CHPC

We regret to inform you that applications for the 2017 Programming School has already closed. 

The next school will take place in 2018.

A full-week Introductory Scientific Programming School for

Science and Engineering students who wish to advance their skills in Linux (Ubuntu) and Python Programming language.

15 – 22 January 2017

Hosted by

the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

and funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST)

The CHPC invites applications from suitably qualified candidates to attend the above Basic Scientific Programming Course to introduce students registered with High Education Institutions in South Africa to Linux (Ubuntu) and Python programming course.

The Introductory Scientific Programming School is aimed at final year B.Sc. or B.Eng. and postgraduate students in the fields of chemistry, physics, mathematics, applied mathematics, biology, bioinformatics, computer science and engineering without a prior or sound knowledge of Linux (Ubuntu) and Python programming language. The Basic programming School will run from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 January 2011 at Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HarTRAO) located west of Johannesburg (http://www.hartrao.ac.za/ ).

The course syllabus will cover:

Full 2 day on introduction to Linux (Ubuntu) on the following topics: Overview of Ubuntu Linux Desktop; Running commands and Getting Help; Browsing the file system; the bash shell; Standard I/O and Pipe; Users, Groups and Permissions; vi and vim Editor basics; the Linux Filesystem In-Depth; Advanced Topics in Users; Groups and Permissions; Printing; Introduction to String Processing; String Processing with Regular Expressions; Finding and Processing Files; and Investigating and Managing Processes. Introduction to PBS Pro and job submission at CHPC.

Full 4 days on Introduction to Python Programming on the following topics: Python basics, Python Objects, Numbers, Sequences, Dictionaries, Conditional and Loops, Files and Input/Output, Error and Exceptions.

The course is structured in such a way that students will spend all the time in computer laboratory and the course is more hands-on practical. Students will learn by doing!

Students need to have second year mathematics or applied mathematics and basic computer skills. Background of basic scientific programming skills will be an advantage.

There are no fees for successful applicants. The CHPC will cover cost for travel and accommodation of students selected to attend the school.

Should you wish to attend the CHPC Basic Scientific Programming School kindly complete this registration form.

Due to budgetary reasons, only limited places are available for suitably qualified students.

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS:

18h00, 31 October 2016

Should you wish to become one of the participants, please

click here to apply 

before the closing date.

Successful candidates will be notified by 02 December 2016.

The CHPC calls for all talented students to submit their applications. As public funded institutions, the CHPC supports the transformation of South Africa and thus the School organisers highly encourage students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds to submit their applications. For general enquiries please contact Dr. Daniel M Moeketsi. Tel no.: 021 658 3961/2740 and e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) has introduced a CentOS-based OpenStack cloud-computing platform to boost support to users running jobs in the cloud environment.

OpenStack is a set of software tools for building and managing cloud-computing platforms for public and private clouds and is managed by the OpenStack Foundation, a non-profit organisation that oversees both development and community building around the project. The addition enhances the CHPC’s significant portfolio of hardware and software applications that are available to the research community to allow them to perform world-class research.

The CentOS based OpenStack Cloud is a self-service Virtual Machine (VM) provisioning portal where common administrative tasks like VM creation, recouping of unused resources, and infrastructure maintenance tasks are automated and capacity analysis, utilisation, and end-user costing reports can be generated. It has replaced the centre’s VMware virtual environment or IT-Shop cluster that had limited memory resources due to the large demand of numerous projects requiring high-specification virtual machines and was no longer able to serve the requirements of CHPC users when its capacity deteriorated over time.

Improved service offering

The CHPC’s new virtual environment will offer the following benefits and functionalities:

• Self-Service Portal:cloud users will now have the ability to deploy application on-demand with limited technical support to promote rapid and efficient IT Service;
• Metered Service and Resource Monitoring: theCHPC will now be able to monitor resource utilisation from individual users or projects to prepare billing statement as per the centre’s cost-recovery model;
• Avoidance of Vendor Lock-in: the OpenStack solution is open source. CHPC will reduce on cost related to proprietary software such as the VMware vSphere Solution; and
• Enable Rapid Innovations (DevOps):the CHPC staff can significantly reduce on development and testing periods and have more freedom to experiment with new technology or even do customisation to expand the capabilities of the OpenStack Cloud.

“The cloud platform further enable CHPC to gather the necessary expertise both technical and operational to develop, provision and operate a national federated OpenStack platform, and allow for global connectivity in a virtual environment for mega project like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and those similar in stature”, said Ms Dorah Thobye, Technical Manager: CHPC.

Technical specifications of the CHPC’s virtual environment

The new solution is built on Supermicro server and storage systems, using the Supermicro TwinPro servers to provide 320cores/640threads (2.50 - 3.90GHz) and over 3TB DDR4 memory providing some 9GB RAM per core and all in just 4U of rack space. It is connected through Mellanox 100GB ethernet networking to Supermicro Ultraand Supermicro Simply Double Servers,providing a CEPH Storage cluster with over 1.5PB (1500TB) of mechanical disk storage and more than 220TB of flash storage.

The addition of the cloud-computing platform to the CHPC service suite, is not only in-line with international standards of High Performance Computing (HPC) centres, but will assist the centre to support its users that are running virtual jobs in the cloud environment such as custom workflows, pleasingly parallel workloads and webhosting. Furthermore, the OpenStack service enables the CHPC to be a road-header for virtual HPC application provisioning and configuration in the future. “OpenStack provides a different offering for other users of HPC and this implementation is a step in the right direction to revolutionise HPC and drive towards converging platforms,” said CHPC Acting Director, Dr Happy Sithole.