildings at Campus North and Campus South are closed to the public.
  The counters of the service desk are closed, the service desk can be contacted via telephone number -8000, via the SCC ticketing system and via e-mail (it-support@scc.kit.edu).
  The Print&Plot services are closed, see www.scc.kit.edu/en/services/printundplot.php.
  limited operation of the certification body KIT-CA for new personal certificates, as personal identification is currently difficult
  Computer Pools at SCC are closed.  
Achim Grindler

The EU project EOSC-Synergy together with the project partners has launched a cloud computing service based on Galaxy to facilitate researchers' access to data sets relevant to the ongoing research on COVID-19.

With the novel COVID-19 Coronavirus, the world is experiencing a variety of challenges. Researchers are working day and night, analysing the outbreak. Open Science, as a whole, has never been more relevant. Nor has the collaborative spirit that persistently remains amongst all of us.
In EOSC-synergy we want to do as much as we can to cooperate in this global endeavour. 
Therefore we are proud to announce the deployment of a Cloud Computing Service based on Galaxy to support researchers access to datasets relevant to the ongoing investigations on the COVID19. We are connecting those datasets with the most advanced computing infrastructures available in the computing centers of the EOSC-synergy consortium. More information on the available datasets and tools is here
This initiative benefits from the services provided by the so-called “COVID-19” Virtual Organisation, supported by the EGI Cloud Federation. EOSC-synergy is particularly thankful to the EGI Foundation for the swift and smooth support received in the past 24 hours to set up the user community support tools.
We are proud of the dedicated effort demonstrated by the members of the consortium to set up this service in less than 24 hours. Special thanks go to the project members at CSIC, LIP, UPV, INCD, KIT, IISAS and the EGI Foundation.
In EOSC-synergy we put at the service of society our expertise in software, computing and data services. Learn more about it at: https://covid19.eosc-synergy.eu/
Questions: coordinator@eosc-synergy.eu 
 
Contact at SCC: Dr. Marcus Hardt

On 03 March 2020 the KickOff Workshop of the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration Platform (HMC) took place in Berlin. At KIT, SCC and the Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics (IAI) are involved in the development of the platform.

On 03 March 2020 the KickOff Workshop of the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration Platform (HMC) took place in Berlin. At KIT, the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) and the Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics (IAI) are involved in the development of the platform.
HMC is an incubator of the new research field "Information & Data Science" of the Helmholtz Association. 
In a Community-wide process, the Community's diverse expertise in this future-oriented field is being pooled, to create innovative, interdisciplinary networks for future topics and technologies. HMC in particular will be responsible for Research processes and tools that standardize, create and establish the handling of metadata.

In HMC, SCC-DEM is responsible for the development of metadata services, which technically implement the FAIR principles and will serve as the basis for the entire platform. The results will be integrated into the scientific research data management of the KIT and many international research projects directly.
 
Contact at SCC: Thomas Jejkal

The SCC provides services and tools to enable mobile work.

In view of the current situation, there are more and more questions regarding the establishment of home office and mobile work. The SCC services support access to the KIT network, access to central applications and the KIT mailbox. 
The SCC has bundled current information and instructions on relevant tools: more 


Karin Schäufele

In mid-April 2020, the HPC system "Research High-Performance Computer Phase I" (ForHLR I for short) will be shut down after more than five years of operation.

The HPC system "Research High-Performance Computer Phase I" (ForHLR I for short) will be finally shut down after more than five years of operation on 14 April 2020 and will no longer be available after that date.
The file systems of ForHLR I will remain in operation until 12.05.2020, after which they will also be shut down and their contents deleted. There will be no automatic migration of data to other storage systems, this must be carried out by the users themselves.
To enable this migration, the login and data mover nodes of the former cluster will also remain in operation until 12.05.2020.
As replacement systems, the Forschungshochleistungsrechner II (ForHLR II), the bwUniCluster 2.0+GFB or the bwForCluster operated within the bwHPC initiative are possible.
The SCC asks for timely application of possibly required access rights and - depending on the system - for the submission of requests for computing time.

Due to the corona epidemic, events in science and research are also cancelled to protect the health of participants and the local population. An alternative for online events is the service DFNConf.

DFN-Verein answers frequently asked questions and gives recommendations on how to use the online services.
1. what situation is DFNconf currently confronted with?

In the current situation around the COVID-19 epidemic, various events are cancelled, also in the field of science and research, in order to protect the health of participants and the local population. In many cases, alternative, usually online-based formats are now being considered or have already been actively planned. We are already seeing a significant increase in the use of the service.

Can courses be held via DFNconf?

Yes, this is still possible.

Please use the streaming module of DFNconf (streaming of conferences) for courses and conference presentations that do not necessarily require two-way communication with audio and video.The streaming module allows a larger number of users (listeners) than the meeting modules of DFNconf (Pexip or AdobeConnect).The streaming module includes a text-based two-way communication (chat), so that interactions between presenters and viewers are still possible.

Can meetings be conducted via DFNconf?

Yes, this is still possible.

To be able to handle more meetings with the existing technical infrastructure, we have reduced the maximum video quality of all Pexip meetings from FullHD (1080p) to HD (720p) since 04.03.2020 until further notice.In our experience, this will not significantly reduce the user experience, except for the transmission of slides in lectures and conference presentations, which can still be transmitted in FullHD.

How many users can participate in my online event?

Pexip meetings: maximum 23 users

Adobe Connect meetings: 200 participants maximum

Streaming of courses/conference lectures: unlimited number of viewers.

Is the DFNconf service prepared for a sudden increase in usage?

Only to a limited extent. We are working with a multi-stage plan to set up the service as far as possible. There is no guarantee that we can cope with any kind of jump.

Our preparations are divided into short-term, medium-term and perspective measures.

Short-term measures are: Increasing the number of licenses, reducing the maximum video quality for meetings (see above) and installing a software upgrade to reduce the utilization of the conference platform.

Medium-term measures are: reactivation of reserve hardware, procurement of new servers for the conference platform.

Prospective measures: Monitoring the situation and the concrete effects on DFNconf, addressing the issue at the level of decision-makers in DFN-Verein.

Does DFNconf have the necessary reserves to stream all courses in Germany?

No, not at the moment, nor is it foreseeable whether this scenario will happen. If this request were to be made to DFN-Verein, this would go far beyond the scope of the current service from various points of view.

Are there bottlenecks and what can be done to avoid them?

It cannot be ruled out that the COVID 19 epidemic may cause the use of DFNconf to increase faster than we can control. In case of bottlenecks, it is possible that users will only be able to participate in events with restrictions (e.g. only via audio) or not at all.

In order to avoid this, events/meetings should take place outside of the current peak hours of 10:00-11:00 a.m. and 1:00-15:00 p.m. If you have the possibility to hold a meeting outside of these time windows, you relieve the infrastructure and thus increase the availability of the service.

Further information on video conferencing and teleteaching
Contact person at SCC: Rolf Mayer
Translated with DeepL.com
Achim Grindler

As part of the Initiative for High Performance Computing, Data Intensive Computing and Large Scale Scientific Data Management in Baden-Württemberg (bwHPC) the SCC will put the new parallel computer system bwUniCluster 2.0 into operation 17.03.2020.

As part of the Initiative for High Performance Computing, Data Intensive Computing and Large Scale Scientific Data Management in Baden-Württemberg (bwHPC) the SCC will put the new parallel computer system "bwUniCluster 2.0+GFB-HPC" (bwUniCluster 2.0) into operation as a federated service on 17.03.2020.
 
The bwUniCluster 2.0 replaces the predecessor system "bwUniCluster" and also includes the extension of the predecessor system procured in November 2016. The modern, advanced HPC system consists of more than 840 SMP nodes with 64-bit Xeon processors from Intel. It provides the universities of the state of Baden-Württemberg with basic computing power and can be used free of charge by the staff of all universities in Baden-Württemberg. 
 
Access is granted via the bwIDM federal identity management, regulated by each university individually. Users who currently have access to bwUniCluster 1 will automatically also have access to bwUniCluster 2.0. There is no need to apply for new entitlements or re-register.
Further information:
Technical description of bwUniCluster 2.0 Details to registration and access at wiki.bwhpc.de/e/bwUniCluster_2.0  

The easy-to-use, collaborative, online LaTeX editor Overleaf has been available to all KIT staff and students in the new KIT Overleaf Portal since December 2019.

A connection to the Shibboleth Identity Provider of KIT (SSO Integration) enables the use of the KIT Overleaf Portal by logging in with the KIT Account
Overleaf enables the collaborative editing of documents with LaTeX directly, without further software installations, via any web browser! Templates in the template gallery make it easy to get started with LaTeX and all LaTeX features like inserting images, equations or bibliographies are supported by Overleaf.
Collaboration is done via only one master version for each document, which can be accessed by any authorized person.
Several people can work on a document at the same time, the changes of other people are displayed directly.
The document history also shows which changes were added or removed by whom. Furthermore, it is easy to return to previous versions.
You can also find this cloud service in the service catalogue of the SCC under Collaboration (Groupware) -> Overleaf - Working with LaTeX
 

Get to know our IT centre. Meet us. Have a drink. Start your career.

The Scientific Computing Center (SCC) will present itself on February 6, 2020, starting at 14:00 in the KIT Campus North.
Are you looking for an IT challenge as a research assistant, IT specialist, or student assistant at the KIT Information Technology Center?
Come on over:
For the get-together, short overview lectures on selected topics of the SCC and the guided tours to our supercomputer ForHLR and to the data centre for international high energy physics GridKa. Get to know the different topics of SCC and possibilities for collaboration (also bachelor, master or doctoral thesis).
Registration required via: indico.scc.kit.edu/e/Meet-Know-Join-SCC
Contact: career@scc.kit.edu
 
Achim Grindler

Die neue SCC-News u. a. mit diesen Themen: IT-Landkarte der KIT-Software-Anwendungen; DEEP Hybrid DataCloud; MathSEE Modeling Week.

Dear reader,
for orientation, maps made of paper usually provide a better overview of a large area than digital map apps on smartphones. These develop their strengths only with the help of integrated information services and show nearby open restaurants, the traffic situation along the route or how to reach your destination by public transport. Likewise, a new interactive IT map (page 4) collects and integ-rates information about distributed services and applications at KIT, putting the associated data flows and objects into context. As a result, an overarching data base for the management of services and applications at KIT is gradually being created.
Similarly, researchers want to find their way around scientific tools and services in the ever-growing IT landscape. Among other things, the project DEEP Hybrid DataCloud provides a remedy. Specially tailored apps and services as well as a variety of supporting services enable scientists to address a wide variety of issues using deep learning methods. All of these services are available within a flexible cloud infrastructure, complemented even with high-performance computing resources (page14).
Another form of orientation is provided by the project group CAMMP at the SCC in the large field of modeling and simulation. For the first time, the KIT Center MathSEE hosted a modeling week to introduce students from disciplines that use mathematical methods to the modeling of real problems using high-performance computers (page 21).Together with the researchers who just obtained their doctoral degree at SCC (see title photo) we wish you a good orientation through this new edition of the SCC News.
Enjoy reading!
Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit
Achim Grindler

In the podcast "Let's talk Exascale" of the American Exascale-portal exascaleproject.org Hartwig Anzt, head of the Helmholtz junior research group FiNE, talks about the Ginkgo software and the visionary research on multiprecision algorithms.

Hartwig Anzt, Head of the Helmholtz Young Investigator Group FiNE — Fixed-Point Methods for Numerics at Exascale ­­— ­and his team develop and test efficient numerical algorithms and make them available to computer science researchers in easy-to-use and sustainable software libraries. What is new is that these algorithms use different floating-point formats (multiprecision) to benefit from higher computing power and faster communication in lower floating-point formats.
In particular, the algorithms are able to compute on low-precision special function units such as tensor cores in NVIDIA's GPUs. Although there has been research in the direction of multiprecision algorithms for many years, there is no production-ready software technology.
Hartwig Anzt succeeded in making the first algorithms "exascale-capable" and his software library Gingko is now part of the Extreme-scale Scientific Software Development Kit (xSDK), which was presented at the Supercomputing Conference 2019 in Denver. In the podcast Let's talk Exascale of the American Exascale-portal exascaleproject.org Anzt talks about the Ginkgo software and the visionary research on Multiprecision Algorithms in episode 47.


Achim Grindler

Viele Clients unterschiedlicher Betriebssysteme erlauben den Zugriff auf Speicherdaten über HTTPS/WebDAV. Ab sofort sind auch die Daten des Dienstes LSDF Online Storage über HTTPS/WebDAV verfügbar.

Der Zugriff auf Speicherprojekte in der LSDF ist ab sofort über die Protokolle HTTPS bzw. WebDAV möglich. Für diese Protokolle existieren eine große Anzahl an Clients für unterschiedliche Betriebssysteme sowie eine gute Integration in diverse Dateimanager.
Der lesende Zugriff auf Daten im LSDF Online Storage ist somit über Webbrowser möglich.
Details und Hinweise zur Benutzung werden im Dokumentationssystem (Wiki) und im Nutzerhandbuch des Dienstes bereit gestellt.
 
Der Daten-Zugriff mittels HTTPS/WebDAV erfolgt über die
URL https://os-webdav.lsdf.kit.edu
Fragen zum Zugriff oder Probleme beim Zugriff auf die LSDF Daten über HTTPS/WebDAV können jederzeit über das bwSupport-Portal unter https://bw-support.scc.kit.edu/?mode=ticket_submit&respounit=LSDF%20Online%20Storage an das LSDF Online Storage-Team gemeldet werden.

From 17 to 26 October 2019, representatives of the CAMMP and KOMMS projects introduced students of the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California in Tijuana/Mexico into solving problems using mathematical modelling.

Vom 17. bis zum 26. Oktober waren Martin Bracke (TU Kaiserslautern), Maren Hattebuhr (KIT), Sarah Schönbrodt (KIT), Janna Tinnes (RWTH Aachen) und Kirsten Wohak (KIT) als Vertreter/innen der Projekte CAMMP (Computational And Mathematical Modeling Program) und KOMMS (Kompetenzzentrum für mathematische Modellierung in MINT-Projekten in der Schule) an der Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) in Tijuana zu Besuch. Dort erhielten mexikanische Schülerinnen und Schüler in Form von mehreren Modellierungstagen und einer parallel dazu laufenden Modellierungswoche Einblicke in das Problemlösen mit Hilfe mathematischer Modellierung.
Zuerst fand eine Einführung in die Idee und Ziele von CAMMP und KOMMS für die aushelfenden wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeitenden von vor Ort statt. Mit Beginn der neuen Woche starteten wir mit ihrer Unterstützung in eine Reihe erfolgreicher eintägiger Workshops und eine Modellierungswoche.
Die ca. 160 Schüler/innen waren durchweg motiviert, begeistert und interessiert dabei. Zudem nahem sie aus diesen neuen Erfahrungen viel Wissenswertes mit und konnten ihre Modellierungskompetenzen ausbauen. Auch wir haben viele lehrreiche und spannende Erfahrungen gesammelt während wir mit Schülerinnen und Schülern einer anderen Kultur zusammenarbeiten durften.
Ein großes Dankeschön gilt dabei an den Organisator Luis Ramon Siero Gonzalez (UABC) und Professor Martin Frank, wissenschaftlischer Leiter des Projekts CAMMP am SCC. Es war für uns eine erfolgreiche und sehr erlebnisreiche Zeit.


Kirsten Wohak

In an American competition on chemical databases, an innovation team from KIT has won a prize with the idea of a synthetic chemistry portal as an information system for storing, sharing, searching and analyzing chemical data.

The innovation team of KIT, consisting of Nicole Jung, Stefan Bräse, Pierre Tremouilhac, Felix Bach and Ravindra Peravali, was able to convince in an international competition of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an authority of the US Department of Health, and won a prize in the category "Challenge 2".
In the tender entitled "A Specialized Platform for Innovative Research Exploration (ASPIRE)", concepts were sought which point to possibilities for establishing a modern research infrastructure.
In category 2, proposals for the development of an electronic synthesis portal were sought. The goal of the US National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) call, part of the NIH, is to reward and advance innovative approaches to solving the opioid crisis in the US through the development of (1) novel chemical compounds, (2) data mining, analytical tools and technologies, and (3) biological assays. The aim is to promote the discovery and development of next-generation preclinical tests of safe and non-addictive painkillers. The aim is to identify new therapeutic options for opioid dependence and overdose.
The KIT team was awarded the prize for "Electronic Synthetic Chemistry Portal for Translational Innovation in Pain, Opioid Use Disorder and Overdose". The Electronic Synthetic Chemistry Portal (eSCP) proposed by the Innovation Team is an information system for storing, collecting, sharing, searching and analysing data - specifically for synthetic and medical chemists and biologists. The portal is based on the laboratory application software Chemotion, which includes an electronic laboratory book (ELN) and a repository for chemists. Chemotion is a joint DFG-funded project of the SCC, the library and the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the KIT.
Further information: ncats.nih.gov aspire/2018ChallengeWinners
___
translated with deepL.com
Achim Grindler

KIT participated in the European Cybersecurity Month 2019 with an information booth and up-to-date materials. The focus was on practical tips for IT security and the detection of fraudulent messages as well as the secure handling of these.

Das KIT beteiligte sich am 23. Oktober 2019 am diesjährigen European Cybersecurity Month 2019. Dieser findet seit 2012 jährlich statt und ist eine Aktion der EU-Mitgliedstaaten unter Federführung der ENISA[1], um das Bewusstsein für Cybersicherheit zu fördern.
Der Fokus am KIT lag in diesem Jahr auf Praxistipps zur IT-Sicherheit und der Erkennung von betrügerischen Nachrichten sowie dem sicheren Umgang mit diesen. Die Beschäftigten und Studierenden wurden mit einer Rundmail sowie zwischen 11 und 14 Uhr mit einem Info-Stand im Casino des Campus Nord auf das Thema „Betrügerische Nachrichten“ und entsprechende IT-Sicherheitstipps aufmerksam gemacht.
Die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter der beteiligten Einrichtungen und Forschungsgruppen des KIT (AIFB, KASTEL, SECUSO, DO, SCC und ZML) erläuterten in vielen Gesprächen mit Praxisbeispielen in Flyern, Postern, Infokarten und zwei Videos die anschaulich, wie betrügerischen Nachrichten zu erkennen sind und wie man diese meldet. Die Online-Schulung „NoPhish“ für die Beschäftigten und Studierenden wurde überarbeitet und auf der Lernplattform des KIT bereitgestellt. Alle Dokumente und Materialien sind über die Aktionswebseite s.kit.edu/ecsm19 oder den Servicedesk des SCC verfügbar.
  [1] Europäische Agentur für Netz- und Informationssicherheit


Achim Grindler

The SCC welcomes first semester students. SCC presented itself during the orientation phase and the welcome ceremony as a central scientific institution as well as the IT service provider at KIT.

In der Orientierungsphase zum Wintersemester 2019/20 - vom 8.-11. Oktober - präsentierte sich das SCC mit 16 Vorträgen und 27 Führungen über 600 Studierenden als zentrale wissenschaftliche Einrichtung sowie als der IT-Serviceprovider am KIT. Zum Studienstart erhielten sie Infos zu KIT-Benutzerkonto, Organisation & E-Learning, Netzzugänge am KIT, E-Mail, Sichere Kommunikation mit Zertifikaten, bwSync&Share, Drucken, Poolräume, Hochleistungsrechner, ServiceDesk und Techpoint. Zum Kennenlernen der Lernplattform ILIAS gab es ein Quiz, an dem über 700 Studierende teilnahmen.
Rund 5 000 neue Studentinnen und Studenten starten im Wintersemester in ihr Studium am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). Das KIT heißt sie mit ihren Familien traditionell bei einer Festveranstaltung willkommen: Auch das SCC stand bei dieser traditionellen Erstsemesterbegrüßung in der Karlsruher Schwarzwaldhalle am 18. Oktober für eine erste Kontaktaufnahme bereit.
Der Ausgabeprozess der KIT-Card hat diesen Ansturm ebenfalls bestens überstanden. Reibungslos und ohne nennenswerte Probleme konnten 4600 Karten ausgestellt und registriert werden.
Wir wünschen allen Studierenden alles Gute für ihr Studium und unterstützen sie jederzeit bei allen Fragen rund um die SCC-Services.

Karin Schäufele

Den Erna-Scheffler-Förderpreis 2019 für eine Masterarbeit erhält die Physikerin Marie Weiel-Potyagaylo für ihre am SCC verfasste Arbeit mit dem Titel „Integration of SAXS Data into Biomolecular Simulations“.

Wie Daten aus Experimenten zur Analyse der dynamischen Struktur von Proteinen durch die Biosimulation so ergänzt werden, dass sie eine Art virtuelles Mikroskop hochaufgelöste Einblicke in atomare Details molekularer Systeme bieten, hat Marie Weiel-Potyagaylo (Forschungsgruppe Biosimulation am SCC) in ihrer Masterarbeit gezeigt und dafür den Erna-Scheffler-Förderpreis erhalten.
Den diesjährigen Dissertationspreis erhält Dr. Anja Exler für ihre am Institut für Telematik des KIT verfasste Arbeit „Investigating the Perceptibility of Smartphone Notifications and Methods for Context-Aware Data Assessment in Experience Sampling Studies“.
Mit Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) oder Kleinwinkel-Röntgenstreuung lassen sich dynamische Strukturen von Makromolekülen wie zum Beispiel Proteinen analysieren. Diese Biomoleküle fungieren im Körper als molekulare Werkzeuge und erfüllen, abhängig von ihrer individuellen Struktur, unterschiedlichste Aufgaben. Sie ermöglichen beispielsweise Zellbewegungen oder beeinflussen den Zellstoffwechsel. „In einem SAXS-Experiment bestrahlt Röntgenlicht in Wasser gelöste Proteine. Dabei registriert ein Detektor die Streustrahlung. Die so gemessene Intensitätsverteilung liefert Informationen über die durchschnittliche Größe und Gestalt der enthaltenen Moleküle“, sagt Marie Weiel-Potyagaylo. „Mithilfe von Computersimulationen können wir daraus dann ein dreidimensionales Molekülmodell ableiten. Solche Simulationen bieten als eine Art virtuelles Mikroskop hochaufgelöste Einblicke in atomare Details molekularer Systeme.“
Marie Weiel-Potyagaylo hat in ihrer Masterarbeit experimentelle Daten aus SAXS-Messungen in Simulationen eingebunden. Dies ermöglicht die strukturelle Interpretation von SAXS-Daten innerhalb der Simulationen und liefert ein detailliertes Bild der Dynamik und damit der Funktion der untersuchten Biomoleküle.
Hiermit erhält zum zweiten Mal eine Wissenschaftlerin der Forschungsgruppe um Alexander Schug die alle zwei Jahre verliehene Auszeichung. 2015 ging der Preis an Ines Reinartz, die in diesem Jahr erfolgreich ihre Doktorprüfung abgelegt hat.
 
KIT-Presseinformation: www.kit.edu/kit/pi_2019_131_erna-scheffler-foerderpreis-fuer-forscherinnen-des-kit.php
Pressebericht mit Bild von Preisverleihung: ESFP_2019_Bericht_SI_KA_Homepage_mit_Bild.pdf


Achim Grindler

The EOSC Synergy project to expand the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) started in Spain at the end of September.

The project had its kickoff from Sep 23rd - 27th 2019 in Santiago de Compostela in Spain and has a duration of two and a half years. A team of 25 engineers and scientists will work on the expansion of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by integrating National and Scientific Infrastructures.
EOSC-Synergy is one of the EOSC regional projects that aim to coordinate national efforts to build an IT platform for research with open and seamless services for storage, management, analysis and re-use of research data, across borders and scientific disciplines.
The project is coordinated by the Spanish National Science Council and partners with
the Laboratory for Instrumentation in Physics LIP, the INCD Association and LNEC in Lisbon, the polish national supercomputing centre PSNC in Posnan, the Czech national research network provider CESNET in Prague and Brno, the Slovak Academy of science IISAS in Bratislava, KNAW-DANS in the Netherlands, JISC in the UK, IRD/LEGOS in France, the University of Valencia in Valencia, ACK CYFRONET from Krakow, the Portuguese national network provider FCT, the European Grid Initiative EGI, the company INDRA Sistemas in Spain and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. KIT is also partner in the complementary EOSC-Pillar project with focus on the national activities in Italy, France, Belgium and Austria and in the EOSC-hub and EOSC-secretariat projects that respectively build the federating technical core and governmental structure of EOSC.
 
Dr. Marcus Hardt

The ZKI working group IT Service Management organized a kick-off workshop at SCC on the topic of public relations. 20 German universities took part, each with one person responsible for public relations at the IT Service Centre.

Ohne Zweifel ist Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und Kommunikation in einem IT-Servicezentrum oder einer IT-Koordinationsstelle eine wichtige operative und strategische Aufgabe. Sie unterstützt viele Funktionen und Verfahren im IT-Servicemanagement. Allen voran das Service Desk und Incident Management aber auch das Change und Portfolio Management profitieren besonders von gut gelebten Kommunikationsprozessen und -strategien. So war es keine Überraschung, dass die Mitglieder des ZKI e.V. großes Interesse am ausgeschriebenen Workshop zeigten und sich sehr bald 20 deutsche Hochschulen [1] mit jeweils einer für die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit im IT-Servicezentrum betrauten Person zum Arbeitstreffen angemeldet hatten.
Der Workshop erstreckte sich über zwei halbe Tage - 27. und 28.8.2019 - und gab den Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmern die Gelegenheit, sich über Fragen zu Kommunikationsstrategien und Kommunikationskultur als IT-Dienstleister für Hochschulen auszutauschen und erste wichtige Themen und Fragen zu bearbeiten. Dieser Workshop am SCC versteht sich als Auftakt für weitere Treffen. Im Rahmen der folgenden Arbeitstreffen möchte die Sprecherin des ZKI-AK ITSM, Dr. Alejandra Lopéz, den Unterarbeitskreis Öffentlichkeitsarbeit fest etablieren, um Erfahrungen zu sammeln, Konzepte auszutauschen und darüber hinaus Best-Practice-Beispiele aus den verschiedenen Einrichtungen zusammenzustellen. Die Leitung der Arbeitsgruppe übernimmt Irmgard Blomenkemper (Universität zu Köln), die auch das Kick-Off-Treffen vorbereitet und moderiert hat.
Die Mitglieder des Unterarbeitskreises sind Beschäftigte, die im Rahmen ihrer Tätigkeiten in IT-Einrichtungen von Hochschulen Öffentlichkeitsarbeit leisten oder verantworten bzw. in die vielfältigen Kommunikationsprozesse der Einrichtung - intern wie extern - eingebunden sind.
Das SCC hatte die Freude Gastgeber für die engagierte Arbeitsgruppe und Mitorganisator dieses erfolgreichen Workshops zu sein. Ein herzliches Dankeschön geht an das NaWik für die professionelle Einführung in die Wissenschafts- und Krisenkommunikation und an die Administration des Kollegiengebäudes Mathematik, ohne die ein mehrfacher Wechsel der Räumlichkeiten bei angenehmen Temperaturen nicht möglich gewesen wäre. Das hielt alle beweglich und erleichterte die Änderung der Sichtweise auf die unterschiedlichen durch die Kommunikation und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit anzusprechenden Zielgruppen.
Achim Grindler
 
"Achim Grindler hat als Gastgeber am KIT für die tolle Organisation des Workshops vor Ort gesorgt. Neben der passenden Räumlichkeiten und der Einladung des NaWik-Vortrags, hat das Rahmenprogramm die Möglichkeit eines intensiven Austauschs der Teilnehmer geboten und bereits beim ersten Treffen zu einer vertrauensvollen, produktiven Atmosphäre entscheidend beigetragen. Im Namen der Teilnehmer des Workshops hiermit ein herzliches Dankeschön an ihn."
Ingrid Bohr, IuK Koordinierungsstelle der Uni-Verwaltungen BW

[1] Fernuni Hagen, HS Osnabrück, IuK-bw (Stuttgart), KIT Karlsruhe, LRZ München, Ruhr-Uni Bochum, RWTH Aachen, TU Darmstadt, TU Dresden, TU Freiberg, TU Ilmenau, Uni Bamberg, Uni Bayreuth, Uni Hannover, Uni Köln, Uni Mainz, Uni Mannheim, Uni Marburg, Uni Wuppertal, Uni Würzburg.
[2] Kollegiengebaeude-mathematik-des-kit-erhaelt-deutschen-hochschulbaupreis-2016

Mario Brandenburg (MdB) was a guest at the KIT on August 1. He took advantage of the time off in Parliament to exchange views with companies and research institutions in and around his constituency of Southern Palatinate.

Am 1. August war der Bundestagsabgeordnete Mario Brandenburg zu Gast am KIT Campus Nord. Brandenburg nutzte die sitzungsfreie Zeit im Parlament, um sich in seiner Rolle als technologiepolitischer Sprecher der Freien Demokraten mit Unternehmen und Forschungseinrichtungen in und um seinen Wahlkreis Südpfalz auszutauschen. Neben dem Batterietechnikum am Institut für Angewandte Materialien (IAM-ESS) besuchte er dieses Mal auch das Scientific Computing Center.

Besonders gefreut hat sich das Team des SCC, dass mit MdB Brandenburg, derzeit einer von fünf Informatikern des Bundestags, ein Politiker zu Besuch kommt, der sich in seiner Arbeit Themen wie der Industrie 4.0, dem Quantencomputing, der (Quanten-)Kryptographie und der Künstlichen Intelligenz widmet.
Nach der Begrüßung durch das Direktorium des SCC bestand während der Führungen zum Forschungshochleistungsrechner (ForHLR II) und dem Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe (GridKa) die Möglichkeit zum Informationsaustausch mit den anwesenden Experten der Abteilungen Scientific Computing und Simulation (SCS) und Scientfic Data Management (SDM).
Brandenburg zeigte sich sichtlich beeindruckt und freute sich laut eigener Aussage [1] sehr darüber, "dass eine Universität wie das KIT in Karlsruhe in [..] zukunftsweisenden Forschungsfeldern und der Technologieanwendung ganz vorne mitmischt".
 
[1] Webseite Mario Brandenburg

Simon Raffeiner

The next generation supercomputer at SCC is called HoreKa. The abbreviation stands for "Hochleistungsrechner Karlsruhe" and is borrowed from the Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe, or GridKa for short, which is also operated at SCC.

Der Supercomputer der nächsten Generation am SCC heißt HoreKa. Die Abkürzung steht für „Hochleistungsrechner Karlsruhe“. Der Name ist angelehnt an GridKa, das Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe, mit dem das SCC seit mehr als 15 Jahren Datenspeicher und Rechenleistung für einen weltweiten Wissenschaftsverbund der Teilchenphysik bereitstellt.
HoreKa wird den 2016 in Betrieb genommenen ForHLR bis Mitte 2021 schrittweise ersetzten. Die europaweite Ausschreibung wurde im Juli 2019 gestartet.
Um einen passenden Namen für den neuen Supercomputer zu finden, wurde das gesamte Kreativpotential des SCC angezapft. Alle Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter konnten sich an einem Namenswettbewerb beteiligen. Ansonsten gab es zwar keine festen Regeln, aber unverbindliche Hinweise. In Anlehnung an andere Großgeräte am KIT sollte das Kürzel „Ka“ für Karlsruhe enthalten sein. Selbstverständlich sollte der Name auch einen deutlichen Bezug zum wissenschaftlichen Hochleistungsrechnen erkennen lassen. Ca. 50 Vorschläge von über 20 verschiedenen Personen kamen so zusammen. Der siegreiche Vorschlag wurde beim SCC-Sommerfest 2019 mit einem Preis gewürdigt.

Achim Grindler

The policies of the service for securing mobile devices with the tool "Druva inSync" will be adapted to the policies of the service for securing file servers and desktop computers with the tool "ISP" (formerly TSM) as of 01.09.2019.

Since 01.05.2006, the following policies have been in effect for data backups of file servers and desktop computers with the tool ISP (formerly TSM):
No hard disk images of the end devices. Devices that have not been backed up for 180 days will be completely deleted, including all backup data. One week before the deletion, an e-mail is sent with a warning that the data will be deleted. If this device is the last of the user, the user will also be removed from the backup system. If a user has not performed a backup 30 days after registration, this user will be removed from the backup system. As of 01.09.2019, these policies also apply to data backups of mobile devices via "Druva inSync".
Data backup for mobile devices with "Druva inSync" is connected to the KIT Active Directory service, so access depends on a valid KIT user account. This means that as soon as a KIT user account is deactivated, even the Druva administrators no longer have access to the user's data secured with "Druva inSync".
Therefore the SCC additionally introduces the following policy:
If a KIT user account is deactivated, this account will also be disabled in the Druva inSync server. Access to the backup data is then no longer possible. Such blocked accounts - including the corresponding backup data - are removed from the Druva inSync system after 60 days.
Service Descriptions
Backup & Archive Backup  

The new SCC News amongst others with these topics: New KIT backbone - 100G in KIT core network; HeAT - Helmholtz Analytics Toolkit; Our youth researches successfully!

Dear reader,
what are your thoughts about "HeAT"? Possibly the stifling hot weather that gripped not only Karlsruhe the last weeks? The toolkit, called HeAT, is a novel, easy-to-use software library to enable scaling techniques for analyzing large amounts of data on HPC systems. A really "hot iron" (p. 18). In the future, HeAT will use GPUs in the background to calculate n-dimensional data fields more efficiently.
The upgrade to 100G of the core network of the KIT (p. 12) entered a hot phase as well. The north-south connection and the first SCC services have already been migrated. The connection of the KIT institutes to this fast infrastructure follows next.
Another goal of the Networks and Telecommunications department (see title photo) is the campus wide rollout of IPv6 by 2021 (p. 10).
The fact that students are also warming up for simulation research and the accompanying  mathematical modeling is a great merit of our group that runs the projects Simulated Worlds and CAMMP. We are particularly pleased that young people engaged in these projects are now winners in this year's Jugend forscht competition (p. 23). Congratulations!

Enjoy reading.                                      Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit


Achim Grindler

All KIT employees as well as "guests and partners" will be able to use the customer interface of the SCC ticket system from 5 August 2019 in order to submit user enquiries.

The SCC uses a ticket system based on Open Technology Real Services (OTRS) to manage user requests.
All IT officers of the KIT have already been granted access via a customer interface in order to directly post and track requests to the SCC.
As of August 5, 2019, the SCC will also make this customer interface available to all KIT employees, partners and guests as a further way of communication.
All KIT members with a valid KIT account in the form "ab1234" will thus have the opportunity to submit requests to the SCC in addition to the previously known communication channels such as e-mail, telephone or personal contact at the Service Desk.
At a later date, this communication option will also be made available to KIT students.
If you have any questions regarding the operation of the ticket system, please contact the
SCC Servicedesk, Tel. -8000,  mailto: servicedesk@scc.kit.edu
 
Service description:    SCC ticket system
Custom interface:       Login
Birgit Junker

Officially kicked off on 5 July 2019, for the next 3 years, EOSC-Pillar will coordinate national Open Science efforts across Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy, and ensure their contribution and readiness for the implementation of the EOSC.

EOSC-Pillar is one of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) regional projects such as EOSC Nordic, NI4OS-Europe, EOSC Synergy and ExPaNDS. These projects aim to coordinate the efforts of the national and thematic initiatives in making a coherent contribution to EOSC, a virtual environment with open and seamless services for storage, management, analysis and re-use of research data, across borders and scientific disciplines.
Diversity in policy, and differences in technological and infrastructural maturity among European Union member states still remains a barrier to the transnational nature of EOSC and research in general. But what unites European countries is the value that they see the EOSC will bring to their own research capabilities. This is why the EOSC-Pillar was established.
The project is coordinated by GARR, Italy’s national research and education network (NREN) and involves the following organisations: University of Vienna from Austria, Ghent University from Belgium, CINES, CNRS, IFREMER, INRA, INRIA and INSERM from France, DKRZ, Fraunhofer, GFZ and KIT from Germany, and CINECA, CMCC, CNR, INFN and Trust-IT from Italy. 
These organisations are already key players in their own countries and have extensively contributed to the development of Open Science and FAIR data initiatives in their fields. The project benefits also from SCC's many years of data management, AAI and IT-services know-how".
(Text excerpts from official press release)
 
Contact persons at SCC: Achim Streit, Jos van Wezel
EOSC-Pillar Website: ww.eosc-pillar.eu
 


Achim Grindler

Get to know our IT centre. Meet us. Have a drink. Start your career. Scientific Computing Center (SCC) will present itself on 24. July 2019, 14:30 at KIT Campus South, Bldg.. 20.21 / UG

Das Scientific Computing Center (SCC) präsentiert sich am 24. Juli 2019, 14:30 Uhr im KIT Campus Süd.
SCC - Gebäude 20.21 - UG
Sie sind auf der Suche nach einer IT-Herausforderung als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, IT-Spezialist oder als studentische Hilfskraft im Informationstechnologiezentrum des KIT?
Treffen Sie uns, lernen Sie uns kennen, werden Sie Teil des SCC: Wir präsentieren die Arbeitsbereiche im SCC in einer Poster-Session, zeigen Ihnen die IT-Infrastruktur des SCC in Führungen und stehen Ihnen bei Drinks und Snacks für Ihre Fragen zur Verfügung. Lernen Sie die verschiedenen Themen des SCC und Möglichkeiten einer Mitarbeit (auch Bachelor-, Master- oder Doktorarbeit) kennen.
Kontakt: career@scc.kit.edu
Karin Schäufele

With the project HAICU (Helmholtz Artifical Intelligence Cooperation Unit) of the Helmholtz Association, in which SCC and IAI are also collaborating, KIT is further expanding its outstanding research competence in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Ausbau und Verstetigung seiner herausragenden Forschungskompetenz in der Künstlichen Intelligenz (KI) sind ein strategisches Forschungsziel des KIT. Mit dem Projekt HAICU (Helmholtz Artifical Intelligence Cooperation Unit) konnte das KIT als Lokaleinheit für Energie zwei Nachwuchsforschungsgruppen einwerben.
Am Institut für Automation und angewandte Informatik (IAI) wird eine Juniorprofessur KI-Methoden für das Energiesystem der Zukunft entwickeln, anwenden und im Energy Lab 2.0 demonstrieren. Das umfasst z.B. Reinforcement Learning, evolutionäre Algorithmen, agentenbasierte Systeme und modellprädiktive Optimierungsmethoden. Der Focus liegt auf autonomen Entscheidungen auf verschiedenen Aggregationsebenen (z.B. Gebäude, Industriecampus als lokale Zelle, Versorgungsgebiet) mit Aspekten des optimalen Agierens von Prosumern sowie des optimalen Betriebs von Netzen.
Am Scientific Computing Center (SCC) wird u.a. ein High Level Support Team die Erforschung von KI-Algorithmen und die Entwicklung skalierbarer KI-Software ebenso adressieren, wie das KI-Consulting für den  Forschungsbereich Energie der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft sowie die Bereitstellung von spezialisierter Infrastruktur für KI-Anwendungen.
Kontakt: Achim Streit


Achim Grindler

With the new projects EOSC-synergy and EOSC-Pillar, KIT is further expanding its contribution to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Both projects benefit from SCC's many years of data management know-how.

Mit der European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)  entsteht eine europaweite Cloud-Plattform, auf der Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler Forschungsdaten speichern, teilen, nutzen und wiederverwenden können. Seine langjährige, einschlägige Expertise bringt das KIT nun in insgesamt fünf Projekte ein. Die zwei aktuellsten Projekte, die nun im Sommer starten werden, sind EOSC-synergy und EOSC-Pillar.
Die Projekte überbrücken die „digitale Kluft“ zwischen EU-Ländern  mit unterschiedlichen informationstechnischen Voraussetzungen.  Das Projekt EOSC-synergy schafft mehr Möglichkeiten für die Forschende insbesondere der Klima-, Umwelt-, Erdbeobachtungs- und Lebenswissenschaften, indem es das Angebot an Tools, Rechenleistung und Speicherplatz länderübergreifend koordiniert. Ein Teilprojekt ist eine Online-Schulungsplattform, um den Zugang von Selbstlernenden zu qualitativ hochwertigen Schulungsmaterialien und Online-Kursen sicherzustellen. EOSC-synergy startet mit 16 Partnern aus Südwesteuropa und einem Budget von 5,6 Millionen Euro.
EOSC-Pillar integriert nationale Projekte und Dateninfrastrukturen, um ein international abgestimmtes Dienstleistungsspektrum für Forschende anzubieten. Es werden Standards gesetzt, bei denen die Nutzerfreundlichkeit im Vordergrund steht. Dazu werden neun exemplarische Anwendungsfälle ausgesucht und unter den Aspekten Koordination, Forschung, Lehre und Dienstleistungen entwickelt. EOSC-Pillar startet mit 17 Partnern aus Zentraleuropa und einem Budget von 6,9 Millionen Euro.
Schon länger trägt das KIT maßgeblich zu den EOSC-Projekten EOSCpilot, EOSC-hub und EOSCsecretariat (jeweils in Eigenschreibweise) bei . Das Scientific Computing Center des KIT gestaltet EOSC mit und bringt seine langjährige Expertise in der Verwaltung großer Datenmengen aus Projekten wie SDIL, LSDF und GridKa ein. European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) wird wissenschaftliche Forschung effizienter machen, Verknüpfungen zwischen verschiedenen europäischen Institutionen und Organisationen schaffen und Digitalisierungsprojekte in der Wissenschaft beschleunigen.
 
Contact person International Projects and Open Science at SCC:
Jos van Wezel
 
Author: Kosta Schinarakis

The paper entitled "OCR-D: An End-to-end Open-source OCR Framework for Historical Documents" won the Best Paper Award at the international conference "Digital Access to Textual Cultural Heritage 2019" (DATeCH2019).

OCR-D is a coordination project of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the further development of Optical Character Recognition techniques for German-language prints of the 16th-19th century. The main goal is the full text capture of the cultural heritage printed in German-language of this period.
 
In OCR-D, SCC-DEM is responsible for the software technology topic in order to ensure the technical feasibility of the complex workflows created for full-text capture and their applicability.
 
Link to publication: publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000095039


Volker Hartmann,  Rainer Stotzka

Since May 2019 the LSDF Online Storage is directly available on the HPC-Cluster ForHLR I and II. The connection was realized using InfiniBand technology and IBM Spectrum Scale.

Mit dieser Erweiterung können die Benutzer der Hochleistungsrechner ForHLR I + II nun direkt auf den Loginnodes Daten aus dem LSDF Online Speicher bearbeiten. Auf Wunsch ist zusätzlich per Anforderung eine Nutzung im Batchbetrieb möglich.
Die Anbindung über IBM Spectrum Scale bringt einen Performancegewinn für den Datentransfer zum LSDF Online Speicher mit sich. Die direkte Anbindung der LSDF-Speichersysteme an die HPC-Cluster erleichtert den Nutzern den Umgang mit darin gespeicherten großen Datenmengen.
Wer ein Speicherprojekt beantragen möchte, wende sich bitte an das LSDF-Team.
 
Ihr HPC- und LSDF-Team

First release of Ginkgo now available. Ginkgo is the next-generation high-performance, on-node, sparse linear algebra library. The software leverages the features of modern C++ to give you a tool for the iterative solution of linear systems.

The Ginkgo team is proud to announce the first release of Ginkgo, the next-generation high-performance on-node sparse linear algebra library. Ginkgo leverages the features of modern C++ to give you a tool for the iterative solution of linear systems that is:
 
Easy to use. Interfaces with cryptic naming schemes and dozens of parameters are a thing of the past. Ginkgo was built with good software design in mind, making simple things simple to express. High performance. Our optimized CUDA kernels ensure you are reaching the potential of today's GPU-accelerated high-end systems, while Ginkgo's open design allows extension to future hardware architectures. Controllable. While Ginkgo can automatically move your data when needed, you remain in control by optionally specifying when the data is moved and what is its ownership scheme. Composable. Iterative solution of linear systems is an extremely versatile field, where effective methods are built by mixing and matching various components. Need a GMRES solver preconditioned with a block-Jacobi enhanced BiCGSTAB? Thanks to its novel linear operator abstraction, Ginkgo can do it! Extensible. Did not find a component you were looking for? Ginkgo is designed to be easily extended in various ways. You can provide your own loggers, stopping criteria, matrix formats, preconditioners and solvers to Ginkgo and have them integrate as well as the natively supported ones, without the need to modify or recompile the library.
  Click here <https://github.com/ginkgo-project/ginkgo/releases/>  to download the source tarball or clone the source.
More and detailed information about Ginkgo concepts you'll find in SCC-News, Edition 2/2018 at page 24 ff.
Contact at SCC: Hartwig Anzt


Achim Grindler

16 partner institutions from all over Germany have taken an important step towards the sustainable operation of DARIAH-DE by concluding a joint operating cooperation agreement.

Nach acht Jahren intensiver und produktiver Projektarbeit beginnt für DARIAH-DE eine neue Phase: am 1. März 2019 trat die Betriebskooperation offiziell in Kraft. 16 Partnerinstitutionen aus ganz Deutschland haben sich gemeinsam verpflichtet, den Basisbetrieb der entwickelten Forschungsinfrastruktur zu sichern und damit einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Verstetigung von DARIAH-DE zu leisten. Zusätzlich werden sich DARIAH-DE und CLARIN-D zur Infrastruktur CLARIAH-DE zusammenschließen, um ein gemeinsames Diensteportfolio anzubieten.
 
DARIAH-DE ist ein vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) gefördertes Projekt (Laufzeit 2011-2019) zum Aufbau und Betrieb einer digitalen Forschungsinfrastruktur für die Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften. DARIAH-DE unterstützt Forschende, die mit digitalen Methoden und Verfahren arbeiten, in den Bereichen Lehre, Forschung, Forschungsdaten und Technische Komponenten. Im Rahmen der Betriebskooperationsvereinbarung wird das SCC Speicherressourcen bereitstellen. Zusätzlich ist die SCC-Abteilung Data Exploitation Methods (DEM) weiterhin mit der Entwicklung eines formalen Prozesses zur nachhaltigen Integration von Diensten in eine Forschungsinfrastruktur betraut.
Zur DARIAH-DE Pressemitteilung
 
Contact: Danah Tonne

SCC is a prominent partner in the EOSC-secretariat.eu, supporting governance for EOSC while working with communities towards an all-encompassing European Open Science Cloud.

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is the vision of the future federated European data infrastructure for open science and FAIR data. With the objective to further develop the EOSC by marketing its goals and building the EOSC office the EOSCsecretariat.eu project, that kicked off on 1.1.2019, will also assist the recently nominated EOSC executive board in their task to answer questions regarding the organizational and governmental implementation of the EOSC. SCC contributes to multiple tasks in the 2-year project and has reached an excellent position helping to shape the prospective European science infrastructure. In EOSCsecretariat.eu, SCC works in close cooperation with our Helmholtz colleagues from linked partner Forschungszentrum-Juelich.
Contact: Dr. Netsanet Haile Gebreyesus
 
Jos van Wezel

Ten girls from classes 6 to 10 visited SCC as participants of Girls'Day. The varied program gave the students interesting insights into the diverse work of a scientific computing and data center.

Im Rahmen des „Girls‘Day“ besuchten am 28. März 2019 zehn interessierte Mädchen der Klassenstufen 6 bis 10 das Scientific Computing Center (SCC). An diesem besonderen Tag haben Schülerinnen weiterführender Schulen die Möglichkeit, verschiedene Berufe in den Bereichen Forschung und Technik am KIT kennenzulernen. Am SCC stand der Girls‘Day unter dem Motto „Mit Computersimulationen die Welt besser verstehen“.
Auch dieses Jahr gab das abwechslungsreiche Programm des SCC den Schülerinnen interessante Einblicke in die vielfältige Arbeit eines wissenschaftlichen Rechen- und Datenzentrums.
Wozu brauchen wir Computersimulationen und wie können sie zu einem besseren Verständnis der Welt beitragen? Diesen Fragen gingen Samuel Braun (Abteilung Scientific Computing und Simulation, SCS) und Marie Weiel-Potyagaylo (Junior Research Group Multiscale Biomolecular Simulation) in ihrem Einführungsvortrag mit anschaulichen Beispielen aus der eigenen Forschung auf den Grund. Um die Simulationen auf der 15,4 m2 großen Projektionswand des Visualisierungsraums zu verfolgen, wurden alle Mädchen mit 3D-Brillen ausgestattet. Anschließend besichtigten sie gemeinsam mit Frauke Bösert, Mitarbeiterin des SCS, den am SCC betriebenen Supercomputer ForHLR. Im Praxis-Hardwarelabor durften die Schülerinnen dann selbst aktiv werden und einen Rechner zusammenbauen. Nach dem Mittagessen folgte ein Programmierworkshop. Mithilfe des Computerspiels „Laby“ schrieben die Mädchen kurze python-Skripte, um einer Roboter-Ameise den Weg durch ein mit Hindernissen gespicktes Labyrinth zu bahnen. Einen Ausflug in die Virtuelle Realität unternahmen die Mädchen mit Hilfe der Virtual Reality Brille Oculus Go. Wahlweise konnten sie in eine Strömungssimulation eintauchen oder das Protein Hämoglobin sowie eine überdimensionale Stubenfliege aus der Nähe betrachten. Nach einer kurzen Einweisung in das Web-Framework A-Frame waren die Mädchen in der Lage, ihre eigenen virtuellen Welten zu erstellen. Besonders der praktische Teil des Girls‘Day-Programms erfreute sich großer Beliebtheit und die Mädchen waren mit Begeisterung bei der Sache.

Text: Marie Weiel-Potyagaylo, Foto: Achim Grindler

Herzlichen Dank an das "Girls'Day 2019 Team" des SCC: Marie Weiel-Potyagaylo, Samuel Braun, Frauke Bösert, Nicole Zolo Ovambe, Arthur Voronin, Ines Reinartz und Sabine Grindler.


Achim Grindler

SCC will be represented with even three contributions at the International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS). Here, researchers from all over the world will present their latest research results on parallel computing.

SCC will be represented with even three contributions at the International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium 2019 (IPDPS) in Rio de Janeiro. In cooperation with the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee, the Helmholtz Young Investigators Group FiNE (Fixed-Point Algorithms for Numerics at Exascale) has developed the first threshold-based incomplete LU preconditioner [1] for GPUs and will present it in the main track of the conference. A central part of the algorithm is an approximative sorting method for GPUs, which will be presented in the 9th International Workshop on Accelerators and Hybrid Exascale Systems (AsHES) [2].
In the Parallel and Distributed Scientific and Engineering Computing Workshop (PDSEC), the research group around Hartwig Anzt encourages to recognize the development of software patches as a conference contribution and academic achievement and underlines this in a position paper [3].
 
Contact: Dr. Hartwig Anzt
Contributions to the workshops:
ParILUT - A Parallel Threshold ILU for GPUs Approximate and Exact Selection on GPUs Are we doing the right thing? — A Critical Analysis of the Academic HPC Community

Achim Grindler

The use of an additional virus scanner prevents the central mail inbox systems from accepting messages with Office files containing macros or macro-like content.

The SCC uses various mechanisms to minimize the risks of malware transmitted by mail to the KIT. On the one hand a normal virus scanner for mail servers is in use, on the other hand mail attachments with certain file extensions or file names are rejected by the central mail inbox systems of the KIT.
Another special virus scanner has now been set up to detect messages that recognize Office files with macros or macro-like content, because macros can also contain malicious code.
The systems send a permanent error message to the sending mail server so that it does not make any further delivery attempts. The sender receives the following error message:
[EN] Office files containing macros are not allowed on this server. Please use another distribution channel or encryption. See also the recommendations in More security when sending e-mails.
_ _ _
Service: E-Mail at KIT >> Mail Reception
SCC Service Team

Anyone who has used the openSUSE mirror of the SCC (ftp.scc.kit.edu/pub/opensuse), should switch to the official mirror proxy.

The shutdown of the openSUSE Mirror will take place on 1 May 2019.
The SCC has discovered that the openSUSE mirror for updating generates more external network traffic than it really spares. Also, the update has been disrupted for some time.
If you have used the openSUSE mirror (ftp.scc.kit.edu/pub/opensuse) of the SCC so far, you should switch to the official mirror proxy: https://download.opensuse.org/ 
 
 
SCC Service Team

The Adobe Connect Web conferencing service at the SCC is discontinued. An alternative is the DFNconf service.

The Adobe Connect Web Conference service will be discontinued effective August 31, 2019.
The server "webconf.scc.kit.edu" is shut down.
The SCC recommends switching to the DFN videoconferencing service. As part of the DFNconf service, an Adobe Connect Server is also offered there.
Further information on the DFNconf service can be found at SCC under Videoconference and Teleteaching and/or at DFN under Web Conference Service via Adobe Connect.
SCC Service Team

On 26 and 27 February, two teams of students from the project Simulated Worlds at Jugend forscht faced the questions of the jury and an interested public and presented the results of their intensive research work.

Am 26. und 27. Februar stellten sich zwei Schülerteams aus dem Projekt Simulierte Welten bei Jugend forscht[1] den Fragen der Jury und einer interessierten Öffentlichkeit und präsentierten die Ergebnisse ihrer intensiven Forschungsarbeit. Die Forschungsthemen hatten die Schülerteams auf der CAMMP week in Voeren in Belgien kennengelernt und waren nach einer Woche anstrengender Arbeit begeistert in die Schulen zurückgekehrt. „Man hat das Gefühl etwas Sinnvolles mit seinem Wissen zu tun!“, beschrieb Nils Rauscher sein Engagement, das er zusammen mit Moritz Müller, sowie Boyu Wu und Christian Beitzinger im Förderstipendium des Projekts Simulierte Welten betreut von Maren Hattebuhr fortsetzte. Ihre kreativen Ideen wurden bei Jugend forscht gelobt und belohnt. Insgesamt traten fast 100 Schülerinnen und Schüler in sieben verschiedenen Kategorien an.
Gießgerechte Konstruktion Schon seit langer Zeit werden vielfältigste Produkte durch Gießen hergestellt. Dabei wird flüssiges Metall in eine Form gegossen und abgekühlt. Gerade bei Formen mit großen Wandstärkendifferenzen können Hohlräume entstehen, die die Stabilität des Gusses negativ beeinflussen. Um solche Schwachstellen automatisch erkennen zu können entwickelten Boyu Wu und Christian Beitzinger ein Verfahren, das dem Konstrukteur bereits vor dem Gießen anzeigt, wo die Gussformüberarbeitet werden muss. Zum Testen erhielten die Schüler von der Firma Magma aus Aachen Daten von Gussformen sowie eine Referenzzeit, die die momentan genutzte Software von Magma zur Beurteilung benötigt. Ihre Arbeit reichten die beiden Schüler in der Kategorie Mathematik/Informatik ein. Boyu und Christian wurden mit dem 1. Preis, gestiftet von der Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, geehrt und dürfen damit nun am Jugend forscht-Landeswettbewerb Baden-Württemberg teilnehmen. „Ihre Idee ist mathematisch sehr pfiffig. Das Projekt ist praxistauglich und spart viel Arbeit beim Experimentieren.“, lobte der Juror Herr Professor Seiler die beiden Schüler. Wir gratulieren zu ihrem Sieg und wünschen ihnen viel Erfolg in der nächsten Auswahlrunde.
Optimale Verladestrategie Internetshopping ist weit verbreitet. Allein in Deutschland kaufen 68% Privatkunden online ein[2]. Aber auch Firmen, die im Groß- und Sanitärhandel tätig sind, bestellen Produkte bei Großhändlern, die wiederum Speditionen beauftragen, die Waren auszuliefern. Um die Auslieferung möglichst effizient zu gestalten, werden die Transportwege optimiert und einzelne Kundenbestellungen zu Touren zusammengefasst. Aber passt die Ware überhaupt auf einen Lkw? Unter „passen“ versteht man hier nicht nur, dass die Produkte das zulässige Maximalvolumen und -gewicht nicht überschreiten dürfen, sondern auch, dass die sie in der vorgegebenen Auslieferreihenfolge abgeladen werden können ohne andere später auszuliefernde Waren bewegen zu müssen. Erschwert wird dieses Problem dadurch, dass die Produkte nicht beliebig übereinandergestapelt werden dürfen. Bislang werden die Lkw einfach in entgegengesetzter Auslieferungsreihenfolge beladen. Nicht selten wird dabei festgestellt, dass für die Touren mehrere Fahrzeuge benötigt werden. Moritz Müller und Nils Rauscher kamen zu der Überzeugung, dass dies optimiert werden kann. Sie schrieben ein Programm, in die die Daten der Touren eingelesen werden können und innerhalb weniger Sekunden ausgegeben wird, ob diese Tour möglich ist und wie der Lkw bestmöglich beladen werden sollte. Getestet wurde die Effizienz auf Basis echter Daten, die ihnen von der Firma INFORM aus Aachen zur Verfügung gestellt wurden. Die beiden Schüler überzeugten durch ihre kreative Herangehensweise und die Umsetzung. „Das ist ein sehr wichtiges Projekt, was direkt in die Anwendung gehen kann!“, staunte ein Gast, der die beiden Jungforscher am Öffentlichkeitstag kennenlernte. Für ihre Arbeit wurden Moritz und Nils mit dem 2. Preis im Fachgebiet Arbeitswelt geehrt und waren damit das beste Team ihres Fachgebiets. Der Preis wurde vom Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales gestiftet. Wir gratulieren ihnen herzlich!
Kontakt zur Betreuung von „Jugend forscht“-Projekten: Maren Hattebuhr
Autoren: Maren Hattebuhr, Marco Berghoff
  [1] Im Februar begannen die Wettbewerbe der 54. Runde von Jugend forscht. Die jungen Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler präsentierten ihre Forschungsprojekte zunächst auf 89 Regionalwettbewerben im ganzen Bundesgebiet einer Jury und der Öffentlichkeit. Für die diesjährige Runde von Deutschlands bekanntestem Nachwuchswettbewerb haben sich insgesamt 12150 junge MINT-Talente angemeldet. Auf Regional-, Landes- und Bundesebene werden die Wettbewerbsveranstaltungen von mehr als 150 Unternehmen sowie öffentlichen und privaten Institutionen ausgerichtet. [Quelle: https://www.jugend-forscht.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/archiv/kommende-woche-starten-in-ganz-deutschland-die-wettbewerbe-der-54-runde-von-jugend-forscht.html]
[2] Quelle: Eurostat 2019


Achim Grindler

The data centers of Hochschule Karlsruhe, the KIT library and the SCC ensure the integration of the new Science Data Center MoMaF into the research and teaching structures of its partners and support it with research data management services.

Der systematische Zugang zu digitalen Datenbeständen wird für neue wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse und damit für Innovationen und Technologietransfer immer wichtiger.  Die reine Datengewinnung allein bringt die Wissenschaft allerdings nicht voran. Es geht entscheidend darum, die Nutzbarkeit der Forschungsdaten zu verbessern.
Daher fördert das MWK im Rahmen der Landesdigitalisierungsstrategie digital@bw den Aufbau von vier leistungsstarken Forschungsdatenzentren – Science Data Centers – in Baden-Württemberg. Darunter ist auch das “MoMaF – Science Data Center für Molekulare MaterialForschung” am KIT.
Das MoMaF unterstützt das Forschungsdatenmanagement für die Fachbereiche Chemie, makromolekulare Forschung und Materialwissenschaften über den gesamten Lebenszyklus der Daten hinweg, d. h. von der Erzeugung der Daten und ihrer Aufzeichnung in elektronischen Laborjournalen über ihre Aufbereitung und Auswertung mit Zugriff auf die baden-württembergische Infrastruktur für Hochleistungsrechnen und datenintensives Rechnen bis hin zu ihrer Archivierung im Repositorium und ihrer Veröffentlichung. Dies soll den genannten Fachbereichen eine standortübergreifende kollaborative Forschung ermöglichen, die bislang durch heterogene Arbeitsweisen und Werkzeuge erschwert ist.
Das KIT und das FIZ Karlsruhe sind führende Gestalter von innovativen Lösungen für Herausforderungen des Forschungsdatenmanagements und des Aufbaus und Betriebs von Infrastrukturen zur Verwaltung, Archivierung und Analyse von Forschungsdaten auf nationaler und europäischer Ebene.
Das KIT betrachtet den Aufbau von Strukturen zur dauerhaften Bereitstellung qualitätsgesicherter Forschungsdaten als ein wesentliches strategisches Ziel (s.a. KIT-Leitlinien zum Forschungsdatenmanagement). Zur Umsetzung wurde u.a. das Serviceteam RDM@KIT gegründet, das sich als Partner von Wissenschaft und Forschung sieht und das Forschende in allen Phasen des Forschungsdatenmanagements unterstützt. Die KIT-Bibliothek ist seit Beginn Projektpartner bei re3data.org, einer der umfassendsten Referenzquellen für Forschungsdateninfrastrukturen weltweit.
Ausführliche Informationen zu allen neuen Forschungsdatenzentren des Landes bietet die Pressemitteilung des Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst vom 14.02.2019.  Ein wesentlicher Teil des Textes dieser Meldung wurde daraus entnommen.
Presseinformation des KIT: www.kit.edu/kit/pi_2019_021_molekuel-und-materialforschung-daten-leicht-teilen.php
Konakt am SCC: Felix Bach

The new SCC News amongst others with these topics:  30 Years of Network – an Evolutionary Story; Extended Cloud Solution productively available for Users; Sustainability Aspects in Developing the Ginkgo Software Library.

Dear reader,
while artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things are among the trending technologies that will shape digital transformation in the years to come, the cloud has become todays mainstream technology in data centers and service providers as well as for consumers. Hardly anyone knows where her digital pictures, video files and other documents are actually stored. System administrators no longer install power-hungry servers when it comes to providing a research group with a modern software development platform. What used to take several hours happens today fully automated in a matter of minutes. For colleges and universities in Baden-Württemberg the bwCloud-SCOPE service, which is distributed over four operating locations, is in operation since October 2018 (p. 9).
Such virtualized solutions are only possible with powerful networks and the development of the Internet. Nobody would for example write a document in a web application if the letters appear on screen seconds after typing. SCC's former network department head, Reinhard Strebler, who recently moved into his well-deserved retirement, writes about 30 years development of network technology and the challenge in the search for ever faster transfer rates in and outside KIT (p. 4). We would like to deeply thank Reinhard Strebler for his commitment and dedication over the last 30 years, and wish him all the best for the future.
Like fast networks for cloud services, supercomputers are fundamental for scientific computing. Optimized software modules that can be run on supercomputers as well as smart web applications are both research topics at SCC. In the report about Gingko (p. 24), the sustainable development process to develop high quality and reliable software is described.

Enjoy reading!                                    Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit
 
Achim Grindler

Unter dem Motto Gemeinsam die IT-Infrastruktur des KIT schützen, beteiligt sich das KIT am internationalen Aktionstag Safer Internet Day 2019.

Unter dem Motto Gemeinsam die IT-Infrastruktur des KIT schützen, beteiligt sich das KIT am internationalen Aktionstag Safer Internet Day 2019.
 
Aus diesem Anlass möchten wir Sie am 5. Februar 2019 persönlich zwischen 11 und 15 Uhr in der Mensa des Campus Süd auf folgende IT-Sicherheitsmaßnahmen und –tipps aufmerksam machen:
Faltblatt Praxistipps IT-Sicherheit Faltblatt zur Erkennung von betrügerischen Nachrichten Ergänzende Materialien zum Thema Phishing: Erklär-Video, Poster, Infokarte und ein E-Learning Kurs Erklärungen zur Meldepflicht von IT-Sicherheitsvorfällen Informationen zum Umgang mit betrügerischen E-Mails (Spam_KIT Ordner) Wir, das KIT Safer Internet Day 2019 Team [1], haben uns sehr gefreut, mit Ihnen ins Gespräch zu kommen.
Der Safer Internet Day am KIT ist eine Kooperation mehrerer Einrichtungen und Forschungsgruppen: AIFB, KASTEL, SCC, SECUSO, ZML.
Allen, die diesen Tag vorbereitet, geplant, gestaltet, kommuniziert, durchgeführt haben, und allen, die ihn nachbereiten und unterstützen: HERZLICHEN DANK!
[1] Das sind Mitarbeiter*innen und Studentische Hilfskräfte der Institute, Einrichtungen und Forschungsgruppen: AIFB, SCC, SECUSO, KASTEL, PS/DO, ZML, ASERV, SEK, HOC
Lukas Aldag, Milan Burgdorf, Tobias Dussa, Nina Gerber, Heike Gerstner, Rebekka Golling, Malte Greulich, Achim Grindler, Tobias Hilt, Sarah Holstein, Kevin Hotoran, Christina Kärcher-Petri, Oksana Kulyk, Matthias Lang, Mirco Leinen, Andreas Lorenz, Sven Maier, Peter Mayer, Emil Meckel, Felix Mescoli, Henrik Mucha, Jonas Pfrang, Heiko Reese, Benjamin Reinheimer, Karin Schäufele, Silke Schelske, Gunther Schiefer, Adnan Seithe, Daniel Sommer, Bernd Stapel, Mario Strefler, Marie-Claire Thiery, Daniel Träder, Melanie Volkamer, Horst Westergom, Kathrin Wirth.
 
Foto des Aktionsteams vor Ort: (v.l.) Emil Meckel, Andreas Lorenz, Gunther Schiefer, Melanie Volkamer, Adnan Seithe, Lukas Aldag, Oksana Kulyk, Benjamin Reinheimer, Peter Mayer, Malte Greulich, Tobias Hilt, Marie-Claire Thiery, Rebekka Golling, Nina Gerber, Mirco Leinen

Achim Grindler

At work or at home - Security on the Internet concerns us all! On today's Safer Internet Day, you will get to know the wide range of IT security services available to protect the KIT IT infrastructure together.

Unter dem Motto Gemeinsam die IT-Infrastruktur des KIT schützen, beteiligt sich das KIT am internationalen Aktionstag Safer Internet Day 2019.
 
Aus diesem Anlass möchten wir Sie am 5. Februar 2019 persönlich zwischen 11 und 15 Uhr in der Mensa des Campus Süd auf folgende IT-Sicherheitsmaßnahmen und –tipps aufmerksam machen:
Faltblatt Praxistipps IT-Sicherheit Faltblatt zur Erkennung von betrügerischen Nachrichten Ergänzende Materialien zum Thema Phishing: Erklär-Video, Poster, Infokarte und ein E-Learning Kurs Erklärungen zur Meldepflicht von IT-Sicherheitsvorfällen Informationen zum Umgang mit betrügerischen E-Mails (Spam_KIT Ordner) Sie finden diese und weitere Informationen auch über www.scc.kit.edu/sid19
 
 
Wir, das KIT Safer Internet Day 2019 Team, freuen uns, mit Ihnen ins Gespräch zu kommen.
 
Eine Kooperation mehrerer Einrichtungen und Forschungsgruppen des KIT: AIFB, KASTEL, SCC, SECUSO, ZML
   
Achim Grindler
 

The service "bwCloud SCOPE" provides virtualized server and application infrastructure as a cloud service for employees and students of universities and colleges in Baden-Württemberg.

Since 2019, registration for bwCloud SCOPE in the two authorization levels bwCloud-Basic and bwCloud-Extended has generally been possible at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
bwCloud SCOPE, with its four operating sites in Mannheim, Ulm, Freiburg and Kalrsruhe, offers a capacity of over 4000 virtual machines and a storage capacity of around 2.7 petabytes.  Enough resources for numerous projects. 
At the user's request, the operating team can also set up individual usage capacities and make its own virtual networks available for the operation of the users' own infrastructure or entire user groups.
In addition, group projects with shared extended resources are easily usable.
More...
Matthias Knoll

Get to know our IT centre. Meet us. Have a drink. Start your career.

 The SCC presents itself on February 6, 2019 at 14:00 h in the KIT Campus North as your future workplace. Are you looking for an IT challenge as a scientific employee, IT specialist or assistant (Hiwi)? During a get-together, the 2nd SCC Doctoral Science Slam, guided tours to high-performance computers and GridKa, you will get to know the various aspects and possibilities of how to join the SCC. Meet - Know - Join: SCC
Information and requiered registration: https://indico.scc.kit.edu/event/474/
contact info: career@scc.kit.edu
Karin Schäufele
 

The project CAMMP - Computational and Mathematical Modeling Program - has been running since 01.01.2018 not only at the RWTH Aachen University, but also at KIT in Karlsruhe.

Das Projekt CAMMP - Computational and Mathematical Modeling Program - gibt es seit dem 01.01.2018 nicht mehr nur an der RWTH Aachen, sondern auch in Karlsruhe am KIT. Es ist angesiedelt im SCC und in der Mathematik als Teil des Projekts Simulierte Welten und des Schülerlabors Mathematik.
An dieser Stelle blicken wir auf ein sehr ereignisreiches Jahr zurück:
Wir haben es geschafft Schulen, Lehrkräfte, Schülerinnen und Schüler mit unseren Angeboten anzusprechen und für mathematische Modellierung zu begeistern, eine Webseite aufzusetzen und uns in den diversen KIT-Medien zu präsentieren (SCC-News, SCC-Seminar, Schüleraktivitäten-Newsletter).
Wir haben
zwölf CAMMP days (Modellierungstage) mit insgesamt 185 Schülerinnen und Schülern (78 Jungen, 107 Mädchen), zwei CAMMP weeks (Modellierungswochen) mit insgesamt 34 Schülerinnen und Schülern (20 Jungen, 14 Mädchen), den Schnupperkurs Mathematik mit insgesamt 11 Schülerinnen und Schülern (6 Jungen, 5 Mädchen), und eine Lehrerfortbildung im Rahmen des Projekts Simulierte Welten mit 24 Lehrkräften durchgeführt, das Förderstipendium Simulierte Welten mit 12 Teilnehmenden (10 Jungen, 2 Mädchen) gestartet, eine BOGY-Praktikantin betreut und drei Hiwis angestellt. Damit verlief dieses erste Projektjahr sehr erfolgreich. All das wäre allerdings nicht ohne Hilfe möglich. Wir möchten uns daher herzlich bedanken bei
unseren Hiwis Lea Ganser, Daniel Kopprasch und Carlos Schmidt Muniz, den wissenschaftlich Mitarbeitenden Marco Berghoff, Jan Bohn, Thomas Camminady, Jonas Kusch, Michael Weimer und Thorsten Zirwes für ihren Einsatz bei CAMMP days und/oder der CAMMP week, den wissenschaftlich Mitarbeitenden Momin Ahmad, Dr. Marco Berghoff, Dr. Manuel Giffels, Dr. Ole Kirner, Karl Kurzer, Dr. Daniela Piccioni Koch, Mehmet Soysal und Dr. Dannah Tonne für die spannenden Problemstellungen für die CAMMP week oder das Förderstipendium, dem Simulierte Welten-Team und dem Team der Mathematik Didaktik für die herzliche Aufnahme und gute Zusammenarbeit Kira Göbbels und der Abteilung Finanzen und Administration des SCC und nicht zuletzt Martin Frank.  
Kontakt: Maren Hattebuhr, Kirsten Wohak


Achim Grindler

Seit 30. November 2018 ist der neue Dienst MASi (Metadata Management for Applied Sciences) zum metadaten-getriebenen Management von Forschungsdaten online. 

 
Forschungsdaten aus wissenschaftlichen Studien und Projekten der MASi-Projektpartner können so eingespielt, verwaltet und durch eine Suchfunktion abgerufen werden.
MASi wurde gemeinschaftlich von der Abteilung SCC-DEM und den Partnern im Rahmen des gleichnamigen DFG-geförderten Projektes von 2015 bis 2018 entwickelt.
Unter der Maßgabe, dass Metadaten die zentrale Informationsquelle für den Datenlebenszyklus von Anwendungsfällen darstellen, bilden folgende Aspekte die Grundlage für den Dienst: Metadaten können automatisch extrahiert und validiert werden. Eingespielte Daten werden automatisch prozessiert, um beispielsweise Formatkonvertierungen vorzunehmen oder im Falle von Bildern Thumbnails zu erzeugen.
Der Fokus von MASi liegt auf Forschungsdaten in aktiver Nutzung. Alle MASi-Entwicklungen werden als Open Source veröffentlicht, um das Wiederverwendungspotenzial und die Nachhaltigkeit zu erhöhen. Weiterhin wird eine Best-Practice-Implementierungsanleitung zur Verfügung gestellt, um einerseits Adoptionen basierend auf den MASi-Erfahrungen sowie andererseits die Integration neuer Communities in MASi zu fördern.
MASi wird zukünftig vom Zentrum für Informationsdienste und Hochleistungsrechnen (ZIH) betrieben und von der Kontaktstelle Forschungsdaten der Technischen Universität Dresden betreut und gewartet.
Weiterführende Links:
Informationen zum Dienst: MASi
 
Volker Hartmann, Dr. Rainer Stotzka
 

Since yesterday, more than 50 petabytes of data from the high-energy physics experiments of the Large Hadron Collider (CERN) have been stored on tape cassettes of the Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe at KIT.

On 16.12.2018, shortly after the end of Run 2 of the particle accelerator LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN, the amount of data stored in the GridKa tape system of the LHC experiments exceeded 50 petabytes (PB). Another approx. 30 PB data are currently stored on disk storage systems.
In total, the four experiments of the LHC ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb generated more than 80 PB data in 2018. As one of the largest Tier 1 centers of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), GridKa is responsible for archiving and processing a significant portion of this data.
For the storage of 50 PB data, around 6300 tape cassettes are required, which, lined up in a shelf, require 160 meters of space. The amount of data stored on tape corresponds to approx. 12.5 billion photos.
 
Dr. Andreas Heiss
 

The LSDF is a storage system for large-scale research data from data-intensive scientific disciplines. It is available as a multi-petabyte storage system to researchers at KIT, their partners in the federal state and the Helmholtz Association.

Bereits Ende letzten Jahres wurde ein neues Disk-Speichersystem in der Large Scale Data Facility (LSDF) am SCC in Betrieb genommen. Das neue Speichersystem ersetzt unterschiedliche alte Speichersysteme. Die auf den alten Speichersystemen betriebenen Dienste LSDF-DIS und bwFileStorage wurden in den neuen Dienst LSDF Online Storage überführt. Mit der am 18. November 2018 erfolgten Abkündigung des Dienstes bwFileStorage ist die Migration auf die neue Speicherinfrastruktur abgeschlossen. Der Dienst LSDF Online Storage bietet Nutzern des KIT und deren Projektpartnern im Land Zugriff auf einen Datenspeicher, der insbesondere für die Speicherung von wissenschaftlichen Messdaten und Simulationsergebnissen daten-intensiver Wissenschaftsdisziplinen vorgesehen ist [1].
Das neue Speichersystem hat eine nutzbare Kapazität von 10 Petabyte und erreicht einen kombinierten Schreib-Lese-Durchsatz von 25 Gigabyte/s. Das von der Firma NEC gelieferte System nutzt IBM Spectrum Scale als Software-Defined-Storage-Layer. Es besteht aus 6 Speicherblöcken mit insgesamt 1668 8 und 10 Terabyte Festplatten. Für schnelle Metadatenoperationen verfügt das System über 54 Solid State Disks. Die Speicherblöcke sind über zwei redundante FDR Infiniband-Fabrics mit 20 Fileservern verbunden. Jeder dieser Fileserver ist jeweils über 2 10 Gigabit/s Ethernetverbindungen erreichbar.
[1]: https://www.scc.kit.edu/forschung/11843.php
 
Jan Erik Sundermann
 

The trainee Patrick Welter was honoured at the annual bestowal of the IHK Karlsruhe for outstanding achievements in his training as IT specialist system integration. Patrick Welter completed his apprenticeship at the SCC.

Die IHK Karlsruhe (Industrie- und Handelskammer) führt jährlich eine Ehrung der besten Auszubildenden des Landkreises Karlsruhe durch. Die Feierstunde fand in der Gartenhalle Karlsruhe statt, bei der Ehrungen von ca. 140 Ausbildungsberufen durchgeführt wurden.
Unter den Geehrten war auch SCC-Azubi Patrick Welter. Patrick absolvierte seine Ausbildung in der Abteilung Client-Management und Kommunikationsdienste (CMK), war aber auch in den Abteilungen ISM, NET und SYS des SCC tätig. Bei ISM unterstützte Patrick das ServiceDesk-Team, wo er mit seiner freundlichen und hilfsbereiten Art bei den Nutzern und im Team sehr beliebt war. Auch bei personellen Engpässen half er gerne aus. In der Netz-Abteilung lernte er verschiedene Netzwerkkomponenten und deren Konfiguration kennen. Bei SYS war er beim Aufbau und Inbetriebnahme von Racks für Server und Storages beteiligt.
In seiner Ausbildungsabteilung CMK, war er im Exchange-Team tätig, wo er von Michael Willhauk betreut wurde. Dort lernte er die Exchange-Organisation kennen, bearbeitete Nutzeranfragen zu Exchange und Outlook und erstellte Powershell-Skripte, um Arbeitsabläufe zu automatisieren.
In seiner Abschlussarbeit evaluierte Patrick die Überwachung von Exchange 2016 Server mittels SCOM 2016 (System Center Operations Manager) in einer Testumgebung. Die Arbeit umfasste die Installation und Konfiguration von SCOM, sowie die Einstellung von Schwellwerten auf den zu überwachenden Systemen und die daraus resultierende Alarmierung von Fachpersonal.
 
Weitere Informationen:
Pressemitteilung zur IHK Jahresbestenehrung 2018 Berufsausbildung am KIT: Personalentwicklung und Berufliche Ausbildung Achim Grindler
 

Wartungen an der IT-Infrastruktur für zentrale IT-Dienste am KIT werden i.d.R. zu regelmäßigen Wartungsterminen durchgeführt. Ab 2019 gilt eine neue Regelung.  

Ab 2019 ändert sich die Regelung der regelmäßigen Wartungsfenster.
Das monatliche Donnerstag-Wartungsfenster wird, anlehnend an den Microsoft Patchday (2. Dienstag im Monat), wie folgt festgelegt:
Donnerstag: 17-22 Uhr, jeden 2. Donnerstag nach Microsoft PatchDay
(MS Patchday ist am 2. Dienstag im Monat)
Das Montag-Wartungsfenster findet zukünftig nur noch alle 2 Monate statt:
Montag: 7-10 Uhr, jeden 1. Montag im "geraden" Monat
Wie in der Vergangenheit werden wir auch in Zukunft die Wartungen, die Auswirkungen auf zentrale IT-Dienste haben, rechtzeitig über die Mailingliste "scc-meldungen@lists.kit.edu" ankündigen.
Diese Mailingliste ist für jeden KIT-Angehörigen mit gültiger KIT-Mailadresse abonnierbar.
IT-Beauftragte haben die Möglichkeit die Termine vorab im SCC Changekalender einzusehen.
 
SCC Service Team
 

The platform of the new DFN video conferencing service is now available. This enables KIT staff to conduct video conferences with their partners.

Ab sofort steht am KIT die neue Plattform des neuen Videokonferenzdienstes DFNconf zur Verfügung. Mit diesem Dienst können alle Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter des KIT Videokonferenzen mit Gästen und Partnern weltweit einfach und plattformunabhängig durchführen.
Das DFN bietet dazu eine Nutzeroberfläche, auf der die Videokonferenzen in Eigenregie verwaltet werden können. Der Einstieg erfolgt über den Button "Veranstalter-Login" auf der Webseite www.conf.dfn.de. Auf den folgenden Seiten melden sich Nutzer mit dem KIT-Benutzerkonto an und laden in der Eingangsseite der Verwaltungsseite, auf der sie ihre Veranstaltungen managen können.
Das neue System setzt auf den Standard WebRTC, der einen einfachen Zugang (auch über Firewallgrenzen hinweg) über z.B. einen Web-Browser erlaubt. Parallel dazu können alle üblichen Standards, wie z.B. H.323 (Raumsysteme), SIP und Telefonie weiter genutzt werden. Für mobile Geräte mit Adroid und iOS stehen ebenfalls Apps (Pexit) zur Verfügung.
Die alte Plattform DFNVC steht weiterhin unter www.conf.dfn.de zur Verfügung, weshalb eine schnelle Umstellung der vorhandenen Systeme nicht erforderlich ist. Weiter genutzt werden können auch alle in der Vergangenheit genutzten Raumnummern auf z.B. vorhandenen Raumsystemen.
Im Fehlerfall können die alten DFNVC-Systeme nicht mehr repariert werden und werden daher mittelfristig entfallen.
 
Nähere Infos zur Infinity Connect App sowie Kurzanleitungen unter:
https://docs.pexip.com/end_user/infinity_connect_quickguides/using_webapp.htm
Weitere Infos auch zeitnah unter:
http://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/3672.php
 
Rolf Mayer
 

A publication of the SimLab Energy at SCC, created in cooperation with the Engler-Bunte-Institut (EBI), was awarded the Best Paper Award at the 6th OpenFOAM Conference in Hamburg.

Numerical simulations of combustion processes are usually carried out with many simplifications in order to keep the computing effort low. However, if flames are to be simulated with a high degree of detail, many physical processes must be taken into account. Such detailed simulations are only possible on supercomputers. The paper Optimizing Load Balancing of Reacting Flow Solvers in OpenFOAM for High Performance Computing presents a method that accelerates the parallel calculation of combustion processes on supercomputers. When calculating chemical reaction rates, it is often the case that some processes require more computing effort than others. The basic idea, therefore, is to form pairs of processes that share their work of calculating chemical reaction rates. This is made possible by the fact that the calculation of chemical reaction rates can be more freely distributed among the processes than the calculation of many other simulation variables. The methodology was implemented with the open source CFD software OpenFOAM, which itself does not provide load balancing for the calculation of chemical reaction rates. The paper of the SimLab Energy was awarded the Best Paper Award at the 6th OpenFOAM Conference 2018 in Hamburg.
 
Thorsten Zirwes
 

Neben den Verbesserungen der Vorversionen wie z.B. die native 64-Bit-Version, native OpenGL-Unterstützung, parametrische 3D-Funktionsdiagramme und die Erzeugung von Animationen und Filmclips können Sie in der Version 2019 nun ein Startmenü mit Suchfunktion nutzen. Dieses Feature ähnelt in seiner Funktionsweise dem Startmenü von MS Windows. Durch Eingabe von Stichwörtern bzw. Phrasen können Anwender Menüelemente und Origin Apps schnell finden und öffnen, nach Origin-Projektdateien in kürzlich geöffneten Ordnern suchen, Diagramm- und Analysebeispielprojekte aufrufen und auf die Dokumentation, Videos und vieles mehr zugreifen. Weiter Infos finden Sie unter: http://www.scc.kit.edu/produkte/3859.php
Rolf Mayer

SCC coordinates the activities of the new AG "Zeitungen & Zeitschriften" of the Digital Humanities Association

For digitized newspapers and magazines as research objects there is now a new established working group (AG) within the association Digital Humanities in the German-speaking area (DHd): https://dig-hum.de/ag-zeitungen-zeitschriften
The working group offers a platform to connect all areas from digitisation to the recognition of full texts and layout to data analysis.
Nanette Rißler-Pipka (SCC-DEM) coordinates the activities of the AG. Further members are welcome.
Rißler-Pipka, Nanette (SCC)
 

The Simulated Worlds project scholarship begins in 2018 with 12 scholarship holders

The Simulated Worlds project at the SCC has started the new season. On 26.10.2018 the twelve scholarship holders met for a first meeting. The high school pupils have successfully completed an application process and can now look forward to the next challenges: A total of seven topics from different fields, such as climate research, particle physics or medical technology, are waiting to be researched by the scholarship holders in view of mathematical modelling and with the help of simulations on supercomputers. All participants will devote a year to a particular problem and will be accompanied by scientific staff from the SCC.
 
Maren Hattebuhr
 

Origin live - Evaluate. Visualize. Effective use.

The Additive GmbH offers a webinar day on 14.11.2018 with many interesting topics. The eight main topics will be dealt with in blocks of 45 minutes each. Further information and the possibility to register directly can be found at: http://www.additive-origin.de/webinartag
 
Rolf Mayer
 

Pupils conduct research in teams with the help of mathematical methods and the use of computers on research questions from companies and university institutes. They will present their results on September 28, 2018.

CAMMP week 2018
This year's MINT-EC Academy CAMMP week will take place in Karlsruhe from September 23 - 28, 2018. This is a modelling week in which students interested in mathematics, supported by a scientist, spend a week researching a real problem for a real problem. The problems come from the current research of companies or university institutes, which are currently still unsolved. We cordially invite you to be surprised by the results of the pupils at the final  event. The presentations will take place on September 28, 2018 at 11 a.m. in lecture hall 140 in building 449 in Campus North of KIT. We are looking forward to your visit!
Registrations (for external/non-KIT members) are possible until 27.09.2018 at http://www.scc.kit.edu/forschung/11899.php.
Kirsten Wohak

Migration of the KeyShot License Manager to the scclic4.scc.kit.edu by 31.9.2018

The license manager of KeyShot will be migrated to scclic4.scc.kit.edu on 9/31/18. Further information can be found at:
http://www.scc.kit.edu/produkte/7323.php
 
Rolf Mayer
 

Das Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst unterstützt mit seiner High Performance Computing (HPC) und Data Intensive Computing (DIC) Strategie den Ausbau und die Weiterentwicklung der digitalen Infrastruktur im Land.

Um die Grundlagen für exzellente Forschungsinfrastrukturen zu legen und bestehende Infrastrukturen zu erneuern, hat das Ministerium der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Anfang des Jahres ein landesweit abgestimmtes Antragsbündel für HPC- und Daten-Infrastrukturen in Baden-Württemberg vorgelegt. Darunter auch Maßnahmen, die am KIT umgesetzt werden und gemeinsame Projekte, die vom KIT maßgeblich begleitet werden.
 
Im Juli 2018 hat die DFG alle Anträge auf Forschungsgroßgeräte bewilligt bzw. bei Anträgen im Rahmen des Programms „Großgeräte der Länder“ eine Bewilligung anempfohlen. Zudem hat die DFG übergeordnet das HPC-/DIC-Umsetzungskonzept der Universitäten des Landes Baden-Württemberg sowie das dazugehörige Begleitprojekt zur HPC/DIC-Landesstrategie bwHPC-S5 begutachtet.
 
Zur Presseinformation des Ministeriums
 
Achim Grindler
 

The new SCC News amongst others with these topics:  The KIT-Card - Accessibility, Technology, Background;  Neoteric Autonomous Stencil code for Jolly Algorithm; Students Research Using Mathematical Modelling.

Dear reader,

10 years of SCC, in addition to the articles on our activities in research, services and teaching this is a good reason in this summer issue to focus on the employees of SCC - active and alumni. These people are the friendly face of SCC and its respectful and appreciative working atmosphere. They are deeply involved in research and teaching, projects, design and operation of infrastructures and basic services, conduct training courses, seminars and workshops, apply for third-party funding for personnel and equipment, support, organise, communicate, train and help. In short, they "are" the success of SCC and for that they deserve a big and warmly thank you!
With barbecue and salad buffet, ice-cream van, paddling pool, lots of sunshine and beverages all of us celebrated the 10th birthday of SCC on July 12th. Wilfried Juling, one of the invited founding directors, gave a speech about the early days of SCC and its positive evolutions at KIT, which was only founded one year later.
Marco Berghoff tests the wetting behaviour of smooth surfaces in the paddling pool together with colleagues (picture page 40). In his article on page 25 you can read how this behavior can be simulated by novel algorithms adapted to HPC systems. Kirsten Wohak and Maren Hattebuhr describe on page 35 how pupils in the new CAMMP project learn to explore everyday problems on the computer using mathematical modelling.
Our daily companion, the KIT-Card, is not new. Or is it? Axel Maurer and colleagues present the news and background on page 21.

Enjoy reading!                   Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nußbaumer, Achim Streit
 
Achim Grindler

The combination of different DNS systems in the GFB and UB to form one naming service for KIT was previously prone to errors. The enhanced network database (NETDB) now ensures data integrity and consistency.

Nach dem Zusammenschluss der Universität und des Forschungszentrums zum KIT mussten auch die unterschiedlichen DNS-Systeme zusammengeführt werden. Man hat zwar ziemlich schnell erreicht, dass ein gemeinsamer Namensdienst angeboten werden konnte, es waren dabei aber noch alle Systeme aus der alten Welt beteiligt, so dass Daten zwischen den Systemen (automatisiert) abgeglichen werden mussten. Dies war fehleranfällig und musste oft manuell nachgebessert werden.
Durch die Weiterentwicklung der selbst entwickelten NETDB (Netzdatenbank) konnte jetzt nach einer langen Migrationsphase das am Campus Nord eingesetzte kommerzielle System abgeschaltet werden. Mit der Datenintegration in einer zentralen Datenbank ist nun die Integrität und Konsistenz der Daten sichergestellt. Das mandantenfähige System NETVS, das eine Webseite und eine WebAPI beinhaltet, stellt für die IT-Beauftragten Tools zur Verwaltung ihrer Daten bereit.
Die geplante Entwicklung im Bereich DNS und DHCP ist aber noch nicht abgeschlossen. Für die Verwaltung der DHCP-Daten werden die Schnittstellen um ein DHCP-Verwaltungssystem (DHCPVS) ergänzt werden. Momentan sind im Bereich DHCP lediglich die statischen MAC-IP-Adress-Zuordnungen unter Nutzung des Info-Felds im DNSVS verwaltbar.
Weiterhin arbeiten wir derzeit daran, dass die DNS-Generierung öfter als zweimal am Tag stattfinden kann. Dies soll in ein paar Monaten möglich sein. Nach der Eliminierung des 1:1 NAT und damit Abschaffung von DNS Split (unterschiedliche Sichten intern und extern) wird dann der letzte Meilenstein realisiert werden: sofortige Live-Schaltung von Änderungen im DNSVS bei Abschicken der Transaktion. Außerdem werden die DNS-Daten mit DNSSEC kryptographisch abgesichert werden.

Kontakt: DNS-Betrieb
SCC-NET
 

1:1 NAT records of the NAT service will no longer be supported as of December 1, 2019. Computers require a public IP address for access from the Internet. The SCC supports the IT officers in the changeover.

The Network Address Translation Service enables computers at KIT with a private IP address to communicate with the Internet. The private IP address of a computer is converted into a public IP address by the NAT service.
For communication from the inside (KIT) to the outside (Internet), 1:N-NAT (many computers use the same public IP address) is used.
This service is not affected.
For communication from the outside (Internet) to the inside (KIT), 1:1 NAT (one dedicated public IP address per computer) is used.
This service is no longer supported as of December 1, 2019!
This means that from this point on, all systems that are to be accessible from outside the Internet must have a public IP address (public IP addresses at KIT have the form 129.13.x.x / 141.52.x.x / 141.3.x.x).
The IT experts had already been informed of this change in July 2018. The presentation will be repeated in one of the next IT expert circles at Campus South.
The SCC will approach the affected organizational units or their IT representatives and will be happy to help with the changeover.
The following timetable is currently planned:
from October 1, 2018: no more new 1:1 NAT entries December 1, 2019: all remaining 1:1 NAT entries will be deleted IT representatives are already welcome to take the initiative and contact netze@scc.kit.edu if they have any questions.
_ _ _
NAT Service: https://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/3751.php

The new SCC ticket system simplifies communication between KIT employees and students and the service operators of SCC.

Das bisher genutzte Ticketsystem des SCC ist mittlerweile annähernd 20 Jahre alt. Es hat im Laufe seiner Entwicklung viele Änderungen und Anpassungen erfahren, die die Betreuung und Weiterentwicklung des Systems schwierig und zeitaufwändig machen. Daher hat das SCC beschlossen, das System durch ein neues, moderneres zu ersetzen. Es steht seit Anfang Juli für die SCC-Support-Gruppen sowie mit einer Kundenschnittstelle für die IT-Beauftragten des KIT zur Verfügung. Erklärtes Ziel ist dabei, für das neue SCC-Ticketsystem ein Standardsystem zu nutzen und auf Eigenentwicklungen weitestgehend zu verzichten. Dadurch soll der Wartungs- und Pflege-Aufwand möglichst gering gehalten werden.
Ein weiteres Ziel ist es, den Zugang zum SCC-Ticketsystem neben den IT-Beauftragten schrittweise auch für Beschäftigte und Studierende des KIT freizugeben. Dadurch eröffnet sich für alle KIT-Angehörigen neben den bereits vorhandenen Kommunikationswegen Telefon, E-Mail und SCC Service Desk eine weitere Möglichkeit ihr Anliegen bequem über ein Webformular an das SCC zu kommunizieren. Die Freigabe wird erfolgen, sobald sich das neue SCC-Ticketsystem in einem stabilen Regelbetrieb befindet. Der Zugang für Beschäftigte und Studierende wird über das Self-Service Portal des SCC my.scc.kit.edu verfügbar sein.
 
Günter Grein
 

The "bwFileStorage" service for the mass storage of scientific data will be discontinued on 18 November 2018. Migration of data still required is necessary.

The "bwFileStorage" service will be stopped on November 18, 2018.
The service will be phased out:
1. The registration of new users was discontinued in mid-July 2018.
2. From August 24, 2018 it will no longer be possible to write new data to the bwFileStorage, but read access to the data will still be allowed.
3. The service will be terminated definitively on 18 November 2018. Data still in the system and all existing backups of the data are deleted at this point.
Access to the data will no longer be possible from 18 November 2018!
External users (not KIT members) are asked to migrate the required data from the system independently.
The SCC at KIT offers the bwDataArchive service for users in the state of Baden-Württemberg for archiving scientific data.
The SDS@hd service, which is operated at the Computer Center of the University of Heidelberg, is used to store actively scientific data. This service is available to scientists from all Baden-Württemberg universities.
For KIT users, SCC will migrate the user directories to the new LSDF Online Storage service. However, registration for the SCC service "LSDF Online Storage" is mandatory until August 24, 2018! Registration takes place via the bwIDM web interface.
_ _ _
Service description:
Mass storage for scientific data (bwFileStorage) [german] Mass storage for scientific data (LSDF Online Storage)  

Die Wissenschaftsministerinnen Anja Karliczek (BMBF) und Theresia Bauer (MWK) besuchten am 27.07. gemeinsam das KIT. Sie informieren sich u. a. auch in den Räumlichkeiten des SCC zu Zukunftsthemen der Informationstechnologie.

Am 27.7.2018 waren die Bundesministerin für Bildung und Forschung, Anja Karliczek, und die Ministerin für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg, Theresia Bauer, bei einem gemeinsamen Besuch am KIT. Sie informierten sich unter anderem auch in den Räumlichkeiten des SCC zu den Zukunftsthemen der Informationstechnologie wie IT-Sicherheit oder die fortschreitende Digitalisierung in Forschung und Entwicklung.
Ausführliche Informationen zum gemeinsamen Besuch der Ministerinnen in den News des KIT.
 
Achim Grindler
 

In the workshop, 35 participants learned about the central antivirus service and its components. The new Antivirus concept based on BSI IT-Grundschutz was also presented.

Am 14.06.2018 fand zum wiederholten Mal ein Workshop zur McAfee ePO-Verwaltungskonsole im SCC statt. Im Rahmen des Workshops wurde den 35 Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmern der vom SCC für das KIT bereitgestellte zentrale Virenschutzdienst sowie die einzelnen Komponenten (McAfee Verwaltungsagent, Virenschutzsoftware, Verwaltungskonsole Virenschutzdienst) vorgestellt.
Ein weiteres Thema war die Präsentation des Virenschutzkonzeptes für den zentralen Virenschutzdienst. In diesem nach BSI IT-Grundschutz ausgerichteten Konzept werden die vom SCC sowie von den einzelnen OE im Bereich Virenschutz zu regelnden Maßnahmen beschrieben.
Im praktischen Teil wurden typische Arbeiten mit der Verwaltungskonsole des zentralen Virenschutzdienstes demonstriert, z.B. das Ausbringen, Aktualisieren und Überprüfen der Agenten- und Virenschutzsoftware, die Erstellung und Zuweisung von Richtlinien sowie eine Demonstration der Möglichkeiten zur Berichtserstellung.
 
Helmut Gündert und Ulrich Stadie
 

From September 19 to 21, 2018, DARIAH-DE invites all those interested in digital humanities to a grand tour to Darmstadt.

Mit dieser Veranstaltung werden acht Jahre intensive und produktive Zusammenarbeit im Projekt und mit den Kooperationspartnern gewürdigt, die DARIAH-DE-Infrastruktur und ihr Angebotsportfolio präsentiert und der Entwicklungsstand in den digitalen Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften gemeinsam mit zahlreichen Expertinnen und Experten reflektiert. Auch die DARIAH-DE-DH-Awards 2018 werden im Rahmen der Grand Tour feierlich verliehen. Eine Anmeldung ist noch bis zum 31. August möglich.   DARIAH-DE ist ein vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) gefördertes Projekt zum Aufbau und Betrieb einer digitalen Forschungsinfrastruktur für die Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften. Mit digitalen Methoden und Verfahren arbeitende Forschende werden in den Bereichen Lehre, Forschung, Forschungsdaten und Technische Komponenten unterstützt. Die SCC-Abteilung Data Exploitation Methods (DEM) ist mit Entwurf und Implementierung von Annotationsdiensten sowie der Entwicklung eines formalen Prozesses zur nachhaltigen Integration von Diensten in eine Forschungsinfrastruktur betraut.  
Danah Tonne
 

Yuhsiang Tsai and Yen-Chen Chen, two graduates from the National Taiwan University (NTU), are visiting Scientific Computing Center in July and August and working with Dr. Hartwig Anzt.

Yuhsiang Tsai and Yen-Chen Chen, two graduates from the National Taiwan University, are visiting SCC in July and August and working with Hartwig Anzt, research group lead Fixed-Point Methods for Numerics at Exascale, on parallel algorithms and deep learning for high performance computing.
 
During his master studies, Yen-Chen Chen accelerated Genome-Wide Association Studies and did pathology image classification for prostate cancer using deep learning techniques. Also Yuhsiang Tsai's master thesis combines two research topics: The Acceleration of Higher Order Singular Value Decomposition with GPUs for Large Tensors, and the development of an Efficient Contour Integral Based Eigensolver with Locking Technique for Pentacene Applications.
 
A heartfelt welcome to the SCC!
Achim Grindler
 

On the way to an integrated nationwide computing and data infrastructure, the project will provide first-class and effective support to scientists and users.

In Baden-Württemberg wurde das Projekt bwHPC-S5: Scientific Simulation and Storage Support Services gestartet. Das primäre Ziel des Projektes ist die Etablierung einer integrierten landesweiten Rechen- und Dateninfrastruktur sowie die Steigerung der Effizienz und der Effektivität durch erstklassige Unterstützung der Wissenschaftler und Nutzer. Um gegenüber den Nutzern eine integrierte Sicht zu erreichen, sind alle nutzerbezogenen Aktivitäten und die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit über alle Themen hinweg organsiert und bieten Unterstützung für alle Dienste mit den gleichen Strukturen und Informationsmedien an.
Die Basis für die Nutzerdienste bilden der etablierte föderative Betrieb der HPC-Infrastruktur, der Aufbau der BaWü-Datenföderation und die übergreifenden Basisdienste und Querschnittsaufgaben. Gemeinsame Innovationsaktivitäten zur Untersuchung neuer Hardware, Systemsoftware oder anderen Fragestellungen nutzen die etablierte Zusammenarbeit, um den schnellen Entwicklungen in diesem Umfeld gemeinsam effizient zu begegnen.
Das Projekt wird durch das Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg gefördert. Die Förderung folgt der Landesstrategie zu High Performance Computing und Data Intensive Computing, um ein international konkurrenzfähiges Niveau des Wissenschafts- und Wirtschaftsstandortes Baden-Württemberg sicherzustellen. Durch die kooperativen Aktivitäten zwischen den wissenschaftlichen Rechenzentren des Landes Baden-Württemberg können die Herausforderungen bewältigt sowie institutionen- und disziplinübergreifende Mehrwerte erzielt werden.

Weitere Informationen: bwHPC
Kontakt: Dr. Robert Barthel
----
Das SCC bringt seine langjährigen Erfahrungen und Kompetenzen als HPC-Betreiber und im Umgang mit großen und komplexen wissenschaftlichen Daten ein. Mit dem Betrieb des bwUniCluster als Grundversorgungssystem für alle baden-württembergischen Universitäten und Hochschulen liefert das SCC eine wichtige Basis der gesamten bwHPC-Föderation. Zudem trägt das SCC gemeinsam mit der Universität Ulm die Gesamtverantwortung für das Projekt bwHPC-C5 und den aktuell gestarteten Nachfolger bwHPC-S5.
 
Achim Grindler
 

Under the title "Knowledge Economies - Order and Transgression in Premodern Cultures" the 6th Annual Meeting of the Sonderforschungsbereich 980 "Episteme in Motion" took place in Berlin from June 28-30, 2018.

Hervorragend besucht war der Workshop "Epistemic Networks", in dem Ergebnisse der Kooperation von Geisteswissenschaft und Informatik vorgestellt und rege diskutiert wurden.    Der an der Freien Universität Berlin ansässige SFB 980 untersucht Prozesse des Wissenswandels in europäischen und nicht-europäischen Kulturen in der Vormoderne. In aktuell 23 Teilprojekten aus 20 geisteswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen forschen rund 80 Mitarbeitende interdisziplinär an Fragestellungen zu Transferprozessen im Zeitraum von Antike bis frühe Neuzeit.    Die SCC-Abteilung Data Exploitation Methods (DEM) leitet im Sonderforschungsbereich das Informationsinfrastrukturprojekt "Bücher auf Reisen", in dem eine digitale Dateninfrastruktur für alle Teilprojekte des SFBs entwickelt wird. Zentrale Komponente ist das Episteme-Repositorium mit angeschlossenen Analysewerkzeugen für die äußerst heterogenen geisteswissenschaftlichen Daten.   Kontakt: Danah Tonne, Germaine Götzelmann

Im ersten OCR-D Entwicklerworkshop trafen sich alle Partner, um Einzelschritte der Optical Character Recognition für historische Drucke zu einem Gesamtablauf zusammenzuführen.

OCR-D ist ein Koordinierungsprojekt der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) zur Weiterentwicklung von Verfahren der Optical Character Recognition für deutschsprachige Drucke aus dem 16.-19. Jahrhundert. Ein wesentliches Ziel ist die Volltexterfassung des gedruckten, deutschen Kulturerbes dieses Zeitraums.
Die SCC-Abteilung Data Exploitation Methods (DEM) wird in diesem Projekt als koordinierender Partner sicherstellen, dass das Zusammenspiel der Projektergebnisse funktioniert und der Gesamtablauf technisch umgesetzt werden kann.
 
Kontakt: Volker Hartmann, Dr. Rainer Stotzka
 

MINT-Fächer zu Vorreitern der Internationalisierung zu machen - dafür bekommt das KIT 100.000 Euro vom Stifterverband, der Daimler und Benz Stiftung und dem Daimler Fonds.

Das Konzept des KIT war eines von drei Hochschulvorhaben, die sich unter den insgesamt 49 Teilnehmern des Wettbewerbs "MINTernational innovativ" durchsetzten. Die Hochschulen waren Ende Juni eingeladen, ihre Ideen für mehr Internationalität in den Fächern Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaften und Technik (MINT) einer Jury zu präsentieren. Zusammengesetzt aus Vertretern von Wissenschaftseinrichtungen und -förderern sowie der Wirtschaft, wählte diese die Konzepte mit dem höchsten Innovationsgrad aus. Mit den Fördermitteln soll die jeweilige Projektidee gezielt weiterentwickelt, auf weitere Fächer ausgeweitet und von anderen Hochschulen übernommen werden können.
Dr. Kai Rebensburg, der am KIT das Studentenaustausch-Programm MINTernship betreut, und Andreas Sexauer vom Zentrum für Mediales Lernen (ZML) am KIT, entwickelten in Zusammenarbeit mit Ulrich Weiß vom SCC und Dr. Sebastian Stüker vom Institut für Anthropomatik und Robotik (IAR) eine Strategie, die es ausländischen Studierenden erleichtert, ihr Studium erfolgreich abzuschließen. Zu den innovativen Maßnahmen gehört die technische Simultanübersetzung der Vorlesungen von Deutsch in andere Sprachen, was den sprachlichen Barrieren entgegenwirken soll. Mit ihrer gemeinsamen Präsentation beim Stifterverband in Berlin überzeugten sie die Jury.
 
Ulrich Weiß
 

Die Abteilung Data Exploitation Methods ist bei NFFA für den Aufbau einer verteilten Dateninfrastruktur verantwortlich, um Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern eine einfache und nachhaltige Datenverwaltung nach FAIR-Prinzipien zu ermöglichen.

NFFA (nanoscience foundries & fine analysis) ist ein EU-Projekt, das im Rahmen des Horizon 2020 Programms gefördert wird. Im Projekt werden Verfahren zur Erstellung und effizienteren Handhabung neuer Nano-Materialien entwickelt. Darüber hinaus werden durch die Förderung des transnationalen Zugriffs auf europäische Forschungseinrichtungen neue Kollaborationen begünstigt, sowie eine bessere Auslastung bestehender Ressourcen erreicht. 
Die SCC-Abteilung Data Exploitation Methods (DEM) ist im Projekt NFFA für den Aufbau einer verteilten Dateninfrastruktur verantwortlich, um den Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern eine einfache und nachhaltige Datenverwaltung im Sinne der FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) Prinzipien für wissenschaftliches Datenmanagement zu ermöglichen.  
Dem wissenschaftliche Datenmanagement ist in diesem Jahr erstmalig ein kompletter Tag im Rahmen der NFFA Summer School gewidmet. Dabei stehen sowohl die theoretische Vermittlung der Notwendigkeit eines nachthaltigen Datenmanagements, als auch die praktische Schulung der Teilnehmer im Umgang mit den existierenden Werkzeugen und Infrastrukturen auf dem Programm. 
 
Thomas Jejkal
 

15 million for the ForHLR successor system granted. The supercomputer inaugurated in 2016 will be replaced by an even more powerful successor from mid-2019. The new system should be fully operational by 2021.

Der derzeitige Supercomputer des KIT wird durch einen leistungsfähigeren Nachfolger ersetzt. Laut Planung soll das System ab Mitte 2019 in der ersten Stufe durch das Scientific Computing Center in Betrieb genommen werden. Dafür stehen nach Beschluss der Gemeinsamen Wissenschaftskonferenz in Berlin 15 Millionen Euro bereit. Spitzenforschung produziert enorme Mengen von Daten, nutzt immer komplexere Simulationsmodelle und braucht deshalb höchste Rechenleistung sowie schnelle Datenspeicher. Daher soll der neue Supercomputer mehrere Billiarden Rechenoperationen pro Sekunde und ein Speichersystem bieten, das im Sekundentakt den Inhalt von 20 DVDs aufnehmen kann. Ausgehend von Nutzerbefragungen wird von einer Verdopplung bis Verdreifachung des Bedarfs an Rechenleistung in den nächsten Jahren ausgegangen. Das neue System soll 2021 vollständig betriebsbereit sein.
Weitere Informationen: Presseinfo des KIT
Kontakt: Dr. Olaf Schneider
 
Achim Grindler
 

This year's GridKa School teaches modern concepts of data analysis and machine learning as well as management, administration and security in HPC systems and the cloud.

We would like to invite you to the GridKa School 2018 Computing and Science Fair from August 27th to 31st in Karlsruhe. The GridKa School is one of the leading summer schools for scientific computing in Europe and is organized annually by the Scientific Computing Center at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. A mixture of plenary talks, interactive courses and a culinary accompanying programme offers you ideal conditions to apply your newly acquired knowledge in practice and to exchange ideas across disciplinary boundaries. If you are interested in modern concepts of data analysis and machine learning as well as in management, administration and security in HPC systems and the cloud, then register now at http://gridka.school.
 
Contact: Dr. Eileen Kühn
 

Esri has released a patch for a critical vulnerability of the ArcGIS Server software.

Esri has discovered a critical vulnerability in ArcGIS Server causing improper access control validation when specially crafted requests are sent to the server. This results in secured services and their data to be exposed to users when they should not otherwise have access.

This security issue affects all supported versions of ArcGIS Server on both Windows and Linux. As an ArcGIS Enterprise customer, we are personally notifying you about this security vulnerability in addition to regular online notifications on our blog and security site at Trust.ArcGIS.com.

What You Need to Do
Patches for all versions of ArcGIS Server from 10.2.1 through 10.6 have been released. Esri strongly recommends installing the relevant patch at your earliest possible opportunity.

All patches can be downloaded from the Esri Support website.

More Information
For more details, please refer to the Knowledge Base article, Problem: Warning of security vulnerability in ArcGIS Server. 

We also encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed on Trust.ArcGIS.com for future updates on this and other security issues.
Dr. Olaf Schneider
 

The state project bwNET100G+ was awarded second place in the category Ideas & Research around the data center at the German Computer Center Award. The prize is awarded annually for innovative projects in data centers.

Das Scientific Computing Center des KIT freut sich für bwNET100G+ gemeinsam mit den Rechenzentren der Universitäten Ulm und Tübingen über den 2. Platz beim Deutschen Rechenzentrumspreis 2018. Das Projekt konnte in der Kategorie Ideen & Forschung rund um das Rechenzentrum überzeugen. Den Preis hat, stellvertretend für das Projekt der Leiter des Landesprojekts und Leiter des Kommunikations- und Informationszentrum (kiz) der Universität Ulm, Professor Stefan Wesner entgegen genommen.

"Mit dem Projekt bwNET100G+ wurde organisatorisches und technisches Neuland in Deutschland betreten, indem die ansonsten strikte Trennungen zwischen Forschung und Infrastruktur sogar hochschulübergreifend überwunden wurde und damit eine deutschlandweit einmalige Forschungsinfrastruktur für den Bereich praxisorientierte Netzwerkforschung implementiert wurde", heißt es in der Einreichung.
Über die Fortschritte im Projekt berichtete das KIT-Projektteam ausführlich in den SCC-News 2/2017 (S. 13-15).
Die Jury würdigte den innovativen Ansatz, die im Projekt entwickelten Ideen und die bislang erzielten Ergebnisse:
Das Projekt setzt ein Zeichen für die Kooperation von Universitätsrechenzentren untereinander sowie für die Kooperation zwischen Betrieb und Forschung. Der Aufbau und die Nutzung eines gemeinsamen Weitverkehrs-Testnetzes ist der konsequent nächste Schritt, nachdem bereits hauptsächlich große Rechencluster gemeinsam genutzt weden. Mit über 30 wissenschaftlichen Veröffentlichungen und Abschlussarbeiten leistet es einen Beitrag für das Rechenzentrum der Zukunft, insbesondere mit Beiträgen in den Standardisierungsorganistationen.
  Kontakt am SCC: Reinhard Strebler, Philipp Wolter
Pressemitteilung der Universität Ulm (Projektleitung)
 
 
Achim Grindler
 

Not only the appearance of the "mailing lists" has changed. Encrypted e-mails can now also be sent via the Sympa-based service.

After the conversion of the mailing list software Sympa to version 6.2.16 the website www.lists.kit.edu got a new, more modern look.
The functionalities, such as managing mailing lists, managing subscriptions, viewing list archives, have not changed.
Important options for administrators can be found in an administration menu on the main list page of the mailing list.
Via "Administration" in the left navigation menu you will find all available options.
The SCC web pages describing the service with information for list participants and information for list operators have been adapted to the new version.
With the new software version, encrypted e-mails can be sent to the list participants. A certificate for the list must exist and the public key of all list participants must be known to the mailing list server.
The participant without public key on the mailing list server receives an e-mail that the encrypted e-mail could not be delivered. He have to send a signed e-mail to sympa@lists.kit.edu to make his public key known and to receive encrypted e-mails in the future.
Certificates for mailing lists are requested by the SCC Listmaster team and made available on the lists.kit.edu website. Please contact listmaster@lists.kit.edu with the wish to send encrypted e-mails via a mailing list.
 
 

Computing time projects can be submitted online at any time. Applications are reviewed by the HLRS Steering Committee within eight weeks.

Scientific Computing Center (SCC) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) operates a high-performance research computer (ForHLR) that enables scientists from all over Germany to solve complex application problems. The ForHLR I (high performance research computer phase I) is suitable for parallel application problems running on several hundred processors, while the ForHLR II (phase II) cluster is ideal for parallel problems that need to be calculated on more than a thousand processors simultaneously.
The duration for computing time projects is between one and a maximum of two years, with the possibility of extension, so that projects can be continued seamlessly. Projects on the ForHLR I can request up to 15 million core hours of computing time and up to 4 terabytes of permanent storage space; projects on the ForHLR II include up to 30 million core hours of computing time and 5 TB of hard disk space.
Applications can be submitted at any time using the web-based online form. The projects submitted will be reviewed by the HLRS Steering Committee within eight weeks. The reports are carried out by experts in the respective scientific field. Besides the scientific relevance of the project, an important criterion for the allocation of computing resources is that the computer is used meaningfully and a large number of processors are used in parallel for the calculations. SCC offers support in several application disciplines already during the application process and also via the Simulation Labs of the SCC during the duration of a project.

Detailed information can be found on the website www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/proposals.php
Contact: Hartmut Häfner
 
Achim Grindler
 

A new state license for the MATLAB/SIMULINK software product family has been valid for all universities and polytechnics in Baden-Württemberg since April 1, 2018. The license agreement has a term of five years.

Seit 1. April 2018 gilt eine neue Landeslizenz für die Softwareproduktfamilie MATLAB/SIMULINK der Firma MathWorks mit einer Laufzeit von fünf Jahren für alle Universitäten und Hochschulen in Baden-Württemberg. Koordiniert durch das SCC am KIT beteiligen sich 23 Landeseinrichtungen an der Finanzierung. Das gewählte Lizenzmodell Total Academic Headcount (TAH) Full Suite ermöglicht eine unbegrenzte Anzahl von Installationen und schließt alle Toolboxen sowie weitere Mehrwerte wie Online-Kurse ein. Das Land Baden-Württemberg, vertreten durch das Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst (MWK) fördert die Landeslizenz mit einer Zuwendung in Höhe von ca. 20% der Kosten aufgrund einer positiven Begutachtung durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
 
 
Weitere Informationen: Softwareprodukt MATLAB
Kontakt am SCC: Dr. Olaf Schneider
 
 
Achim Grindler
 

From April 10 to 12, 2018, the SCC is once again organizing a block event on the topic High Performance Computing (HPC). This is aimed at HPC beginners on the first day and experienced HPC users on the second and third days.

Die nächsten Kurse finden vom 10. bis 12. April in den Poolräumen des SCC am Campus Süd statt. Anmeldungen über den Veranstaltungskalender des SCC.   Weitere Informationen: Mit dem Forschungshochleistungsrechner (ForHLR), dem bwUniCluster und den im Rahmen des bwHPC-Konzeptes zusätzlich beschafften bwForClustern steht in Baden-Württemberg mittlerweile eine ganze Reihe von HPC-Systemen verschiedener Leistungsklassen zur Verfügung. Im Rahmen des Projektes bwHPC-C5 führt das SCC halbjährlich Blockveranstaltungen zum Thema HPC durch, um das notwendige Wissen über den Zugriff auf diese Systeme, deren effi ziente Nutzung und das Datenmanagement zu vermitteln. Die Blockveranstaltung besteht aus einem Einführungs- und einem Fortgeschrittenenkurs, welche an zwei aufeinanderfolgenden Tagen stattfinden. Alle Bediensteten und Studierenden der Universitäten des Landes Baden-Württemberg (Freiburg, Heidelberg, Hohenheim, KIT, Konstanz, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Tübingen, Ulm) sowie der teilnehmenden Hochschulen können die Kurse besuchen. Die Kurse bestehen jeweils aus Vorträgen und Übungseinheiten. Während der Übungseinheiten haben die Teilnehmer die Möglichkeit, die Lerninhalte interaktiv auf den HPC-Systemen auszuprobieren. Vorlesungen sowie Materialien werden vollständig in englischer Sprache angeboten. Die Vortragenden sind größtenteils Wissenschaftler des SCC. Das Interesse hat von Jahr zu Jahr zugenommen. Im Jahr 2017 waren die vorhandenen 35 Plätze nicht nur stets ausgebucht, es hatten sich darüber hinaus noch weitere Personen angemeldet. Die Teilnehmer kamen nicht nur aus dem KIT, sondern auch von fast allen Partneruniversitäten. Unter den Teilnehmern waren bereits Mitarbeiter von mehr als 80 verschiedenen Instituten des KIT. Die Auswertung des Feedbacks bestätigt immer wieder, dass die Qualität der Kurse auf einem hohen Niveau liegt und der Umfang der Kurse die Erwartungen der Teilnehmer übertrifft. In den letzten Kurs im Oktober 2017 konnte zusätzlich eine Lerneinheit von Allinea, dem Hersteller eines verbreiteten Software-Debuggers für HPC-Systeme, integriert werden. Um in Zukunft noch besser auf die unterschiedlichen Vorkenntnisse und Wünsche der Nutzer einzugehen, ist eine Erweiterung der Kurse um zusätzliche Lern- und Übungseinheiten angedacht.
(Bericht zu den Kursen aus den SCC-News 2/2017) Achim Grindler
 

SCC was officially founded on 22nd February 2008, even before KIT was founded in 2009. It was created as a result of the merger of the data centre of University of Karlsruhe with the Institute for Scientific Computing of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe.

As an innovative and agile institution in central information processing for the KIT, the SCC is used to anticipate and find answers to important future questions of digitization in a globally active scientific institution. At this point, however, a look back is allowed. Ten years ago today, the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) was officially founded.
From the very beginning, SCC has consistently combined research and services in such a way that research findings flow into the design and development of its IT services and infrastructure, and vice versa, research benefits from the close interlinking. The founding history, the organizational structure at that time, the tasks and visions are described in detail in the first edition of SCC News 1/2008.
Today, the SCC positions itself as a center for data-intensive computing and the analysis of large scale data with high national and international visibility as well as an innovative and agile IT service provider for the KIT and for external parties. The SCC regularly informs about news on research and projects, services and innovation, studies and knowledge transfer online and in the SCC-News.
Success bears the name Change
The SCC is part of the immense process of change initiated by the foundation of KIT in October 2009 and continues until today. "We at the SCC live a continuous process of renewal and change and are pleased to be able to support the KIT in the best possible way, also through our continuous further development in scientific, technological and organisational terms" is the joint view of the SCC Board of Directors with Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nussbaumer and Achim Streit. From September 2017, the merger of the Administration IT and SCC took effect, thus broadening the range of tasks to cover other important topics (see online news).
The spectrum of tasks of SCC at KIT and beyond
SCC is a central scientific institution of KIT in connection with tasks in research, teaching and innovation and provides comprehensive services within the KIT and for external parties. These tasks include in detail:
Research and development in the fields of scientific computing and data analysis, management of large-scale research data and data-intensive computing as well as security in IT federations. Operation of the ICT infrastructure and provision of the basic IT equipment of the KIT in conjunction with other system operators and service providers in the organizational units of the KIT as part of a cooperative supply system. Development and provision of IT application systems, management of application software, training of users and administrators as well as end device support Operation of large-scale equipment for scientific high-performance computing and data-intensive sciences within the framework of secure IT federations Acknowledgment
A motto of the founding years of the SCC was "coming together first - and then working together"[1]. That this is a good approach has been proven over time. "We are glad that everyone in the SCC lives a respectful, very collegial and honest coexistence. In this way, we can best meet the new and challenging demands of the ongoing digitization process at KIT and science in general. This is a great gift," says the SCC Board of Directors.
The SCC would like to thank colleagues, customer and user groups at KIT and in the state as well as partner institutions from teaching, research and innovation for the pleasant and constructive cooperation over the past ten years.
 
Achim Grindler
 
[1] based on the quote from Henry Ford, American carmaker: "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."

The EU funds building a pan-European cloud of services for the exchange, use and reuse of research data. The SCC directs the work package "Federation and collaborative services", which focuses on IT service management.

With the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), a Europe-wide cloud platform has emerged at the beginning of the year on which researchers can store, share, use and reuse research data. Since scientific datasets are sometimes huge, it is necessary to use special Know-How for building and managing the Big Data Cloud infrastructure. The Scientific Computing Center of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) contributes its many years of expertise in the management of large amounts of data in several places.
In particular, the KIT is responsible for IT service management, i. e. the development of a service catalogue, support processes and tools as well as a service desk, the central contact point for user inquiries.
The associated work package Federation and collaborative Services is directed by the SCC. "We have certified experts and more than 15 years of expertise in the development, construction and operation of federal IT infrastructures and services. We are pleased and proud to have been asked to lead this important work package in the EOSC-hub project," says Professor Achim Streit, Director of SCC.
Further information:
Complete press release of KIT Brief project description of the EOSC-hub infrastructure project of the European Open Science Cloud EOSC-News on the launch of EOSC-hub  
 
Achim Grindler
 

Seven students from the working group "Current Research in Molecular Biology" at the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Ettlingen, headed by biology teacher Oliver Abel, came to SCC for an educational excursion.

The "Begabten-AG" spent the morning in the university part of the KIT in the centre of Karlsruhe. Dr. Karin Nienhaus (Institute for Applied Physics) gave a lecture on the structure and function of fluorescent proteins with the title "EosFP and green-red photoconversion".
The KIT shuttle then took the group of students to the large-scale research centre at Campus Nord, where they were led by a high-performance computing expert through the computer centre of the ForHLR II supercomputer. After lunch, young female scientists from the research group Multiscale Biomolecular Simulation demonstrated the 3D visualization laboratory, which allows students to immerse themselves in the simulated protein folding processes through a kind of virtual reality. The program was rounded off by the interactive work with computers for protein simulation and the software used at SCC.
Achim Grindler
 

The new SCC News amongst others with these topics: Implementation of a Two-Factor Authentication, Progress in the federal state project bwNET100G+, SCC as central IT service provider of KIT.

Dear reader,
from the very beginning, SCC has been combining IT research and services in such a way that research results are fed into the design and development of our IT services and infrastructure and, conversely, research benefits from the close integration. The report on the progress of the state project bwNET100G+ on page 13 shows that the cooperation between science and data center operation leads to impressive results even beyond the KIT borders.
By merging the SCC with the KIT's administrative IT in summer 2017, the IT-services part was significantly expanded (p. 25 ff.). The SCC is now central service provider for information processing and information delivery in research, teaching, innovation and associated administration of the KIT. The SCC also operates large-scale research IT facilities and conducts its own research and teaching in the field of data-intensive computing.
Dr. Martin Nußbaumer has accompanied the consolidation from the very beginning as Transition Manager. As of August 2017, he was appointed as a new Director of the SCC and is responsible for integrating and optimizing IT services into KIT's business processes. This also includes the introduction of two-factor authentication into the KIT's enterprise applications, which we report on page 8.
Scientific computing plays an important role in the research portfolio of SCC. Professor Dr. Martin Frank, who is strengthening the SCC’s board of directors since September 2017, researches and teaches in precisely this field, focusing his work on computational models and mathematical methods as well as the responsibility for our simulation labs.
We would like to welcome both new colleagues very warmly to the now four-member board of directors. Both of them introduce themselves on page 24.

Enjoy reading.            Bernhard Neumair, Achim Streit
 
Achim Grindler
 

As of December 18,2017, guest and partner administration (GUP) will be available as a web-based application (WEB-GUP) in the SAP Enterprise Portal.

As of December 18,2017, the guest and partner administration (GUP) will be available as a web-based application (WEB-GUP) in the SAP web portal.
The previous application via the SAP GUI will be available until the end of March 2018, but there are no further modifications.
The use of the Web-based GUP will no longer require an SAP GUI installation, which means that the OpenVPN setup for transport security is no longer necessary.
There are still restrictions regarding the browser used. The SCC recommends using Internet Explorer 11.
The operation of the GUP portal interface is largely self-explanatory. Further explanations can also be accessed via www.scc.kit.edu/downloads/ior/Benutzeranleitung-GUP-Portal.pdf from the application.
Compared to the previous GUP application, there are the following changes and improvements:
Active and deactivated entries are now listed in the guest and partner management under two different tabs. If a guest or partner changes to another OU, the corresponding entry can now be 'released'. It then remains active for the OU assigned so far. The future OU of the guest or partner now has 7 days to accept the entry. If this transfer has not taken place within the corresponding period, the released entry is automatically deactivated. In the case of a new creation, the input is now carried out using a 5-step wizard, which splits the data to be entered into several screens and carries out plausibility checks for each screen. You can now delete GuP entries directly from the dataset. A GuP entry can now be assigned to a department within an organizational unit. This is useful for larger organizational units. The' Address type' field can be used to classify an address as a business or private address.
If you have any questions or problems, please contact Mr. Pickhardt, SCC-IOR.
 
 

The introduction of two-factor authentication at KIT improves the security of sensitive IT applications. In the first step, the business processes in the SAP system are secured with two-factor authentication.

Recently, successful phishing attacks have been repeated in the past, with KIT employees spying out their access data. Due to the increased threat situation, the IT Security Officer (IT-SB) has recommended the introduction of a two-factor authentication for logon operations when application systems are handling data with increased protection needs. Following this recommendation, the KIT Executive Committee mandated the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) to implement and introduce two-factor authentication. This improves the security of sensitive IT applications. The introduction of two-factor authentication first of all concerns the digital business processes in SAP systems.

The two-factor authentication is implemented by means of hardware tokens, which are requested in addition to the KIT user name and KIT password (http://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/kit-account) during the registration process. All KIT employees will use the SAP systems in the course of the gradual introduction of ESS (Employee Self Services). For this reason, the SCC already distributes the necessary hardware tokens to all employees. The SCC is usually supported by the secretariats and/or IT representatives of the OUs on site.
 
If you are not currently using SAP applications (such as SRM, BW, Person Days), the introduction of two-factor authentication has no immediate effect for you at present.
If you are already actively using the SAP systems, you will need a hardware token to log on to the SAP Web portals (https://sapwp01.orbitsap.kit.edu:9060/irj/portal) from November 13,2017. A step-by-step preview of the planned authentication on the SAP Web Portal can be found at http://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/11372.php.
Information on the planned conversion to KIT authentication with tokens and access to the SAP applications is sent to the employees in a separate mail.
Before using the SAP Web Portal, you must first associate your personal hardware token with your KIT account. Please visit https://my.scc.kit.edu/token/register for this purpose. In the second window, enter the value that your token indicates at the push of the button.
More detailed instructions or hints on how to deal with problems can be found at https://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/2fa

If you have any questions, please contact the SCC ServiceDesk (tel. 8000).
 

A publication of the SCC, produced in cooperation with the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-ASF), was honored with the Best Paper Award at the IEEE eScience conference.

A recent publication by the Scientific Computing Center (SCC), produced in cooperation with the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Trace Gases and Remote Sensing (IMK-ASF), was given the Best Paper Award at the 13th IEEE eScience Conference.

The main advantage of the method proposed in the paper is that the quality of lossy compression of measured climatic time series data can be increased without significantly increasing the size of the compressed file. This method is to be used in an advanced form in the development of a compression algorithm for climate data. This algorithm aims to reduce the large data volumes of several hundred terabytes by a substantial amount.

In accordance with the position of principle adopted in March 2010 and the subsequent support of the Open Access Conventions, all resources such as data, program code and presentation material are public and freely available.
        
Title Adaptive Lossy Compression of Complex Environmental Indices using Seasonal Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average Models Bibliography https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000076761 Resources https://github.com/ucyo/adaptive-lossy-compression Contact Uğur Çayoğlu  
 
Achim Grindler
 

An explanation of the attacks and an assessment of the resulting vulnerabilities for members of KIT

Wer ist betroffen? Praktisch alle WLAN-Clients (Handys, Laptops, Fernseher, Kameras, aller Hersteller) Die meisten Access-Points Sowohl das WLAN zu Hause als auch die Netze KIT, eduroam sowie alle anderen WLAN-Netze. ('WPA2-PSK' und 'WPA2-Enterprise') Es müssen alle Clients aktualisiert werden Was kann passieren? In letzter Instanz muss man davon ausgehen, dass die im WLAN übertragenen Daten mitgelesen werden können. Damit ist die Situation nicht anders als bei offenen Hot-Spots wie beispielsweise KA-WLAN oder Freifunk. HTTPS/TLS- und SSH/RDP-verschlüsselte Verbindungen, also der Zugriff auf Online-Banking, E-Mail und co. sowie Serverzugriffe sind natürlich weiterhin in sich selbst abgesichert. Dann kann ein Angreifer zwar fleißig mitlauschen, ggf. auch Daten einfügen, aber durch die eingesetzten Protokolle sind diese Verbindungen trotzdem sicher verschlüsselt; der Inhalt bleibt verborgen und die Veränderung fällt auf. Selbiges gilt für VPN-Verbindungen. Was kann ich als Anwender tun? Verwenden Sie nur verschlüsselte Web-Verbindungen, erkennbar am 'Schloss-Symbol' im Browser. Die Verbindung zu den wichtigen KIT-Diensten wie u.a. Mail, ILIAS, Campus-Portal, Content Management System und Shibboleth wird automatisch verschlüsselt und sollte das 'Schloss' in der Adresszeile zeigen. Achten Sie beim Zugriff auf Server darauf, dass der 'Key' des Servers sich nicht plötzlich ändert. Installieren Sie schnellstmöglich die zur Verfügung gestellten Aktualisierungen des Herstellers Ihres Gerätes. Was kann ich als ITB tun? Betreiben Sie keine eigenen WLAN-Netzwerke. Informieren Sie Ihre Anwender über Aktualisierungen für deren Geräte und aktualisieren Sie die von Ihnen verwalteten Geräte. Wo erhalte ich die angesprochenen Aktualisierungen? Aktivieren Sie die automatischen Updates Ihres Betriebssystems. Microsoft: Das Update ist Bestandteil des Oktober-Patches vom letzten Donnerstag. Sofern automatische Updates aktiviert sind, sollte er schon installiert sein. Starten Sie ggf. Ihr Gerät einmalig neu. Apple: Es gibt eine Beta-Version des Updates. Mit einer Auslieferung für iPhone und Laptops ist in den kommenden Wochen zu rechnen. Android: Google stellt ein Update zur Verfügung, jedoch brauchen die meisten Hersteller Wochen bis Monate, um es auf die Geräte anzupassen. Gerade Mobilgeräte, die nicht zu den Top-Geräten von Google, Samsung, LG, BlackBerry und Nokia gehören, erhalten oft gar keine Updates. AnwenderInnen sollten fortan wohl jedes WLAN als 'offen' betrachten und ggf. dauerhaft auf VPN-Lösungen und verschlüsselte Websiten ausweichen. Erfahrene(!) AnwenderInnen können ggf. Community-gepflegte Android-Versionen wie LineageOS einsetzen. Beachten Sie hierbei jedoch auch die Garantiebedingungen des Herstellers. Linux: Alle größeren Distributionen stellen bereits aktualisierte Pakete wie das 'wpa_supplicant' zur Verfügung. Diese werden meist auch automatisch eingespielt. 'WLAN-Router' im Heimbereich: Die verwundbare Technik 802.11r ist oft nicht sinnvoll und daher deaktiviert. Viele Hersteller bieten trotzdem bereits Patches an. Eine englische Auflistung findet sich hier: https://github.com/kristate/krackinfo Der Hersteller der beliebten Fritz!Boxen untersucht das Problem noch: https://en.avm.de/service/current-security-notifications/ Eine sehr ausführlich gepflegte Liste mit Updates finden Sie unter: https://www.reddit.com/r/KRaCK/ Wo finde ich weitere Informationen? Auf der Homepage der Sicherheitslücke: https://www.krackattacks.com/ Einen Einblick in die Sachlage bieten auch die Patches des wpa_supplicant/hostapd-Projektes: https://w1.fi/security/2017-1/ Besteht Grund zur Panik? Wir können die vom BSI geäußerte Empfehlung, bis auf weiteres auf Online-Banking und Co. im WLAN zu verzichten, nicht vollständig nachvollziehen. HTTPS/TLS-verschlüsselte Verbindungen sind weiterhin sicher. Behandeln Sie jedes WLAN, als wäre es ein offener HotSpot und achten Sie auf 'das grüne Schloss' im Browser und/oder setzen Sie VPN-Lösungen ein.  
Lüth, Hendrik (SCC)

Thorsten Zirwes, PhD student at the SCC, wins the Golden Spike Award at the Results and Review Workshop at the HLRS in Stuttgart. With his simulation, a turbulent flame could be investigated in an unprecedented depth of detail.

The Golden Spike Award was presented at the 20th Results and Review Workshop at the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) in October. The prize is awarded to the three best projects, which were calculated on Germany's fastest supercomputer "Hazel Hen" last year. One of the award winners is Thorsten Zirwes, PhD student at the SCC. He presented a direct numerical simulation of a turbulent flame. The experimentally investigated Sydney Burner was successfully examined in a depth of detail that had not previously been possible. In addition to the simulation results, many performance optimizations were presented, which have shown that the simulation program can use the resources of supercomputers efficiently.
 
The Review and Results Workshop is held once a year at the HLRS. In 2017, 61 participants came to the workshop and took the opportunity to present their research projects and present their results. The HLRS Steering Committee selected three particularly outstanding research projects for the Golden Spike Award. The evaluation included: the scientific relevance, the necessity for the use of a high performance computer as well as the optimizations in the utilization of computing resources.
 
For further information:
Artikel "Numerische Simulation turbulenter Verbrennung auf Hochleistungsrechnern" S. 18 in den SCC-News 1/2017
HLRS Online News: https://www.hlrs.de/whats-new/news/detail-view/2017-10-06/
 
 
Achim Grindler
 

This book gives an overview of the activities in the Helmholtz Portfolio Theme Large-Scale Data Management and Analysis. Four Helmholtz Centres, six universities and another research institution in Germany joined to enable data-intensive science.  

Publication "Helmholtz Portfolio Theme Large-Scale Data Management and Analysis (LSDMA)
 
 
 
 
 
Dear Readers,
LSDMA stands for “Large-Scale Data Management and Analysis” and was a portfolio theme funded by the German Helmholtz Association from 2012–2016. Under leadership of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), four Helmholtz centres (KIT, FZ Jülich, DESY, GSI), six universities (University of Hamburg, University of Ulm, Heidelberg University, HTW Berlin, TU Dresden and GU Frankfurt) and the German Climate Computing Centre
(DKRZ) joined to enable data-intensive science by optimising data life cycles in selected scientific communities.
Figure 1: The LSDMA Symposium “The Challenge of Big Data in Science” 2016. In our Data Life Cycle Labs (DLCLs), data experts performed joint R&D together with scientific communities to optimise data management and analysis tools, processes and methods. Complementing the activities in the DLCLs, the Data Services Integration Team (DSIT) focused on the development of generic tools and solutions, which are applied by several scientific communities. munities. Examples are authentication, authorisation, identity management, archiving or metadata. Overall 78 scientists – among them 21 PhD researchers – were working in LSDMA and have achieved very interesting results ranging from communityspecific solutions, e.g. in energy or climate/environmental research, to generic tools and methods, e.g. for meta-data handling or federated AAI. This book gives an overview on these fascinating R&D.
Figure 2: The LSDMA All-Hands Meeting 2016  

In addition, LSDMA organised several annual events: the international symposium on “The Challenge of Big Data in Science”, community forums, technical forums and PhD meetings – all these events promoted the enabling of
data-intensive science, brought together LSDMA consortium partners with the scientific communities and fostered the spreading and uptake of LSDMA solutions.
New projects originate from the new connections among people in LSDMA and their scientific results, e.g. the DFG-funded MASi project focusses on metadata management for applied sciences and the EC-funded project INDIGO-DataCloud aims at developing a data/compute platform for dataintensive scientific communities provisioned over hybrid einfrastructures. Much of the work of LSDMA is meanwhile carried forward in the third round of the Helmholtz programme-oriented funding (PoF-3). Internationally several LSDMA scientists are actively participating in the Research Data Alliance (RDA) through participating and/or leading working and interest groups as well as severing as elected members in RDA boards such as the Technical Advisory Board (TAB).

I want to express our gratitude to the German Helmholtz Association and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for funding the LSDMA portfolio theme.
Have a nice time reading the book.
Dr. Christopher Jung, Dr. Jörg Meyer, Prof. Dr. Achim Streit Lead-PI of the LSDMA Helmholtz Portfolio Theme
 
Achim Grindler
 

Several changes are planned to improve the Wi-Fi service at KIT. Please note the adaptations of the network names (SSID) provided in the future.

The SCC would like to provide a fast and reliable Wifi experience on Campus. Therefore, a change of wireless network names leading to a more efficient use of our limited wireless spectrum is mandatory.
We are also introducing new authentication servers yielding improved performance for the ever-increasing wifi usage.
Additionally, the root certificate of Deutsche Telekom currently used by our authentication servers will expire and must be replaced.
We would like to make these necessary transitions as easy as possible for you, therefore we summarized the most important changes below.
  Timeframe 08.09.2017: Introduction of KIT“& KA-WLAN“ everywhere on campus 15.09.2017: Shutdown of vpn/web/belwue“. Replacement: KIT und KA-WLAN (see below) 20.09./21.09.17: eduroam certificate change to T-TeleSec GlobalRoot Class 2 29.09.2017: Shutdown of wkit-802.1x“und wifi2vlan“. Replacement: KIT (see below)
The following Wifi Networks will be broadcast in the future: KIT: (802.1X) for members of KIT and guest accounts eduroam: (802.1X) for guests of KIT from higher education organizations participating in eduroam KA-WLAN: (unsecured) for guests. This network is operated in cooperation with INKA e.V. and the city of Karlsruhe. It can be used without prior registration. KA-sWLAN: (802.1X) for guests. This network is for registered users of KA-WLAN. Registration is available for free using the open KA-WLAN.   Wifi Configuration in the future: WLAN KIT Username: KIT-Account@kit.edu (For example Students: uxxxx@kit.edu / Employees and partners: ab1234@kit.edu) Root-Certificate: T-TeleSec GlobalRoot Class 2 WLAN KIT“(wifi2vlan functionality) Username (old): KIT-account@vlan-name Username (new): KIT-account@vlan-name.w2v.kit.edu Root-Certificate: T-TeleSec GlobalRoot Class 2  WLAN-Guestaccounts If the open KA-WLAN“ is not an option, registered guests can connect to the SSID KIT as well as to the wired LTA. Old: Guestaccount[at]gast New: Guestaccount[at]gast.kit.edu Detailled instructions for common operating systems will be published on the SCC Website.
We would like to remind you that installing your own APs is not permitted on KIT campus.
Those rouge APs reduce the quality of out official wifi. If you have trouble receiving
official KIT wifi please contact the wifi team.

The KIT has brought the multifunctional online office package ONLYOFFICE in productive operation for the nationwide online storage service bwSync&Share - which is based on the sync and share solution PowerFolder from dal33t GmbH, Düsseldorf.

Nach einem einjährigen umfangreichen Probetrieb hat das Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) das Online-Office-Paket ONLYOFFICE für den landesweiten Dienst bwSync&Share in den Produktivbetrieb überführt. Mit dem neuen integrierten Editor können nun alle Studierende und Mitarbeiter der Hochschuleinrichtungen in Baden-Württemberg sowie der Uni Rostock Dokumente direkt in der Cloud bearbeiten. Dazu müssen sie nur das betreffende Dokument, Spreadsheet oder die Präsentation anklicken und es wird in einem neuen Browser-Tab mit ONLYOFFICE geöffnet; eine Office-Installation auf dem Nutzergerät ist nicht notwendig. Es können auch mehrere Nutzer gleichzeitig von verschiedenen Orten aus online ein Dokument editieren. Durch die unterschiedliche Farbgebung der Änderungen ist immer ersichtlich, von wem sie stammt. Die integrierte Kommentar- und Chatfunktion erleichtert die Zusammenarbeit (Siehe Bild).
Das KIT hatte bwSync&Share am 1. Januar 2014 in Betrieb genommen. Der Online-Speicherdienst setzt auf die bewährte File Sync&Share-Lösung PowerFolder und wurde zusammen mit der Düsseldorfer dal33t GmbH entwickelt. Die dal33t GmbH hatte ONLYOFFICE bereits im Frühjahr 2016 in PowerFolder integriert. Die Entscheidung für die Software des lettischen Entwicklers Ascensio System SIA war nach einer mehrstufigen Evaluierung aufgrund der großen Kompatibilität zu bestehenden Office-Produkten gefallen. Das KIT hat sich nun nach eigenen Tests angeschlossen. 
Weitere Informationen:
Kurzanleitung zu ONLYOFFICE Nutzerdokumentation bwSync&Share  
Über ONLYOFFICE
ONLYOFFICE ist ein multifunktionales Online-Office-Paket für die geschäftliche Zusammenarbeit, Dokumenten- und Projektverwaltung. Es enthält unter anderem eine Online-Office-Anwendung für die Arbeit im Browser. Darüber können Texte, Tabellen und Präsentationen in Echtzeit bearbeitet und kommentiert werden. Sämtliche gängigen Dateiformate werden unterstützt. Die Ergebnisse der Bearbeitungen sind kompatibel mit den Microsoft Office-Dateiformaten. Weitere Bestandteile neben der Online-Office-Anwendung sind ein CRM-Modul, ein Projekt-Management-Toolset und ein E-Mail-Client. ONLYOFFICE ist 2009 erschienen und wurde mittlerweile in 21 Sprachen übersetzt.
 
Achim Grindler

In addition to lectures on Big Data use-cases, data analysis and platforms as well as tutorials and trainings, the conference offers discussion sessions with industry representatives of the Data Innovation Communities of the Smart Data Innovation Lab.

The Big Data All Hands Meeting provides an opportunity for any research project related to Big Data which is funded by Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) to present their obtained results and to reconcile their future orientations. All of the researchers from the Big Data-Competence Centers [1], about 20 Big Data projects, representatives of the associated research and the chosen representatives of the German industry are invited for this event. 
KIT as one of the three German Big Data competence centers organizes the second meeting of this kind and thus fulfills its outstanding role in Germany’s Big Data research. The schedule of the second Big Data All Hands Meeting includes 25 presentations on data analytics, use-cases and Big Data platforms as well as some tutorials and hands-on trainings. In addition, discussion sessions between the industry representatives of the Data Innovation Communities of the KIT’s Smart Data Innovation Lab (SDIL) complete this event.
Further information: http://sdil.kit.edu/BDAHM
Contact: Dr. Parinaz Ameri
References:
[1] BMBF Big Data Kompetenzzentren
[2] http://www.softwaresysteme.pt-dlr.de/de/forschungsvorhaben-bigdata.php
 
Achim Grindler
 

The new SCC News amongst others with these topics: German data center price - first place for energy efficiency, simulation of turbulent combustion, new self-service - release of personal data.

Dear reader,

The summer in Karlsruhe once again granted us with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius. Perhaps this year again there will be a heat record put up in our region. In regards to heat: With this kind of weather, it is hard to imagine that the SCC powered high performance computer is being cooled with hot water. Amongst other things due to its sophisticated cooling concept the new building of the HPC system ForHLR II receives at the end of April the first place with the German Data Centre Prize in the category "newly-built energy and resource efficient data centres" (page 28). The title page of this issue features a part of the cooling technology of the ForHLR II. Professor Rudolf Lohner (to the right of the picture) proudly displays the prize.
It also heats up in a research work to simulate turbulent combustion processes. Not only do the temperatures play a role in this but especially the noises, the so-called combustion noise. Through the use of appropriate computer simulation one can find out how to significantly reduce this noise. The calculations for that are so complex that it calls for the use of a Supercomputer like the ForHLR at KIT (page 18).
In regards to the protection of personal data there are always some heated discussions and cooler heads are needed for the development of appropriate IT solutions and services. These have to justify the demands for collaboration within an international environment, do not hinder internal workflow and beyond that does not lose sight of the individual desires of the KIT employees. With a new IT-Self-Service, the SCC makes a central contribution (page 09).
Enjoy reading.
Bernhard Neumair, Achim Streit
Achim Grindler
 

Ab sofort steht der neue OpenVPN-Dienst allen Nutzern mit VPN-Zugangsberechtigung zur Verfügung und wird ab 2018 als alleiniger VPN-Dienst am KIT angeboten. Mit dem erneuerten OpenVPN-Dienst wird nun IPv6 vollständig unterstützt.

Die bisherigen VPN-Zugangsmöglichkeiten am KIT erfüllen nicht mehr die notwendigen Anforderungen. Das SCC erweitert den Remote Access (VPN) Dienst durch den Ausbau des OpenVPN-Zugangs.
Durch diese Erweiterung wird beispielsweise jetzt auch IPv6 vollständig unterstützt.
Der neue OpenVPN-Dienst steht ab sofort allen KIT-Angehörigen mit VPN-Zugangsberechtigung zur Verfügung und wird zukünftig, ab 01.01.2018, als alleiniger VPN-Dienst am KIT angeboten.
 
 
 
Bitte beachten Sie daher folgende Hinweise:
Ab dem 01.01.2018 werden die bisher angebotenen VPN-Zugangsmöglichkeiten nicht mehr unterstützt. Diese sind:
OpenVPN-Dienste mit Verbindung zur IP-Adresse 193.197.62.25 Juniper VPN / Pulse Secure / Junos Pulse / Network Connect (vpn.kit.edu und alle Unterseiten vpn.kit.edu/xyz)  
Falls Sie OpenVPN bisher nicht genutzt haben, müssen Sie den OpenVPN-Client (Version >= 2.3.3) auf Ihrem Rechner installieren. Alle Informationen und Konfigurationsdateien für Ihr Betriebssystem finden Sie in der OpenVPN-Servicebeschreibung.
Wenn Sie OpenVPN bereits nutzen, müssen Sie die aktualisierte Konfigurationsdatei kit.ovpn einbinden.   Mit dem neuen OpenVPN-Service unterstützen wir nur noch OpenVPN-Clients ab Version 2.3.3, daher empfehlen wir eine Aktualisierung Ihres OpenVPN-Clients (aktuelle Version ist derzeit 2.4.3).   Achtung: Für die Nutzung von VPN2VLAN (VPN-Zugang ins Institutsnetz) benötigen Sie jetzt eine gesonderte Konfigurationsdatei: kit-vpn2vlan.ovpn. Diese finden Sie ebenfalls in den Anleitungen zu den einzelnen Betriebssystemen.   Bei Fragen wenden Sie sich bitte an das VPN-Team unter vpn@scc.kit.edu. _ _ _
Servicebeschreibungen:
Remote Access (VPN)
Neuer OpenVPN-Service Juniper VPN  
Ihr VPN-Team
 

Das Internet of Things (IoT) ist im Kommen und die Anzahl der verfügbaren Geräte wächst stetig. Bitte beachten Sie die Hinweise des SCC zur Beschaffung und Einbindung von IoT-Devices.

Aus gegebenem Anlass, möchten wir darauf hinweisen, dass bei der Beschaffung von WLAN-fähigen IoT-Devices folgende Stellungnahme des SCC zu beachten ist:
Internet of Things (IoT) am KIT
Anforderungen an die Hardware und die Einbindung in das WLAN am KIT
Das Internet of Things (IoT) ist im kommen und die Anzahl der verfügbaren Geräte wächst stetig. Auch am KIT gibt es bereits Bestrebungen Sensoren oder andere Devices für IoT-Anwendungen zu entwickeln und zu nutzen. Das SCC steht dieser Entwicklung aufgeschlossen gegenüber und möchte diese auch im Rahmen seiner Möglichkeiten unterstützen. Nach dem aktuellen Stand der Technik und den verfügbaren Resourcen im WLAN des KIT wurden folgende Bedingungen und Empfehlungen verabschiedet, welche von den Entwicklern und Betreibern der IoT-Devices beachtet werden sollten, insbesondere ist bei der Beschaffung von großen Stückzahlen darauf zu achten.
Notwendige Bedingungen:
Jedes der IoT-Devices muss zwingend zu einem Login in einem 802.1X-Netzwerk mit einer Username/Passwort Kombination fähig sein. Über die WLAN-SSID “wifi2vlan” werden die Devices in das für IoT-Anwendungen eingerichtete VLAN geroutet. Des weiteren bietet dieser Standard die höchstmögliche Sicherheit, welche wir aktuell bieten können. Die Benutzung von WPA2-PSK ist ausgeschlossen.
Jedes der IoT-Devices muss mindestens IEEE 802.11g unterstützen. Ältere Standards sind in weiten Teilen der KIT-Campus deaktiviert und werden definitiv nicht vom SCC unterstützt!
Empfehlungen des SCC:
Jedes der IoT-Devices sollte gemäß RFC 6540, IPv6 unterstützen. Ob IPv6-only oder Dual-Stack ist gemäß dem RFC egal.
Es ist wünschenswert, wenn die IoT-Devices 5GHz-fähig sind und IEEE 802.11n-2013, oder besser IEEE 802.11ac unterstützen. Wenn es im 2,4GHz Band zu Problemen mit dem allgemeinen WLAN kommt behält sich das SCC das Recht vor das reguläre WLAN zu priorisieren und eventuell auch IoT-Devices aus dem WLAN auszuschließen, deshalb ist der Betrieb im 5GHz Frequenzbereich unproblematischer.
Es ist wünschenswert, wenn IoT-Devices ihre Kommunikation nach dem aktuellsten Stand der Technik verschlüsseln (z.B. TLS 1.2+). Auch ist es wünschenswert, wenn IoT-Devices keine eigenen Webserver betreiben, da diese eine mögliche Angriffsfläche bieten.
Weitere Fragen richten Sie bitte an wlan@scc.kit.edu
 

Im April 2017 wurde ein neues Onlinespeichersystem mit einer Kapazität von 20 Petabyte in Betrieb genommen. GridKa erhält damit zusätzlich eine Leistungssteigerung sowie eine einfache Erweiterbarkeit für zukünftig wachsende Anforderungen.

Im April 2017 wurde ein neues 20 Petabyte Onlinespeichersystem am deutschen Tier-1 Datenzentrum GridKa des Worldwide LHC Computing Grid am KIT in Betrieb genommen. Das von der Firma NEC gelieferte GxFS System besteht aus 14 Speichersystemen mit 3500 Festplatten und Solid State Disks, welche über zwei redundante Infiniband-Fabrics mit 44 Fileservern verbunden sind. Die Anbindung der Fileserver an den GridKa Netzwerk-Backbone ist mit 40Gbit/s Ethernetverbindungen realisiert, die in mehreren 100 Gbit/s Uplinks gebündelt werden.
Insgesamt erreicht das System einen kombinierten Schreib-Lese-Durchsatz von 70 GByte/s. IBM Spectrum Scale™ wird als Software-Defined-Storage-Layer genutzt, um eine transparente Skalierbarkeit von Kapazität und Leistung zu ermöglichen. Zurzeit werden 13,5 Petabyte Daten der vier LHC-Experimente ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb sowie weiterer Teilchen- und Astroteilchenexperimente wie Belle II, Compass und Auger, ohne Betriebsunterbrechung innerhalb von GridKa auf das neue Speichersystem migriert.
Mit dieser Kapazitäts- und Leistungssteigerung sowie der einfachen Erweiterbarkeit des neuen Onlinespeichersystems, können  auch die weiter wachsenden Anforderungen, insbesondere der LHC–Experimente, in den kommenden Jahren erfüllt werden. Erweiterungen von insgesamt ca. 8 Petabyte sind schon bis zum Ende des Jahres 2017 vorgesehen.
Andreas Petzold
 

Having successfully applied for funding at the Helmholtz Foundation, Hartwig Anzt started a Young Investigator Group on the topic "Fixed-Point Methods for Numerics at Exascale (FiNE)".

With the research topic "Fixed-Point Methods for Numerics at Exascale (FiNE)," Dr. Hartwig Anzt successfully applied for research funding at the Helmholtz Foundation. In May, Dr. Anzt started his Helmholtz Young Investigator Group at the Scientific Computing Center. Previously, he was part of Prof. Jack Dongarra's Innovative Computing Lab at the University of Tennessee (USA). His research interests are in designing numerical methods for high-performance computing on multi- and manycore architectures. He is coauthor of more than 50 journal and conference papers, and contributed to several open source liner algebra packages.
Further information: Junior Research Group Fixed-Point Methods for Numerics at Exascale (FiNE)
 
Achim Grindler
 

First place of the award Deutscher Rechenzentrumspreis 2017 for the Forschungshochleistungsrechner ForHLR II at KIT in the category "Newly built energy- and resource-efficient data centers".

Im Rahmen von Deutschlands größtem RZ-Kongress future thinking wurde am 25./26. April in Darmstadt der renommierte Deutsche Rechenzentrumspreis 2017 vergeben. Das neu gebaute und im März 2016 eingeweihte Rechenzentrum des Forschungshochleistungsrechners ForHLR II wurde in der Kategorie „Neu gebaute energie- und ressourceneffiziente Rechenzentren“ von der Fachjury als Erstplatzierter gewählt.
Damit gehört die Supercomputer-Installation am Campus Nord des Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) zu der besten Einreichung in dieser Kategorie. Details: ForHLR – Hocheffizientes HPC-Rechenzentrum mit Warmwasserkühlung
Blick in den Maschinenraum des ForHLR II Die Einreichungen wurden in insgesamt acht Kategorien von einer unabhängigen Fachjury bewertet und die finalen Gewinner am 25. April im Rahmen einer festlichen Gala bekanntgegeben (zum Galajournal).
Den Preis nahm stellvertretend für die am Forschungshochleistungsrechner beteiligten Teams Rudolf Lohner entgegen. Er ist im SCC der Experte für Energieefizientes Computing.
 
Weitere Informationen:
Presseinformation des KIT ForHLR II in den SCC-News 1/2016 ForHLR II 360-Grad-Video https://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/forhlr.php Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Rudolf Lohner
 
Achim Grindler
 

The Institute Cluster II (IC2) will be shut down as of April 30, 2017. The bwUniCluster and the high-performance computer ForHLR are available as alternatives.

Wir beabsichtigen den InstitutsCluster II (IC2) Ende April 2017 abzuschalten. Die Maschine wurde im Oktober 2012 in Betrieb genommen. Ein Weiterbetrieb ist weder aus wirtschaftlichen noch aus ökologischen Gründen (hoher Stromverbrauch im Verhältnis zur Rechenleistung sowie hohe Wartungskosten) sinnvoll. Der Abschalttermin ist durch das Auslaufen der Softwarelizenzen für die Betriebssoftware vorgegeben.
Als Alternativen stehen am SCC der bwUniCluster als Grundversorgungssystem und die beiden Ausbaustufen des Hochleistungsrechners ForHLR (I und II) zur Verfügung. Wir raten dringend, wenn immer möglich, eine Nutzung des ForHLR I bzw. II anzustreben. Des Weiteren möchten wir darauf hinweisen, das im Land weitere HPC-Cluster (bwForCluster) für spezielle Forschungsprogrammatiken nutzbar sind.
Weitergehende Informationen zu diesen Systemen und Zugangsmöglichkeiten sind unter http://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/hpc.php zu finden. Bei Fragen wenden Sie sich bitte an hartmut.haefner@kit.edu. Herr Häfner unterstützt gerne beim Erstellen bzw. Ausfüllen der jeweiligen Anträge.
Durch eine Erweiterung des bwUniClusters wurde die Rechenleistung des bwUniClusters um ca. 250 TF/s erhöht und somit mehr als verdoppelt. Vergleicht man diese Erweiterung mit der IC2, so erkennt man, wie ineffektiv ein Weiterbetrieb der IC2 wäre: Die IC2 hat bei einer Leistung von ca. 150 TF/s einen Stromverbrauch von etwa 160 KW, die bwUniCluster-Erweiterung benötigt für ca. 250 TF/s etwa 130 KW.
_ _ _
Servicebeschreibungen:
High Performance Computing (HPC) und Clustercomputing
Institutscluster II (IC2) bwUniCluster ForHLR  

Science Cloud enters a new phase - successful proposals are announced. In February, consortia from industry representatives from 10 leading European research organizations presented design proposals for hybrid cloud models.

On the 3 April 2017 14:30 CEST, the awards ceremony for the successful contractors moving to the Prototype Phase of the Helix Nebula Science Cloud Pre-Commercial Procurement  is taking place at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland.

In November 2016, 4 Consortia won the €5.3 million joint HNSciCloud Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) tender and started to develop the designs for the European hybrid cloud platform that will support high-performance, data-intensive scientific use-cases. At the beginning of February 2017, the four consortia met at CERN to present their proposals to the buyers. After the submission of their designs, the consortia were asked to prepare their bids for the prototyping phase.

In early April the winners of the bids to build prototypes will be announced at CERN during the “Launching the Helix Nebula Science Cloud Prototype Phase” webcast event. The award ceremony and the presentations of the solutions moving into the prototyping phase will be the focus of the webcast. 

For more information see: newsletter of hnscicloud.eu
Contact at Scientific Computing Center: Andreas Petzold
 
Achim Grindler
 

Researchers from the KIT / SCC predicted protein structures independently of complex experiments on the basis of statistical analyzes. With high-performance computers of the SCC and available data sets, nearly 2000 proteins could be examined.

Ohne Proteine geht im Körper nichts – sie sind die molekularen Alleskönner in unseren Zellen. Arbeiten sie nicht richtig, kann das schwere Krankheiten auslösen wie etwa Alzheimer. Um Methoden zu entwickeln, nicht funktionierende Proteine zu reparieren, muss man deren Struktur kennen.
Mit einem Big-Data-Ansatz haben Forscher des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT) am Scientific Computing Center eine Methode entwickelt, mit der sie Proteinstrukturen vorhersagen können. Auf Basis statistischer Analysen konnten so auch komplizierteste Proteinstrukturen unabhängig vom Experiment vorhergesagt werden. Diese experimentell zu bestimmen wäre dagegen sehr aufwändig und der Erfolg nicht garantiert.
Die Studie wurde in der renommierten Zeitschrift Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) veröffentlicht (zum Artikel).
Weitere Informationen: Presseinformation des KIT
Forschungsgruppe Multiscale Biomelecular Simulation am SCC
Kontakt am SCC: Dr. Alexander Schug
Bild 1: Homodimere sind identische Paare von Eiweißketten (Proteine, grün und blau), die aneinanderbinden. Die statistische Analyse der Proteinsequenzen sucht nach Mutationen, die auf eine räumliche Nähe von Proteinteilen hindeuten, sowohl innerhalb des gleichen Proteins (orange) wie auch mit dem Partnerprotein (rot). Diese Information ermöglicht es, die Proteinstruktur des Homodimers vorherzusagen. (Foto: KIT)

Wegen der Abkündigung der Education Master Suite 2015 empfiehlt das SCC den Umstieg auf das Nachfolgeprogramm Autodesk Education Community. Hierfür sind ausreichend Netzwerklizenzen verfügbar.

Im April 2015 wurde die Education Master Suite 2015 seitens Autodesk abgekündigt. Die damalige Verlängerung der Subscription durch das SCC endet am 11.11.2017, sodass installierte Netzwerkversionen nur noch bis zum 11.11.2017 nutzbar sein werden.
Einzelplatzlizenzen werden auch nach dem 11.11.2017 weiterlaufen.
Bitte wechseln Sie frühzeitig auf eine Einzelplatzversion, sofern unbedingt notwendig. Nach Aussage von Autodesk wird die Aktivierung einer Einzelplatzlizenz nach dem 11.11.2017 nicht mehr möglich sein. Beachten Sie jedoch, dass zum 11.11.2017 jeglicher Support zur Autodesk Education Master Suite entfällt.
Wir empfehlen Ihnen deshalb, möglichst bald auf das Nachfolgeprogramm die "Autodesk Education Community" umzusteigen. Hierzu stellt das SCC auch weiterhin ausreichend Netzwerklizenzen zur Verfügung.
 

Im Programm HPC II werden fünf Projekte aus vier Forschungseinrichtungen mit ca. 4 Mio. Euro finanziert. Am 7.2. wurden die Projekte bei einem Auftakttreffen vorgestellt.

Im aktuellen Programm High Performance Computing II der Baden-Württemberg Stiftung werden fünf Projekte mit Partnern aus vier verschiedenen Forschungseinrichtungen mit einem Gesamtvolumen von ca. 4 Mio. Euro finanziert.
Durch die interdisziplinären Forschungsansätze der Vorhaben kann Hochleistungsrechnen als Schlüsseltechnologie für die Bereiche Gesundheit, Energie und Umwelt sowie Mobilität weiter vorangebracht werden. Thematisiert werden Simulationen und Modellierungen wie sie bei der Entstehung und Ausbreitung von Lärm in Strömungen an Fahrzeugkarosserien notwendig sind oder für ein vertieftes Verständnis des neuromuskulären Systems. Weitere Projektthemen sind der Einfluss von Turbulenz auf die Ausbreitung von Mikroorganismen in Gewässern, die Multi-Skalen-Modellierung von Materialien und Bauelementen für die Energieumwandlung und -speicherung sowie die Entwicklung HPC-gestützter Verfahren zur Verifikation von Software für Kraftfahrzeuge.
Die Vorhaben wurden aus ca. 20 Einreichungen durch unabhängige Gutachter ausgewählt und werden von HLRS und SCC intensiv betreut. Dank der Unterstützung des Ministeriums für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg kann die effiziente Nutzung der HPC-Systeme für diese Forschungen an den beiden HPC-Zentren durch spezielle Ansprechpartner unterstützt werden. Am 7. Februar wurden alle fünf Projekte bei einem Auftakttreffen vorgestellt.

Weitere Informationen: https://www.bwstiftung.de/hpcii/
Kontakt am SCC: Dr. Olaf Schneider
Kontakt am HLRS: Jing Zhang, mailto:jing.zhang@hlrs.de
 
Achim Grindler
 

Universities in Germany regional network of cloud solutions to collaborate on documents and data. The initiative deutsche.hochschul.cloud should connect now secure the different statewide services.

Already in 2013 the SCC, sponsored by the State of Baden-Württemberg, began to build the largest German Hochschulcloud 'bw sync & share' on the basis of / based on he product PowerFolder. Half a million students and staff of all higher education institutions in Baden-Württemberg can share data in the cloud.
Meanwhile, universities in Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania establish similar federal state services with PowerFolder. The technical foundations have been created with the recently-launched production of PowerFolder version 11.2 for the start of the initiative deutsche.hochschul.cloud.
The manufacturer of Powerfolder has launched the project together with the Scientific Computing Center of the KIT, the GWDG from Göttingen and the LRZ/RRZE from Munich, Germany, on the way.
Thus, all of the aforementioned federal state services and universities, which have more than one million licensed users, should be networked in the future. So digital learning and teaching, scientific studies and administrative documents on national, and later also at the international level, can be exchanged securely and quickly.
Contact at the Scientific Computing Center: Klaus Scheibenberger
More information: https://www.powerfolder.com/de/pressreleases/
Achim Grindler
 
 

The already running KIT Proxies have moved to production by activating the host for the Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol wpad.kit.edu; hosts within kit.edu automatically contact it to get the Proxy Auto-Config.

The already running KIT-Proxies have moved to production by activating the host for the Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol (WPAD) wpad.kit.edu; hosts within kit.edu automatically contact it to get the Proxy Auto-Config (PAC). By default, they get taught not to use a proxy - you have to manually configure a PAC to actually use a proxy; see the page Web-Proxy for a service description and instructions to configure your browser.
At the same time, leagcy WPAD entries wpad.uni-karlsruhe.de, wpad.ka.fzk.de and wpad.fzk.de have been made aliases for wpad.kit.edu; they now deliver the same configuration. Previously they announced a proxy for targets outside their respective domain; they no longer do! If you wish to further use a proxy (due to network access, to benefit from caching or to conceal your IP addess for increased privacy in the internet), you have to configure a PAC manually as advised above. Please point that out to your users.
Andreas Ley
 

Ende November wurde in bwSync&Share das Online Editing im Probebetrieb aktiviert und damit die Bearbeitung von Office-Dokumenten mit OnlyOffice bereitgestellt.

Ende November wurde in bwSync&Share das Online Editing im Probebetrieb aktiviert und damit die Bearbeitung von Office-Dokumenten mit OnlyOffice bereitgestellt.
 
Nutzung der Weboberfläche
Das Verhalten beim Öffnen einer Office-Datei über die Webseite https://bwsyncandshare.kit.edu/ verändert sich.
Das Öffnen einer Office-Datei über Klicken auf den Dateinamens (und damit das Aufrufen des Links) führt dazu, dass die Datei im Browser mit OnlyOffice geöffnet wird statt wie bisher mit dem lokal installierten Office-Programm.
Wenn Sie die Datei aus dem Browser heraus wie bisher mit ihrem lokalen Programm öffnen möchten, so müssen Sie die Datei herunterladen, indem Sie auf der Webseite  rechts vom Dateinamen auf den Pfeil nach unten klicken. Damit können Sie die Datei wie bisher mit Ihrem lokalen Office-Programm bearbeiten und anschließend wieder hochladen. Dieses Verhalten ändert sich durch die Aktivierung des Online Editing nicht.
 
Nutzung des bwSync&Share-Clients:
Jede Office-Datei wird wie bisher sowohl aus dem Client als auch aus dem Datei-Explorer heraus  mit dem entsprechenden lokal installierten Office-Programm geöffnet.  Nach dem Bearbeiten und Speichern wird sie mit Hilfe des Clients mit dem bwSync&Share Server synchronisiert.
 
Neu ist: Sollte eine Datei von einem anderen Nutzer gleichzeitig über die Webseite mit OnlyOffice bearbeitet werden, erhält der Client-Nutzer eine entsprechende Warnmeldung. Arbeitet er trotzdem mit seinem lokalen Office-Programm weiter und schließt die Datei, werden durch die automatische Synchronisation des Clients die Änderungen der OnlyOffice Session überschrieben. Die Arbeit mit OnlyOffice sollte deshalb Vorrang haben, bzw. stimmen Sie sich bei der Bearbeitung mit den anderen Nutzern ab. Sie können sich vom Client aus der OnlyOffice Session anschließen, indem Sie im Client rechts oben auf „Web“ klicken und damit auf die Webseite wechseln. Von dort aus wird das Dokument mit OnlyOffice geöffnet (s.o.).
 
Gemeinsames Bearbeiten von Dateien:
Die Datei kann durch den Einsatz von OnlyOffice von mehreren Benutzern über die Webseite gleichzeitig geöffnet und bearbeitet werden. Die Änderungen eines Benutzers werden gleichzeitig automatisch bei den anderen Benutzern angezeigt und aktualisiert. Nach jeder Änderung wird automatisch eine Speicherung durchgeführt, damit kann am Ende der Bearbeitung der Browser einfach geschlossen werden. Ein manuelles Speichern ist nicht notwendig.
 
Weitere Informationen:
Wir empfehlen zur Nutzung der Webseite https://bwsyncandshare.kit.edu/ die Verwendung der Webbrowser Mozilla Firefox oder Google Chrome.
Weitere Informationen zum Bearbeiten von Dokumenten mit OnlyOffice finden Sie auf der Webseite https://helpcenter.onlyoffice.com/de/ONLYOFFICE-Editors/index.aspx unter „Document Editor“.

SCC Service Team

Pricing for the provisioning of virtualized server systems has been adjusted. The systems can now be offered with a reduced price.

Pricing for the provisioning of virtualized server systems has been adjusted. The systems can now be offered with a reduced price.
You'll find further information in the description of the SCC service "Bereitstellung von Serversystemen"
To calculate the costs you will find there the price calculators for the two offered service variants:
1. Preiskalkulator für Root-Server
2. Preiskalkulator für Ressourcenpool in der Virtaulisierungsumgebung
SCC Service Team
 

Zur Langzeitspeicherung von Daten, die in der Wissenschaft anfallen und für 10 Jahre oder mehr aufbewahrt bzw zugänglich sein müssen, bietet das SCC ab sofort den neuen Archivierungsdienst bwDataArchiv an.

Zur Langzeitspeicherung von Daten, die in der Wissenschaft anfallen und für 10 Jahre oder mehr aufbewahrt bzw zugänglich sein müssen, bietet das SCC ab sofort den neuen Archivierungsdienst bwDataArchiv an.
Dieser Service löst den bisher angebotenenen Archivierungsdienst basierend auf TSM ab.
 
Weitere Informationen zu dem neuen Dienst werden unter Research Data Archiv (RDA) bereitgestellt.

SCC Service Team

As of January 31, 2017, the HPC cluster XC3000 (HC3) will be shut down. The users of the bwUniCluster and the high-performance computer ForHLR are available as alternatives.

Wir beabsichtigen den HPC-Cluster HP XC3000 (HC3) Anfang kommenden Jahres abzuschalten (geplant ist der 31.1.17). Die Maschine wird zu diesem Zeitpunkt 7 Jahre alt sein. Ein Weiterbetrieb ist weder aus wirtschaftlichen noch ökologischen Gründen (sehr hoher Stromverbrauch im Verhältnis zur Rechenleistung sowie hohe Wartungskosten) sinnvoll noch vertretbar; auch ist die Ersatzteilversorgung für einige Komponenten nicht mehr gesichert.
Als Alternativen stehen ihnen am SCC der bwUniCluster als Grundversorgungssystem und die beiden Ausbaustufen des Hochleistungsrechners ForHLR (I und II) zur Verfügung. Wir raten dringend, wenn immer möglich, eine Nutzung des ForHLR I bzw. II anzustreben. Des Weiteren möchten wir Sie darauf hinweisen, das im Land weitere HPC-Cluster (bwForCluster) für spezielle Forschungsprogrammatiken für Sie nutzbar sind.
Weitergehende Informationen zu diesen Systemen sowie zu der Frage, wie Sie Zugang zu diesen Systeme bekommen, finden Sie auf der SCC-Webseite unter http://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/hpc.php. Falls Sie Fragen haben, wenden Sie sich bitte an hartmut.haefner@kit.edu. Er hilft und berät Sie auch gerne beim Erstellen bzw. Ausfüllen der jeweiligen Anträge.
Anfang nächsten Jahres werden wir eine Erweiterung des bwUniClusters in Betrieb nehmen. Diese wird die Rechenleistung des Cluster um ca. 250 TF/s erhöhen und somit mehr als verdoppeln. Vergleicht man diese Erweiterung mit der HC3, so erkennt man, wie ineffektiv ein Weiterbetrieb des HC3 wäre: Die HC3 hat bei einer Leistung von ca. 30 TF/s einen Stromverbrauch von etwa 100 KW, die bwUniCluster-Erweiterung benötigt für ca. 250 TF/s etwa 130 KW.
_ _ _
Servicebeschreibungen:
High Performance Computing (HPC) und Clustercomputing
KIT-Rechner HP XC3000 bwUniCluster ForHLR  

New SCC-News i. a. with this Topics: An Open Haven for Research Data; State-wide Service bwDataArchiv goes into Operation; Smart Data Innovation Conference 2016 at SCC.

Dear reader,
In the summer of this year, the Council for Information Infrastructures (RfII) published recommendations on research data management in Germany. In the recommendations, the Council proposes a National Research Data Infrastructure conceived as a network with overarching centers. Their extensive expertise in the description, processing, storage and long-term archiving of research data enables establishment of a sustainable research data management structures.
Only about three months later, the Helmholtz Association announced the development of such a network of multi-thematic data centers the Helmholtz Data Federation (HDF). With the HDF, the Helmholtz Centers emphasize their readiness to create the necessary data infrastructure, to maintain research data in the long term for future use and to make the results as open as possible (page 18).
The SCC of KIT coordinates the activities of the HDF and provides its experience gained over many years in the handling of large quantities of scientific data. An important building block in this system is the bwDataArchiv service that has just been put into operation. The service can be used by scientific institutions of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and offers sustainable long term storage and archiving of research data (page 6).
In addition to the large amounts of data collected and archived, the SCC also delivers services for smart data research. The Smart Data Innovation Lab conducted a successful project year with increased cooperation with business enterprises. The results were presented and discussed among participants at the first Smart Data Innovation Conference at KIT (page 4).
On a final note: Our colleague Hannes Hartenstein temporary left the Board of Directors of the SCC since October in order to dedicate more time to the further development of the governance of information, communication and information technologies at KIT. We wish him lots of success and look forward to further cooperation.
Enjoy reading the SCC-News.
Bernhard Neumair, Achim Streit
 
Achim Grindler
 

Again the SCC has opened its doors to numerous members of the general public in 2016. During a total of 70 events more than 1300 guests had the opportunity to visit the SCC and see the systems and infrastructure.

Again the SCC has opened its doors to numerous members of the general public in 2016. During a total of 70 events more than 1300 guests had the opportunity to visit the SCC and see our systems and infrastructure.
As a part of the "orientation phase" for freshmen, 680 students, split into 27 groups, gained an insight into the HPC data center rooms at Campus South. Again this meant a significant increase compared to the last years. Further guided tours were offered as parts of lectures, school projects, job training and student orientation weeks, conferences and galas as well as cooperations with industry partners, KIT institutes and working groups. The HPC systems operated by the SCC, the storage facilities at Grid Computing Centre Karlsruhe (GridKa) and a cooperation with the Synchrotron Radiation Source "ANKA" operated by the Institute for Beam Physics and Technolgy (IBPT) enable flexible tours in front of impressive sceneries.
Alongside the many visitor groups, various members of the press found their way to the SCC and produced photographs and video content. One of the highlights was the inauguration of the new "Forschungshochleistungsrechner II" (ForHLR II) supercomputer system in April 2016. The new system has made an appearance in the new image movies for the City of Karlsruhe and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Karlsruhe. Various regional and nation-wide television newscasts, among them the "Tagesschau" (one of the most watched newscasts on German television) have also reported on the new ForHLR II system. A 360° video of the HPC data center at Campus North was produced in cooperation with the Department of Informatics.
Last but not least our visitors were not only able to inform themselves about state-of-the-art technology, but also get a "hands-on experience" with the artwork "Growing Stone" by artist Timm Ulrichs, created especially for the data center building housing the ForHLR II supercomputer.
The Scientific Computing Center wishes to thank all visitors and members of the press for their great interest and is looking forward to an exciting year 2017. The first events in the next year have already been scheduled.
Simon Raffeiner
 

Under the leadership of KIT/SCC, the Helmholtz Association has begun the realization of the Helmholtz Data Federation (HDF), a federated research data infrastructure.

Unter Federführung des KIT/SCC hat die Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft mit der Realisierung der föderierten Forschungsdateninfrastruktur Helmholtz Data Federation (HDF) begonnen. Der sichere Zusammenschluss und der Ausbau multi-thematischer Datenzentren im Rahmen dieser Föderation ermöglicht es, datenintensiven Wissenschafts-Communities, wissenschaftliche Daten zu finden, unter Beibehaltung der Datenhoheit zu teilen, über Disziplingrenzen hinweg zu nutzen und zuverlässig zu archivieren. Die Föderation basiert auf den drei Kernelementen innovative Software für das Forschungsdatenmanagement, exzellente Benutzerunterstützung und topaktuelle Speicher- und Analyse-Hardware. Partner in der ersten Phase sind sechs Helmholtz-Zentren aus fünf Forschungsbereichen: AWI (Erde und Umwelt), DESY und GSI (beide Materie), DKFZ (Gesundheit), FZJ und KIT (beide Energie, Schlüsseltechnologien, Materie, Erde und Umwelt). Als Keimzelle für eine wissenschaftsorganisationsübergreifende nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) ist die HDF offen für Nutzer im gesamten deutschen Wissenschaftssystem und wird durch internationale Verbindungen kompatibel mit der zukünftigen European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) sein.
Further information:
KIT-Presseinformation vom 13.10.2016 Website: www.helmholtz.de/hdf Contact: Achim Streit
 

With this upgrade to Exchange 2013, SCC offers all employees and students a stable, secure and comfortable e-mail service featuring up-to-date technology.

The email infrastructure at KIT has been upgraded. Mailboxes are now hosted on Exchange 2013 servers. In the course of this upgrade, the design of the exchange system has been modernised. The servers are running on virtual machines in two clusters at both Campus Nord and Campus Süd. The databases are working with a geographical  active/passive failover between the campuses. This setup enables on-line maintenance of the servers and a reliable stable infrastructure for our users.
Michael Willhauk

The International GridKa School is one of the leading summer schools for advanced computing techniques in Europe.

The International GridKa School  is one of the leading summer schools for advanced computing techniques in Europe. The school provides a forum for scientists and technology leaders, experts, and novices to facilitate knowledge sharing and information exchange. The target audience is different groups like graduate and PhD students, advanced users as well as IT administrators. GridKa School is hosted by Scientific Computing Center (SCC) of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). It is organized by KIT and the HGF Alliance "Physics at the Terascale".
 

Further Information:
SCC Calendar GridKA School Homepage Ingrid Schäffner
 

Evening lecture at GridKa School by Prof. Dr. Frank Köster (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) on Wednesday 31 August 18:30 @ KIT Campus North - FTU Aula

Automated and connected driving can be seen as a paradigm shift in the automotive domain which will change the today’s role of the human driver substantially. More and more parts of the driving task are to be taken over by technical components for different scenarios. The application areas reach from fully automated parking up to automated driving on a highway with different involvements of the driver in monitoring tasks (SAE level 2 to 5). Thus, it is essential to understand how this role change will influence the human driver and how we can support him by designing an easy to understand, safe and comfortable interaction with the automated vehicle.
more
Ingrid Schäffner
 

The INDIGO-DataCloud project is pleased to announce the general availability of its first public software release, codenamed MidnightBlue.

In a nutshell, this first release includes 38 software products divided between Core Services and Applications. Core Services are then subdivided among Data Center Solutions, Data Solutions, Automated Solutions and User-level Solutions.
Overall, 208 RPM, DEBS and tarballs packages and about 40 Docker containers are available. All products support CentOS 7 and Ubuntu 14.04. For what regards Cloud Management Frameworks, OpenStack Liberty and OpenNebula 4.14 are supported.
At https://caifti.gitbooks.io/indigo-datacloud-releases/content/ you can find further information, documentation, installation and configuration guides for all the INDIGO MidnightBlue products.
Further information:
official announcement of the release information, documentation, installation and configuration guides for all the INDIGO MidnightBlue products
The EU Project INDIGO develops solutions for missing components in current Grid and Cloud Middleware. At SCC, Marcus Hard's team works on components for the federated authentication and authorization (AAI) as well as on the integration of archive systems in the distributed data management.
Dr. Marcus Hardt
 

Bitkom-Report presents to a broad community scientific organizations, i. a. the Helmholtz programme Supercomputing & Big Data, technology provider and user with their key resarch topics, projects, products and services concerning Big Data.

Germany's Industry and Government want to promote digitization in Germany and increase Germany´s attractiveness for digital technologies. This means presenting Germany´s expertise in key technology areas internationally. Bitkom, Smart Data Forum and Germany Trade & Invest have jointly presented the report "Germany - Excellence in Big Data", which aims to do this. The report is aimed at an international audience and presents more than 30 scientific organizations - amongst these the Helmholtz programme Supercomputing & Big Data -, over 60 technology vendors and more than 40 Big Data users with their research priorities, projects and strategies or products and services . Industry overviews complete the picture. This report provides interested parties with the most comprehensive overview of the Big Data landscape in Germany.
Further Information: bitkom press release 07/22/2016
Achim Grindler
 

Die neue SCC-News i. a. with this topics: Power-On for one quadrillion computing operations per second; From Medieval Manuscripts to Digital Preservation; Growing Stone – Artwork for the new ForHLR building.

Dear reader,
it can execute one quadrillion computing operations per second and it is the new research supercomputer ForHLR II. With pocket calculators that would take the 24,000 students of KIT about 5000 years to accomplish. Thus with the ForHLR II begins the petaflop era at KIT. You will find a detailed report on the architecture of the computing cluster, the visualization system and the energy-efficient operation on page 8. The photo gallery in the center of this magazine shows impressions of its festive inauguration with Science Minister Theresia Bauer, Holger Hanselka, president of KIT and Peter Gumbsch, prominent advocate of the ForHLR and member of the Board of the German council of Science and Humanities.
The new supercomputer fits ”precisely in the umbrella strategy KIT 2025”, explains Holger Hanselka in his welcoming speech at the inauguration. Scientists from all over Germany can now run complex applications at new orders of magnitude. Not only researchers benefit from the “fascinating applications that are possible based on the ForHLR, as The Research University in the Helmholtz Association we want to pass on knowledge gained with the supercomputer, directly to our students”, underlines Hanselka.
Under the heading of Research and Projects we present the research and development of a new model to quantify the reliability of architectures for bit preservation. Bit preservation is a basic building block of a sustainable long-term data archive (page 18).
Modern art that accompanies research and technology is presented in this issue of SCC-News on page 28: The ”Growing Stone” by Timm Ulrichs is one of the artwork at KIT, which helps to create a special atmosphere and stimulates our imagination in research, teaching and innovation – anew, every day.
Happy reading of SCC-News
Hannes Hartenstein, Bernhard Neumair, Achim Streit
Achim Grindler
 

Since the beginning of May 2016 the University of Rostock uses the Online Sync and Share Service bwSync&Share within the DFN-Cloud framework and now online for all employees and students.

"Die Universität Rostock wird unter ihrem Namen „Uni Rostock BOX“ Teil der größten deutschen Hochschul-Cloud, der „bwSync&Share“.  Die Einbindung erfolgt über das Deutsche Forschungsnetz (DFN), das Hosting übernimmt  das Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), das den Speicherdienst in Zusammenarbeit mit PowerFolder aus Meerbusch bei Düsseldorf entwickelt hat. Damit können dann auch die rund 15.000 Studierenden  und 5.000 Mitarbeiter der größten Stadt von Mecklenburg-Vorpommern mit der bewährten PowerFolder-Software arbeiten, die bei „bwSync&Share“ zum Einsatz kommt. Rostock ist die erste Universität, die den Dienst am KIT über die DFN-Cloud nutzen kann. Für die Nutzer in Rostock wird es aber keine umständliche Umgewöhnung geben: Die Nutzeranmeldung erfolgt weiterhin über die eigene Nutzerkennung der Uni Rostock, die technisch über SAML/Shibboleth realisiert wird."
Weitere Informationen:
Presseinformation des KIT Pressemeldung PowerFolder Achim Grindler
 

The rapid population growth along with climatic changes results in new challenges for modern agriculture. A deeper understanding of important economic plants, such as rice, is a precondition for the development of new cultivars.

The rapid population growth along with climatic changes results in new challenges for modern agriculture. A deeper understanding of important economic plants, such as rice, is a precondition for the development of new cultivars.
To find the responsible genes that make plants more resistant, Dr. Michael Riemann of the department of Molecular Cell Biology (Prof. Dr. Peter Nick) in the Botanical Institute of KIT is working with da-cons GmbH to analyze the growth of rice seedlings. Their research focuses on the crucial early stage of seedling development and therefore plants are grown in darkness while an infrared camera system is recording images of the plants every hour. To increase the efficiency of study further (semi-) automatic image processing technology is used to extract the main growth parameters for shoot, first leaf and seminal root of rice.
Fig. 2: Analyzing 14 rice seedlings
on one plate A basic setup of the system is shown in figure 1 and via a demonstrative video-clip. This setup is enclosed in a 50cm * 50cm dark box, 20 heads of infrared LEDs provide the illumination for the camera. By this setup, the influence of visible light on the seedlings is prevented. An attached Raspberry Pi computer is capturing images every hour and allows therefore a finely grained documentation of the growth of the seedlings. The images will be automatically transferred to a server where researchers have the opportunity to examine them. Further, the images are analyzed (semi-) automatically using algorithms developed by da-cons. These algorithms calculate the length of the stem, the first leaf and the root.
An example of a rice plate with 14 seedlings is shown in fig. 2.
In the next phase of the collaboration the generated data sets will serve as reference in the pilot of an OpenData platform. The SCC plans the development an on-line OpenData platform that enables data publication for scientific communities. The data collected by RiSeGrAn (Rice Seedlings Growth Analysis) is used to determine the user requirements and for testing. da-cons GmbH will consult their partners to achieve these goals.
da-cons, a spin-off of SCC, offers visualization and archiving solutions of big imaging data.
Authors: Ting Xiao and Dr. Michael Kreim (da-cons GmbH), Dr. Michael Riemann (KIT/BOTANIK)
 

On April 5, 2016 the company "Additive" together with the SCC held a tutorial "Wissenstransfertag zu Mathematica".  The tutorial was directed to employees and students of the KIT.  Aside the talks advised exercises took place.

April 5, 2016 Mrs. Simone Szurmant of Additive (German Distributor of Mathematica) together with the SCC held a tutorial "Wissenstransfertag zu Mathematica".  The tutorial was directed to employees and students of the KIT. Aside the talks advised exercises took place. The first part of the event from 9am to 1pm was directed to users with and without Mathematica experience. This part had about 25 participants.
The following themes were coverd by this part:
Mathematica Notebook and Desktop Presentation of tools for simple operation Numerical computations, accuracy, fitting Symblic computations, integrals, differential equations Function and data images in 2 and 3 dimensions Interactivity and development of dynamical models Import and export of files, accessing the the online knowledge database On afternoon a second part followed from 2pm to 4pm.  This part was directed to advanced Mathematica users.  For the 15 participants mainly the new features of Mathematica Version 10 and the current functionality were treated. The following topics were on the agenda:
Machine learning Finite elements Geometrical calculations Analysis of time series The Wolfram Connected Devices Project Graphs and networks Geographic computation Structured datasets Finally, Mrs. Szurmant addressed actual questions and problems in before sent to her by the paricipants.
Dr. Klaus Dieter Braune

Der Resolver-Dienst für die externe DNS-View auf den IP-Adressen 141.52.27.35 und 129.13.65.10 wird abgeschaltet. Die neuen Adressen für den Resolver-Dienst sind bereits produktiv, sodaß ab sofort umkonfiguriert werden kann.

Das SCC hat neue DNS-Resolver-Adressen für die externe DNS-View eingeführt. Die alten Adressen werden ab
Montag, den 2. Mai 2016
nicht mehr verfügbar sein. Die neuen Adressen sind bereits funktional. Bitte stellen Sie Ihre Endsysteme (Clients und Server) wie nachfolgend beschrieben um.
Alte Resolver-Adressen: 141.52.27.35, 129.13.65.10
Neue Resolver-Adressen: 141.3.175.65, 141.3.175.66
Hinweise und Erläuterungen:
Resolver-Adressen tragen Sie auf Endsystemen mit statischer IP-Konfiguration als DNS-Server ein. Dies betrifft nur IPv4. Die IPv6-Resolver-Adressen bleiben erhalten. Die alten Adressen bleiben nur in ihrer Funktionalität als autoritative DNS-Server des KIT erhalten. Die Resolver-Funktionalität wird abgeschaltet, daher dürfen die Adressen auf Ihren Endsystemen nicht mehr konfiguriert sein, da ansonsten die DNS-Auflösung nicht mehr funktionieren wird. Bei der internen DNS-View (die alle Systeme im KIT im Normalfall nutzen) wird nichts umgestellt. Alle aktuellen Resolver-Adressen am KIT (intern und extern) finden Sie unter "Rekursive Nameserver" in der Servicebeschreibung des Domain Name Service.
 
DNS-Team
 

The system allows deep investigations in several research areas such as energy, environment, materials science and engineering technology. ForHLR II is housed in a dedicated building equipped with the newest highly-efficient cooling technologies.

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has celebrated the completion of the ForHLR HPC system on 4th March, 2016. The starting shot to this ceremony was given by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Hanselka, President of KIT, who hold an opening speech including a scientific Colloquium. Theresia Bauer (Baden-Württemberg Minister of Science, Research, and the Arts) followed with a greeting speech to all participants. The keynote lecture “Diving into recycling materials“ (“Tauchgänge in die Werkstoffe“) has been be hold by Prof. Dr. Peter Gumbsch (KIT/IAM). The central part of the ceremony has included, first, a presentation of the ForHLR II computing system by Prof. Dr. Bernhard Neumair, Director of the SCC, and then the start-up of the system. Additional scientific contributions given by Prof. Dr. Peter Nielaba (Uni Konstanz), Prof. Dr. Markus Uhlmann (KIT/IfH) and Dr. Rainer Koch (KIT/ITS) has concluded the event.
ForHLR II is a Petaflop-System, which is characterised by 1170 Nodes (Intel Xeon-Prozessors), 24000 Cores and 74 TByte system memory. It will allow deep investigations in several research areas such as energy, environment, materials science and engineering technology.
The whole ForHLR computing system, as well as the highly-efficient ForHLR II building (Picture), are financed by the German Federal Government and the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Additional Information: http://www.scc.kit.edu/dienste/forhlr2.php
Contact: Horst Gernert
 
Achim Grindler
 

SCC-Forschungsgruppe Multiscale Biomolecular Simulation erhält den „Google Faculty Research Award“ für einen alternativen Ansatz zur Vorhersage der Raumstruktur von Biomolekülen.

Wie funktioniert Leben auf der molekularen Ebene? Um diese Frage beantworten zu können, die für die Biologie, Pharmazie und Medizin von zentraler Bedeutung ist, muss man in einem ersten Schritt die dreidimensionale Struktur von Biomolekülen kennen. Denn Biomoleküle wie Proteine, DNS oder RNS sind die molekularen Maschinen in Zellen, die diverse Aufgaben wie Sauerstofftransport, Muskelaktivität oder das Speichern und Ausführen genetischer Information erfüllen.
Entscheidend für die Funktion dieser mikroskopisch kleinen Maschinen ist ihre räumliche Struktur. So binden etwa bestimmte Proteine ihre „Zielsubstanz“ nur deshalb so hochspezifisch, weil diese genau – wie ein Schlüssel zum Schloss – in die aktive Bindungsregion des Proteins passt.
Die Forschungsgruppe um Alexander Schug vom Scientific Computing Center (SCC) am KIT hat einen alternativen Ansatz entwickelt, der auf statistischen Analysen großer Datenmengen von Biomolekülen aus verschiedenen Organismen beruht, die experimentell sehr leicht zu gewinnen sind. Algorithmen analysieren diese Daten auf Mutationsmuster, die eine Vorhersage der räumlichen Struktur ermöglichen. Diese Arbeiten wurden nun mit dem Forschungspreis von Google ausgezeichnet.
(Auszug aus der KIT-Presseinformation 029/2016)
 
Further Information: Article Die Raumstruktur von Biomolekülen vorhersagen in Portal of BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH.
Contact: Alexander Schug

Am 22. und 23. Februar veranstaltet das SCC gemeinsam mit dem OpenText Web Solution Usergroup e.V. zwei interessante Tage am KIT.

Die 40. Answertagung der Usergroup findet erstmalig am KIT statt. Am Vortag findet zudem ein WSM-Camp statt, so dass sich zwei äußerst interessante Tage bieten.
Die Tagung gibt einen Überblick über aktuelle Projekte, Ausblicke auf die neue OpenText-Version 16, zeigt WSM-Tweaks für die Praxis sowie die Optimierung der Web-Performance an einem praktischen Beispiel der Kicktipp GmbH.

WSM-Camp in Karlsruhe – Experten zusammen Einen Tag vor der Tagung, am 22. Februar, bieten das SCC und die Usergroup in Karlsruhe erstmals ein WSM-Camp an. Dort heißt es: Einfach mal querdenken, zusammen entwickeln und programmieren - ein Treffen erfahrener Experten, die sich zu Themengebieten wie Frontend-Entwicklung, Projektbau, GUI-Optimierungen und vielem mehr austauschen und voneinander lernen möchten. Die Teilnehmer konzipieren die Camp-Inhalte und -Abläufe selbst und werden durch erfahrene Dozenten der Usergroup unterstützt.
 
Ulrich Weiß
 

HS-Analysis GmbH is managed by Sergey Biniaminov and located in SCC/KIT. One of the primary goals of HS Analysis GmbH is the close collaboration in life sciences with the SCC/KIT.

Sergey Biniaminov received his degree as economist at KIT and managing now HS Analysis GmbH located in SCC/KIT. One of the primary goals of HS Analysis GmbH is the close collaboration in life sciences with the SCC/KIT.
The HS Analysis team delivers software for automatic tissue analysis to researchers and pathologists in University Hospitals and Pharmaceutical Industry. They use the software to find answers about crucial questions in diseases. New drugs can be found much more time effective and diseases can be treated more efficient with the application of image analysis modalities in the HS Analysis Software. In this way, the technology finally contributes to a better life of patients.
State of the art technology in the area of artificial intelligence allows automatic interpretation of tissue biopsies. Slide Scanners, a kind of microscope roboter, acquire digital images that are processed with Deep Learning based analysis steps. Result of the analysis is a reliable and fast quantitative answer about effects of drug candidates on the ill tissue.
HS-Analysis GmbH offers highly specialized and customized software solutions and consulting for automatic image analysis. With the environment at KIT with its fantastic infrastructure, the possibility to talk with a huge number of professors and the large pool of ambitious students, the HS Analysis team believes to be located/embedded in very good surroundings for the development of the company.
 
Achim Grindler
 

The project bwFDM-Communities should find out what new requirements, tasks or wishes regarding their research data scientists in Baden-Württemberg have.

Am 17. Juni 2015 hat bwFDM-Communities eine Übersicht über die Ergebnisse dem Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg (MWK) und allen neun Landesuniversitäten sowie externen Gutachtern in Stuttgart vorgestellt. Die Poster und Präsentationen sind auf der Homepage des Projekts verfügbar gemacht. Zuletzt  wurde in einer Projektverlängerung bis zum 30. September die Veröffentlichung und Visualisierung aller erhobenen Daten vorangetrieben und zusätzlich eine offene Abschlussveranstaltung organisiert. Es ist nun möglich, die gesammelten Daten intuitiv über die Projekthomepage zu durchsuchen und eine dauerhafte Archivierung bei GESIS -Leibniz Institut für Sozialwissenschaften - ist in Aussicht.
Der vollständige Abschlussbericht ist seit der öffentlichen Abschlussveranstaltung ebenfalls publiziert. Im Bericht enthalten sind neben den zwölf schon vorab bekannten Hauptthemen Rechtliche Aspekte, Informationsangebote, Datenkultur, Forschungsnahe Unterstützung, Softwaretools, Formate und Standards, Daten außeruniversitärer Einrichtungen, Digitalisierung, Kollaboration, Projekt- und Datendokumentation, Repositorien und Archivierung auch die vom Projekt behandelten Rahmenaspekte Finanzierung, IT-frastruktur, Unterstützungsdienste, Lizenzierung und Open Science.
Diesen und weitere Artikel finden Sie in den SCC-News 2015




Frank Tristram

On the 1st of October KIT hosted for the fourth time the Symposium “The Challenge of Big Data in Science”. About 90 participants from Germany, France, Spain, China and the United States of America joined the event.

The opening speech was delivered by Michael Decker, the new head of  the KIT department “Informatik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft”, and the director of SCC Achim Streit.
Jarek Nabrzyski from the University of Notre Dame in USA who is also in charge of the Center for Research Computing (CRC) talked about the importance of Data and Software Preservation in Open Science. He introduced DASPOS (Data and Service Preservation for Open Science) as a solution for the lack of proper documentation in scientific publications. DASPOS will help the scientist in documenting their work for generating reproducible results.
Peter Braesicke from Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research at KIT spoke next about the data management requirements of environmental scientists and Javier Quinteros gave a report about current technical developments at the Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ) in Potsdam.
In addition to talks from representatives of individual organisations keynote speeches on joint European initiatives were presented. One of them, INDIGO-DataCloud, an EU Horizon 2020 funded project, aims at establishing a European data cloud as a Platform as a Service. The project was introduced by Isabel Campos of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Several more keynotes from different research facilities in the field of Large Scale Data Management have been given: “Data Management challenges in Astronomy and Astroparticle Physics” by Giovanni Lamanna (Asterics), “How astronomy shares and reuses scientific data” by Françoise Genova (CDS in Strasbourg), “Science SQL” by Peter Baumann (Jacobs University Bremen) and “Data Management and Data Analysis in CLARIN-D” by Erhard Hinrichs from the University of Tübingen.

Further information and materials can be found at http://www.helmholtz-lsdma.de/Symposium2015



Uğur Çayoğlu

At the international GridKa School on September 7-11 with 149 participants from four continents. In 17 plenary talks and 21 parallel tutorials, GridKa School students took a dive into recent trends in big data, virtualization and modern programming.

With more and more abstracted and software-defined computing resources, virtualization was one of the major topics at this year's GridKa School. One focus was on lightweight virtualization of programs with containers as well as software-defined networks (SDN) and distributed file systems and databases. With a talk and tutorial on software-defined data centers (SDDC), students also got an overview on how to integrate all these resources consistently. In the programming section, tutorials took on efficient utilization and parallelization of CPUs as well as GPUs. Contributions in the ‘big data’ section covered topics such as when to use relational and non-relational databases, and how to analyze and process data with various tools. Overview talks by David Kelsey of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) highlighted the challanges, which the grid community faces in the migration from IPv4 to IPv6. Peter Wittenburg of the Research Data Alliance (RDA and Damien LeCarpentier explored new developments within data-intensive sciences. Talks from the meteorological simulation and forecast community in the German meteorological service (Deutscher Wetterdienst - DWD) showed that other fields beyond the classic high-energy physics and physics applications also make use of large scale data processing and analysis
While having started as a school on grid computing for high-energy physicists, over the years GridKa School has broadened its spectrum of topics. This year, participants came from various scientific backgrounds such as computer science, physics, meteorology and the medical/biological sciences, with professional experience ranging from graduate students to site administrators.

Despite these differences, participant responses about this year's mix of talks and courses were very positive. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the dedication of the tutors and speakers from various national and international institutions and the members of the GridKa School team from KIT — who have already started to prepare for the 14th GridKa School in 2016.
Dr. Thomas Hartmann

Recently two members of Virgo Collaboration have won a DAAD Fellowships to work as Visiting Scientist at SCC in joint R&D project with HPC experts of SimLab EA Particles.

Recently two members of Virgo Collaboration, Prof. Dr. Andrzej Krolak and PD. Dr. Michal Bejger, have won a DAAD Fellowships to work as Visiting Scientist at SCC in joint R&D project with HPC experts of SimLab EA Particles lead by Dr. Gevorg Poghosyan. The aim is to develop a new hybrid parallel version of the simulation and data analysis code for performing gravitational wave search on supercomputing systems.
Gravitational waves are the last prediction of general relativity theory of Einstein still awaiting a direct experimental verification. Observations of gravitational waves will open a new field - gravitational wave astronomy, providing unique information concerning exotic objects like binary systems of neutron stars and black holes, supernovae explosions, and the earliest stages of the evolution of our Universe. First science data from the global network of advanced gravitational wave detectors - LIGO, GE0600 and Virgo long arm interferometers, are expected soon and will be collected for several years.
Searching for sources in noisy data is algorithmically challenging, since one has to simultaneously predict and check for different possible types of signals, which is computationally formidable, due to the large parameter space over which the searches must be carried out.
 
Dr. Gevorg Poghosyan

The scholarship holders of the project „Simulierte Welten“ presented their results on the four simulation projects: Climate Modelling, High Energy Physics Analysis, Aerosol Formation and Protein Folding, in a public School Colloquium.

In the frame of the  „Simulierte Welten“ project, which took place  in  the winter semester 2014/2015, the SCC provided  eight grants for eight students of the Bismarck- Gymnasium and Neureut Gymnasium in Karlsruhe. Under the supervision of SCC employees, the eight high school students had the possibility to learn about modelling and simulation of different processes on High Performance Computing (HPC) Systems.

In particular, four main topics were investigated: Climate Modelling, High Energy Physics Analysis, Aerosol Formation and Protein Folding. The scholarship holders presented the „Simulierte Welten“ project results during the KIT Open Day on 27th June, 2015.

At the end of the Colloquium, the students received a certificate from Prof. Achim Streit and there was a guided tour through the SCC HPC System rooms. The project „Simulierte Welten“  is financed by The Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg. More information on this project can be found under: www.simulierte-welten.de.


Dr. Ivan Kondov

The Scientific Computing Center of KIT presents with an own booth research work from the topics grid, high performance and data-intensive computing.

The SCC participated in the HPC exhibition at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC'15) in Frankfurt from July 13th to 15th 2015. The ISC exhibition is the largest HPC fair in Europe. It included 160 exhibitors and had over 2600 visitors this year. Beside of the major hardware vendors, the major European computing centres and a wide variety of software vendors from the public and industrial sectors were well represented at the exhibition.
Thanks to its different wallpapers, a PowerPoint presentation and cups in a stylish Big Data design, the SCC booth attracted several hundred visitors. The exhibit of the FTIR spectrometer GLORIA attracted particular interest. GLORIA is a remote sensing instrument, which is installed on research aircrafts to measure atmospheric gases like ozone or water vapour. Conversations between visitors and SCC specialists focused on infrastructure and research in the fields of Supercomputing and Big Data.
Further information:
Keynote: To Cool or Not to Cool? Energy Efficiency from an HPC-Operator's View (Rudolf Lohner, KIT/SCC)
High Performance Computing at SCC
Achim Grindler

For her excellent master's thesis Ines Reinartz receives the Erna-Scheffler-Award. The work written at the Faculty of Physics of KIT is entitled "Simulation of FRET dyes with native structure-based models".

So-called Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments provide valuable information on the dynamics and movements of biomolecules. In FRET experiments regions of the biomolecules are labelled with special dyes and the distances between them can be measured. As a kind of atomic resolution microscope, complementary computer simulations provide an unique insight into the molecular level of life. In her master's thesis at the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) Ines Reinartz integrated FRET dyes in corresponding computer simulations. This improves the interpretation of FRET measurements with data from the simulations and allows an even more detailed view of the dynamic and the function of the biomolecule under investigation.
We are glad, that Ines Reinartz continues with her researches at Junior Research Group „Multiscale Biomolecular Simulation“, managed by Dr. Alexander Schug, and wish her good luck!
Dr. Petra Thoma, an electrical engineer from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), has been rewarded and promoted as well for her excellent dissertation.

Further information:
KIT Press Release Junior Research Group MBS at SCC

Achim Grindler

The DFN-Association organizes Cloud Services for science institutions. KIT offers for the portfolio the file-exchange and online-storage service bwSync&Share.

With the state-wide established and at KIT operated file-exchange service bwSync&Share, KIT is now one of the cloud service provider in the portfolio of the DFN-Cloud. So all institutions in the DFN-Association have the possibility to use this service with costs. A corresponding agreement has to be contracted. In addition there is an option to configure the webinterface and the various clients and apps for mobile devices to the particular Corporate Designs of the different institutions. 


Thomas Brandel

Florian Jacob, Student des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie erhält Auszeichnung für Bachelorarbeit. ITK Engineering verleiht Award an die besten Studierenden technischer Fakultäten aus ganz Deutschland.

Ein Student des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT) hat den ITK Student Award 2015 erhalten. Im Rahmen eines Institut-Seminars der Forschungsgruppe Dezentrale Systeme und Netzdienste, überreichten Dr. Sebastian Buck und Dr. Sebastian Labitzke von ITK Engineering am Freitag, den 26. Juni 2015, dem Studenten Florian Jacob den Preis. Der Bachelor-Absolvent überzeugte das international tätige Technologieunternehmen mit Hauptsitz in Rülzheim mit seiner überragenden Bachelorarbeit im Studiengang Informatik.

Award für besondere Leistungen

Der ITK Student Award wird in diesem Jahr zum dritten Mal an die besten Studierenden der Partneruniversitäten von ITK Engineering aus ganz Deutschland verliehen. Ausgezeichnet werden Studierende für besonders gute Projekt- oder Abschlussarbeiten mit Praxisbezug in technischen Studiengängen. Der Preis beinhaltet ein Treffen der Award-Gewinner mit dem ITK-Management und ein gemeinsames exklusives Fahrtraining mit professionellen Trainern.


Achim Grindler

The recent paper of SCC about organization of GridKa School presented at IEEE international conference EDUCON2015 received Best Paper Award in the category "Most Innovative Paper".

The IEEE Global Conference EDUCON is one of the most prominent conferences on engineering education in the world.  During the conference,  scientists and teachers from academic universities, research institutes and industrial areas present the current work and share their experiences in the field of engineering education, teaching practices and learning concepts. This year the conference took place in Tallinn, Estonia and  attracted more than 300 participants.

In 2015 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology entered the list of prize winners. The awarded paper was presented by Dr. Pavel Weber. The focus of the paper was not only description of successful experience on organization of the school, but also presentation of the education model developed at SCC and applied to GridKa School. In addition, advantages of this model compared to other modern education models were described.

Details of Publication:
 
Authors:
 Melanie Ernst, Thomas Hartmann, Andreas Heiss, Christopher Jung, Joerg Meyer, Dimitri Nilsen,
 Andreas Petzold, Christoph-Erdmann Pfeiler, Ingrid Schaeffner, Jie Tao, Pavel Weber

Title:
 GridKa School – Teaching Information Technologies since 2003

Best Paper Award - Most Innovative Paper - Area 4
 
15th International IEEE Conference EDUCON2015, Tallinn, Estland, 18-20 März 2015
 
Achim Grindler

Researchers at the ITG and the SCC gain entirely new insights into the development of the central nervous system of vertebrates.

Researchers at the ITG and the SCC derive new insights into the development of the central nervous system of vertebrates from experimental measurements and their modelling in computer simulation. The results are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Further informations:
Press Release of KIT  Publication in Nature Communications  Junior Research Group Multiscale Biomolecular Simulation European Zebrafish Resource Center   
Alexander Schug

SCC and da-cons store and analyze images of growing plants at the Botanical Institute of KIT

Future agriculture needs to become more sustainable. The ability of plants to resist adverse environmental conditions is one of the most important goals of plant breeding worldwide. To find the responsible genes that make plants more resistant, it is crucial to survey plant growth accurately. Dr. Michael Riemann of the working group Molecular Cell Biology (Prof. Dr. Peter Nick) in the Botanical Institute of KIT investigates new ways of plant growth analysis together with da-cons GmbH. They observe the early stages of rice grain germination and growth of the globally most important crop for mankind. Pictures taken every hour during day and night are transferred to the Large Scale Data Facility (LSDF) of SCC. Da-cons GmbH develops and optimizes algorithms for automatic analysis of the growing seedlings. In this way it can be investigated how different gene variations support the growth of plants exposed to salt stress.
da-cons, a spin-off of SCC, offers visualization and archiving solutions of big imaging data and is funded by Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst (MWK) in Baden-Württemberg and the Scientific Computing Center (SCC).

Authors: David Haumann (da-cons), Michael Riemann (KIT/BOTANIK)