The CELS General Compute Environment (GCE) is live
I’ve made references to this in the past and invited users to come test it out, but now it’s time to pull back the curtain, open the doors, and invite everyone in for real.
GCE is the new Unix environment the team has been building from the ground up to better serve the needs of CELS researchers. This was built with an eye towards allowing collaboration with other divisions and Argonne resources, streamlining into a single account system and securely sharing access to data wherever we can.
I’ll say up front that we’re not finished yet – there are still integrations and services we’re working on, but the framework is there to allow for it easily, and we’ve now got a new shiny system to manage access to computers, groups, and projects. From this point forward, it’s just going to get better and better.
I’ve included some links at the end of this announcement so I don’t completely spam you with information that’s available online, and instead I’ll give you a brief rundown of what you should do.
First, glance over the docs at https://virtualhelpdesk.cels.anl.gov/docs/linux/ to get a quick overview. This document collection will be growing, but it’s pretty succinct at the moment.
Next, login to https://accounts.cels.anl.gov using your Argonne account. After login, request the GCE project. Get your SSH keys uploaded (directions in the above docs) and start trying out the environment. Tell us what software you need that you can’t find there.
Do you want your linux desktop converted over? We can do that. If our stock/standard machine (see the docs) is better than what you’ve got on your desk, we’ll swap it out and help you migrate any data. If what you’ve got is better, we’ll do a rebuild (and help you migrate your data).
The team’s been working very hard on this, and I’m terribly proud of them and the result of their work. We all look forward to making it even better with your input.
At this point, the clock is now ticking even louder on the legacy environment. Many of the systems are at End of Life and will need to be retired as soon as we can. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sending out instructions on how to migrate your data, hosting tutorials on how to use some of the new systems and services, and working with you and your groups to get to where we can turn off the older systems.
There are no hard deadlines yet on when things will go away, but we’re in full-on feature freeze mode on the legacy environment. All new websites and wordpress sites are being created in GCE, all new workstations are GCE, and all incoming students will be directed to a GCE account.
Some links:
* CELS Computing Coffee Hour presentation from 11/13/2019: https://anl.box.com/s/yhmkyehrp1vrp9j0runx9gzhbqomfgl3
* CELS GCE Documentation: https://virtualhelpdesk.cels.anl.gov/docs/linux/
* CELS Account Management: https://accounts.cels.anl.gov
* CELS Project Request form: https://virtualhelpdesk.cels.anl.gov/request-a-gce-project/