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High performance computing (HPC) accelerates the process of research discovery. Most domains now use HPC, and research is increasingly compute- and data-intensive as more scientists and engineers employ machine learning, neural networks and other artificial intelligence (AI) workflows. 

In collaboration with other units on campus, ITS-Research Services supports the Argon HPC system which features ~16,000 CPU processors and more than 300 GPU accelerators. 

 

Getting Help

Please email research-computing@uiowa.edu with support requests 

Training

Argon documentation

1-1 user consultation is also available by emailing research-computing@uiowa.edu

Current Status

There are currently no alerts.

Maintenance

Services scheduled for maintenance over the next 7 days. Please refer to the calendar view of alerts for a complete schedule.
There is currently no planned maintenance.

Past 90 Days

Color bar indicators flow left to right, from oldest to most recent status.

Alert History

Start: 
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 8:00am
End: 
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 10:30am
Updates
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 10:30am

The issue has been resolved.

Description

There are currently issues scheduling or submitting jobs to Argon. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to have things resolved quickly.

Last updated: 
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 10:36am
Start: 
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 - 8:00am
End: 
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 8:00am
Description

The Argon High Performance Computing (HPC) system will be down for maintenance.

Any jobs running at the beginning of the maintenance window will be stopped. Please plan your work accordingly for minimal disruption.

Last updated: 
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 8:00am
Start: 
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 - 7:30am
End: 
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 - 2:00pm
Updates
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 - 2:00pm

This issue has been resolved.

Description

Some users are currently unable to access their home drives on Argon. Affected users may receive an error message like: “Could not chdir to home directory /Users/HawkID: No such file or directory” or "kex_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host" when trying to access their Argon home directory.

IDAS users might receive errors starting an IDAS session when requesting their hpchome be mounted.

Last updated: 
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 - 2:07pm
Start: 
Monday, December 11, 2023 - 8:00am
End: 
Monday, December 11, 2023 - 2:45pm
Updates
Monday, December 11, 2023 - 2:45pm

This issue has been resolved. Please contact research-computing@uiowa.edu if you are continuing to see issues.

Description

Some users may be unable to mount their home directory in Argon and receive an error message similar to "cannot access /Users/HawkID: No such file or directory". Support staff are investigating.

Last updated: 
Monday, December 11, 2023 - 2:46pm
Start: 
Wednesday, November 1, 2023 - 8:00am
End: 
Thursday, November 2, 2023 - 8:00am
Description

The Argon High Performance Computing (HPC) system will be down for maintenance. Any jobs running at the beginning of the maintenance window will be stopped but will resume after the maintenance.

Last updated: 
Thursday, November 2, 2023 - 8:00am
Start: 
Wednesday, August 9, 2023 - 8:00am
End: 
Thursday, August 10, 2023 - 11:00am
Description

The Argon High Performance Computing (HPC) system will be down for maintenance.

Any jobs running at the beginning of the maintenance window will be stopped. Please plan your work accordingly for minimal disruption.

Last updated: 
Thursday, August 10, 2023 - 11:10am
Start: 
Wednesday, July 19, 2023 - 4:15pm
End: 
Friday, July 21, 2023 - 2:00pm
Updates
Friday, July 21, 2023 - 2:00pm

This issue has been resolved. Please contact research-computing@uiowa.edu if you are continuing to see issues.

Description

Some users are experiencing slowness or issues accessing Argon. ITS is currently investigating the issue.

Last updated: 
Friday, July 21, 2023 - 2:08pm
Start: 
Friday, June 30, 2023 - 4:15pm
End: 
Thursday, July 6, 2023 - 9:45am
Updates
Thursday, July 6, 2023 - 9:45am

The issue has been resolved.

Description

Some users are experiencing issues accessing Argon. ITS is currently investigating the issue.

Last updated: 
Thursday, July 6, 2023 - 9:55am
Start: 
Wednesday, June 28, 2023 - 2:00pm
End: 
Friday, June 30, 2023 - 12:30pm
Updates
Friday, June 30, 2023 - 12:30pm

This issue has been resolved.

Description

Some users are experiencing issues accessing Argon. ITS is currently investigating the issue.

Last updated: 
Friday, June 30, 2023 - 12:28pm
Start: 
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 - 8:00am
End: 
Thursday, May 18, 2023 - 8:00am
Description

The Argon High Performance Computing (HPC) system will be down for maintenance.

Any jobs running at the beginning of the maintenance window will be stopped. Please plan your work accordingly for minimal disruption.

Last updated: 
Thursday, May 18, 2023 - 8:00am
Start: 
Saturday, May 6, 2023 - 4:00pm
End: 
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 - 10:30am
Updates
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 - 10:30am

This issue has been resolved.

Description

The Argon HPC environment is currently experiencing issues with job submission. Already running work is not impacted, but you may see errors when submitting new jobs or requesting job status. We are investigating the issue. Thank you for your patience.

Last updated: 
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 - 10:37am
Start: 
Wednesday, May 3, 2023 - 5:00pm
End: 
Thursday, May 4, 2023 - 3:45pm
Updates
Thursday, May 4, 2023 - 3:45pm

This issue has been resolved.

Description

There are intermittent issues with itf-rs-store20, an Argon homes system. ITS is investigating. 

Last updated: 
Thursday, May 4, 2023 - 3:49pm
Start: 
Wednesday, April 26, 2023 - 4:30pm
End: 
Friday, April 28, 2023 - 8:15am
Updates
Friday, April 28, 2023 - 8:15am

This issue has been resolved.

Description

Some users may be unable to mount their home directory and receive an error message similar to "cannot access /Users/HawkID: No such file or directory". Support staff are investigating.

Last updated: 
Friday, April 28, 2023 - 8:18am
Start: 
Wednesday, February 22, 2023 - 1:15pm
End: 
Friday, February 24, 2023 - 10:00am
Updates
Friday, February 24, 2023 - 10:00am

The issue has been resolved.

Description

The Argon HPC /nfsscratch filesystem is performing slowly for some jobs. The Research Services team is investigating and monitoring the situation.

Last updated: 
Thursday, March 23, 2023 - 1:24pm
Start: 
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 - 8:00am
End: 
Thursday, February 9, 2023 - 8:00am
Description

The Argon High Performance Computing (HPC) system will be down for maintenance.

Any jobs running at the beginning of the maintenance window will be stopped. Please plan your work accordingly for minimal disruption.

Last updated: 
Thursday, February 9, 2023 - 8:00am
Start: 
Monday, February 6, 2023 - 2:30pm
End: 
Monday, February 6, 2023 - 3:00pm
Description

The retention period of files on the Argon HPC system-wide /nfsscratch filesystem has been reduced from 60 days to 40 days after they are created.

The retention period was temporarily reduced to 40 days this fall, when usage of /nfsscratch increased significantly. Since restoring the retention period to 60 days, /nfsscratch has consistently reached capacity, which prevents jobs from running.

The retention policy for node-specific /localscratch filesystems is not affected by this change.

All scratch filesystems policies are available as part of the Argon Scratch Filesystems documentation.

Last updated: 
Monday, February 6, 2023 - 3:00pm
Start: 
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 - 2:45pm
End: 
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 - 3:30pm
Updates
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 - 3:30pm

This issue is resolved.

Description

Some users may be unable to mount their home directory and receive an error message similar to "cannot access /Users/HawkID: No such file or directory". Support staff are investigating.

Last updated: 
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 - 1:57pm
Start: 
Thursday, December 15, 2022 - 5:00pm
End: 
Monday, January 9, 2023 - 3:30pm
Updates
Monday, January 9, 2023 - 3:45pm

This issue has been resolved.

Description

Users may experience degraded performance as the Argon HPC /nfsscratch filesystem has reached capacity.

To alleviate performance issues and avoid impacting running jobs further, we are now reducing the deletion of data to retention periods from 40 days instead of 50 days on the /nfsscratch system.

You can help by deleting data which is no longer needed from /nfsscratch, or contact research-computing@uiowa.edu to have your entire /nfsscratch directory deleted.

Please note that job launches will resume automatically once the share drops below the 99% threshold. However, if the share fills back up again job launches will once again be paused.

We are continuing to monitor the situation and may suspend job launches if it does not improve. We will communicate if additional actions are necessary.

Last updated: 
Monday, January 9, 2023 - 3:43pm
Start: 
Thursday, December 15, 2022 - 1:00pm
End: 
Monday, December 19, 2022 - 8:00am
Description

Free space on /nfsscratch is decreasing rapidly, and at the current pace we expect it to fill in the next 1-2 days. If /nfsscratch fills, it will cause issues including HPC job failures and no new data will be written.

To help avoid filling /nfsscratch, please ensure you are removing data in /nfsscratch as you finish with it rather than waiting for the normal automated cleaning mechanisms.

In the event that /nfsscratch becomes full, you can use the /scratch file system.

ITS-Research Services is taking steps to slow the filling:

  • HPC users writing to /nfsscratch with large data consumption have been contacted.
  • Data is actively being removed on the backend.
Last updated: 
Monday, December 19, 2022 - 8:47am
Start: 
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 - 9:00am
End: 
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 - 10:00am
Updates
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 - 12:30pm

This issue has been resolved.

Description

ITF lost utility power today around 9:08 AM. This has impacted ITF HPC compute nodes. When the power switched over to the generator those rows/systems lost power during this brief period. This resulted in jobs running on any ITF HPC nodes to fail. These systems will run while ITF is using generator power, but do not restart automatically.  Research Services is in the process of bringing the computer nodes back up.

Last updated: 
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 - 12:30pm
Start: 
Wednesday, November 2, 2022 - 8:00am
End: 
Thursday, November 3, 2022 - 8:00am
Description

Quarterly maintenance for the Argon HPC system.

See Fall 2022 HPC Maintenance for more information.

Last updated: 
Thursday, November 3, 2022 - 8:00am
Start: 
Wednesday, August 10, 2022 - 8:00am
End: 
Thursday, August 11, 2022 - 8:00am
Description

Quarterly maintenance for High Performance Computing and related services.

See Summer 2022 HPC maintenance for more information.

Last updated: 
Thursday, August 11, 2022 - 8:00am
Start: 
Friday, June 10, 2022 - 8:30am
End: 
Monday, June 13, 2022 - 9:30am
Updates
Monday, June 13, 2022 - 9:30am

This issue has been resolved.

Description

Some users are currently unable to access their home drives on Argon. Affected users may receive an error message like “Could not chdir to home directory /Users/hawkid: No such file or directory” when trying to access their Argon home directory. 

IDAS users might receive errors starting an IDAS session when requesting their hpchome be mounted.

ITS is investigating this issue and updates will be posted on the HPC System News support page.

Last updated: 
Monday, June 13, 2022 - 9:38am
Start: 
Thursday, June 9, 2022 - 2:45pm
End: 
Thursday, June 9, 2022 - 6:00pm
Updates
Friday, June 10, 2022 - 7:45am

This issue is resolved. 

Description

Some users are currently unable to access their home drives on Argon. Affected users may receive an error message like “Could not chdir to home directory /Users/hawkid: No such file or directory” when trying to access their Argon home directory.

ITS is investigating this issue and updates will be posted on the HPC System News support page.

Last updated: 
Friday, June 10, 2022 - 7:42am
Start: 
Wednesday, March 16, 2022 - 11:00am
End: 
Wednesday, March 16, 2022 - 2:30pm
Updates
Wednesday, March 16, 2022 - 2:30pm

This issue has been resolved.

Description

Argon HPC is experiencing a service degradation which may cause jobs to fail with errors indicating inability to create a lock for an input or output file. It may also cause apps to freeze or become non-responsive.

For timely updates, please see: https://hpc.uiowa.edu/recent-news

Last updated: 
Wednesday, March 16, 2022 - 2:35pm
Start: 
Tuesday, February 1, 2022 - 9:30am
End: 
Tuesday, February 1, 2022 - 12:45pm
Updates
Tuesday, February 1, 2022 - 1:15pm

This issue has been resolved.

Description

Argon and IDAS are currently unavailable. Users are seeing failed or stalled logins when attempting to connect to Argon. IDAS will still continue to function if Argon Homes or LSS are not being used. IDAS class instances are down if they have shared libraries or shared storage. 

Research Services is investigating this issue. Further update information can be found at https://hpc.uiowa.edu/system-news/argon-login-issues

Last updated: 
Tuesday, February 1, 2022 - 1:22pm
Start: 
Wednesday, November 17, 2021 - 4:00pm
End: 
Thursday, November 18, 2021 - 1:30pm
Description

Logins to the Argon HPC system may periodically fail due to an unresponsive login node. ITS is currently investigating the issue.

Users experiencing issues connecting to argon.hpc.uiowa.edu should connect to a login node directly instead:

  • argon-login-1.hpc.uiowa.edu
  • argon-login-3.hpc.uiowa.edu
  • argon-login-4.hpc.uiowa.edu
Last updated: 
Thursday, November 18, 2021 - 1:39pm
Start: 
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - 8:00am
End: 
Thursday, August 12, 2021 - 8:00am
Description

The Argon HPC system will be in a regularly scheduled quarterly maintenance. For more details, see: HPC Summer 2021 Maintenance

Last updated: 
Thursday, August 12, 2021 - 8:00am
Start: 
Wednesday, July 7, 2021 - 6:00pm
End: 
Thursday, July 15, 2021 - 10:00am
Updates
Thursday, July 15, 2021 - 10:00am

The issue has been resolved.

Description

One of the servers for the Argon Home directories is having an issue with file locks. If your home account is on this server, you may experience processes that get stuck shortly after launching. The problem is being investigated and will be mitigated as soon as possible.

Last updated: 
Thursday, July 15, 2021 - 10:02am

High Performance Computing Contact Information

ITS-Research Services - research-computing@uiowa.edu