To all chip users,

The chip cluster will be inaccessible for a few hours starting on Thursday Feb 24th at 0800ET. This downtime is to patch a security vulnerability recently reported by slurm.

We understand that this downtime will be disruptive, but the Research Computing Team will endeavor to complete this and other routine maintenance quickly and alert the user base to resumed operations.

Please note that the current downtime plan does not include cancelling running jobs, but any jobs requiring access via the login nodes (e.g., interactive jobs) will be disrupted. Though it is not the plan, do note that circumstances may arise that would require the compute nodes to be rebooted, which would cause running jobs to be killed.

As always, remember to submit any issues you have here: https://rtforms.umbc.edu/rt_authenticated/doit/DoIT-support.php?auto=Research%20Computing

and check out our documentation here: https://umbc.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/faq/pages/1082589207/UMBC+HPCF+-+chip

To all chip-cpu users,

A cooling issue in a research park computer room necessitated the unscheduled and immediate shutdown of chip-cpu hardware which was housed in that computer room. While running jobs were inevitably lost, the decision to quickly shutdown the hardware was made to preserve the hardware. Maintenance technicians are currently assessing the chillers in the computer rooms and DoIT staff are on site to assist.

The GPU hardware associated with chip-gpu is unaffected.

The newly acquired storage system we've recently migrated most research volumes to is also unaffected.

Thank you for your patience as we navigate this issue. Please expect an update no later than Friday (Jan 16) morning or as the issue is resolved.

---

Roy Prouty

Asst Director for Research Computing
UMBC DoIT
Live, from Research Park Computer Room

Hi everyone,

First I want to congratulate everyone for making it to the end of the semester, and a special congratulations to our new graduates! Second, happy holidays! I hope whatever you do with your break it's relaxing and fulfilling! 

I'm writing to give everyone an update regarding the UMBC HPCF and other Research Computing projects currently undertaken by DoIT.

Summary

• Staff will be continuing to reach out to PIs in an effort to migrate storage volumes to the new RRStor system

• Scheduled cluster downtime

• SIG UE Nominations 

Migration of Storage to RRStor

At this time, we have completed almost all migrations for PI specific groups. Non-PI storage, such as those for datasets, ongoing grants, and classes are ongoing, and are expected to be completed by mid- to late-January. Please continue to work with HPC staff to get these scheduled and migrated!

Cluster Manager Updates

On Thursday Dec 18, 2025 we had a scheduled downtime to patch our cluster management software in order to improve stability and memory management. There should be no impact on the user experience as a result of these changes.

SIG UE Nominations
In an effort to gain a consistent set of users to come to the SIG UE meetings, we have started a SIG UE nomination process. Selected members will be expected to come to as many of the SIG UE meetings as possible, work with the HPC user base to identify problems, and relay this information to the HPC staff. If you're interested in being selected as a member please respond to this Google Form by January 14th, 2026: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeRmu5ixHGCoMv-vwFfRMMfe2uBRQ5puwSEqUaZLj0D3w6hDw/viewform?usp=preview .

Publications
If you have any publications, presentations, theses, or other works that made use of the campus cluster(s), please submit an RT Ticket with bibliographic information so that we can accurately reflect this work in our records and on the HPCF Website. 

Need Help?
As always, please communicate any issues/questions to the Research Computing RT Queue (hpcf.umbc.edu > User Support > Request Help).