COSMA
COSMA
Welcome to the COSmology MAchine (COSMA)! Here, you will find some information about the COSMA5, COSMA6, COSMA7 and COSMA8 HPC facilities.
COSMA has been in existence since July 2001 and is now in its 8th generation.
COSMA5 is a Durham system for ICC users and collaborators.
COSMA6 and COSMA7 are the current DiRAC facilities hosted by Durham. COSMA6 was introduced on 1st April 2017 as the DiRAC-2.5 Data Centric service. COSMA7 was introduced as the DiRAC-2.5x system in May 2018, and expanded by DiRAC-2.5y in January 2019, and as DiRAC-2.5z in April 2019.
COSMA8 is a new DiRAC-3 system which will become operational in September 2021. The DiRAC-3 prototype system (COSMA-8 prototype) became operational in October 2020, and was available for a number of months before integration with the full DiRAC-3 system began.
The DINE experimental system is also part of COSMA.
DiRAC is the UK's integrated supercomputing facility for theoretical modelling and HPC-based research in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology. For more information about DiRAC please visit the DiRAC web pages http://www.dirac.ac.uk.
The COSMA systems run security hardened DiRAC Linux.
The login details are:
cosma5: login.cosma.dur.ac.uk or login5.cosma.dur.ac.uk (round-robin to login5a and login5b)
cosma6: login6.cosma.dur.ac.uk (single node, login6a)
cosma7: login7.cosma.dur.ac.uk (round-robin to login7a, login7b and login7c)
cosma8: login8.cosma.dur.ac.uk (round-robin to login8a, login8b)
All systems use a global slurm batch system. Submission to any queue (cosma, cosma6, cosma7, cosma8) can be done from any login node.
COSMA5 is no longer a DiRAC facility. Therefore, DiRAC users should use COSMA6, 7 or 8 as appropriate for their project.
Scheduled downtime
COSMA has 3 periods of scheduled downtime per year, lasting up to a week, though typically the affected period is shorter. These are during the first full weeks of Februacy, June and October (every 4 months). Current scheduled periods are:
5-9th June 2023
2-6th October 2023
5-9th February 2024
Contact Details
Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics - West,
Department of Physics,
Durham University,
South Road,
Durham DH1 3LE
COSMA NEWS
9/2/22: COSMA back in production
7/2/22: COSMA downtime starts
18/12/21: MPPHEA paper
2/12/21: /cosma8 back in production
29/11/21: /cosma8 storage issues
6/10/21: COSMA uptime
4/10/21: COSMA downtime
1/10/21: COSMA8 commissioning period officially ends
1/7/21: COSMA8 commissioning period has begun
20/6/21: COSMA8 HPL gives 1.37PF peak, at 280kW
20/4/21: AMD Milan node (with 128 cores, 1TB RAM and MI100 GPU) goes live
10/4/21: COSMA8 power-on
1/4/21: COSMA8 integration starts
1/3/21: COSMA becomes a Dell Centre of Excellence
4/2/21: COSMA back from downtime
28/1/21: COSMA network link severed between Durham and Leeds
26/1/21: Updated OneAPI module installed