Hello,

A maintenance operation on the technical infrastructure of IDRIS will require the centre to be shut down completely on Tuesday 7 October. The Jean Zay machine will be unavailable all day. The return to production is planned for the evening.

User Support will be closed for this day. The website will remain accessible and you will be able to check the machine availability on the usual page: http://www.idris.fr/status.html.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this operation might cause.

Best regards, The IDRIS User Support Team

Summary:​

• Next IDRIS UC meeting: Wednesday 10 September 2025
• Technical shutdown on 7 October 2025
• Reminder: Survey on AI user needs within the MINERVA project
• New compilation partition "compil_H100"
• Blocking GitHub usage via SSH from Jean Zay
• DSDIR saturation: Migration of text corpora to rotating disks
• IDRIS Training

• Next IDRIS UC meeting: Wednesday 10 September 2025

The next User Committee (UC) meeting of IDRIS will take place on Wednesday 10 September 2025 at the IDRIS premises in Orsay (91). Please send your requests to: cu-elus at idris.fr. More information: http://www.idris.fr/cu.html

• Technical shutdown on 7 October 2025

The annual maintenance of the IDRIS technical infrastructure requires the shutdown of the centre on Tuesday 7 October 2025. The Jean Zay machine will be unavailable all day and the User Support service will be closed. The website will remain accessible and you can follow the availability of the machines on the usual page: http://www.idris.fr/statut.html.

• Reminder: Survey on AI user needs within the MINERVA project

Since 1 January 2025, IDRIS has joined the European large-scale AI support centre MINERVA: http://www.idris.fr/minerva.html. As part of this, a survey is underway to better understand the expectations and challenges faced by the AI community using HPC resources such as Jean Zay. Your contribution is valuable to help us evolve services, technical support, training programmes, etc. Link to the survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWdowBcyc1d9bMsh6BGcolZQj_pECPpoCsF9Mdyf60Fcr68w/viewform?usp=header.

• New compilation partition "compil_H100"

A new partition "compil_H100" is available to users: http://www.idris.fr/jean-zay/cpu/jean-zay-cpu-hw.html#compil_H100. It contains a node equipped with an Intel processor identical to those in the Eviden H100 partition (gpu_p6). It is dedicated to the compilation of codes and libraries that will run on this partition. It has the same access characteristics as the "compil" partition.

• Blocking GitHub usage via SSH from Jean Zay

To standardise Git behaviour and for security reasons, access to GitHub via the SSH protocol will be completely blocked on all IDRIS machines from 15 September 2025. Until now, some GitHub SSH access points were whitelisted, which resulted in variable behaviour depending on the connections (some allowing access, others not). This situation could be confusing. From now on, only the use of the HTTPS protocol with personal token authentication will be allowed to interact with GitHub (cloning, push, pull, etc.). 👉 To generate a GitHub token and configure your repository in HTTPS: https://docs.github.com/fr/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/creating-a-personal-access-token Please anticipate this change by adapting your Git configurations before 15 September 2025.

• DSDIR saturation: Migration of text corpora to rotating disks

During the summer, we reached saturation of the shared DSDIR space, which contains the public datasets and models that we download on request. To free up space, we have moved the CommonCrawl and RedPajama-V2 text corpora to an annex storage space on rotating disks. From now on, any text corpus will also be stored on rotating disks. The access paths to these datasets remain unchanged: $DSDIR/<nom_du_dataset>. According to the tests we have carried out, this should not impact the performance of your training. Please contact support (assist at idris.fr) if this is the case.

• IDRIS Training

Remember to register now for the IDRIS training sessions scheduled until the end of the year:

• MPI, from 23/09/2025 to 26/09/2025
• OpenMP, from 15/10/2025 to 17/10/2025
• Optimised Deep Learning on Jean Zay, from 21/10/2025 to 24/10/2025
• Jean Zay Workshop, from 30/10/2025 to 31/10/2025
• Practical Introduction to Deep Learning, from 03/11/2025 to 04/11/2025
• Deep Learning Architectures, from 05/11/2025 to 06/11/2025
• Deep Learning Launch Workshop, on 07/11/2025
• SIMD Vectorisation, on 19/11/2025
• HPC Debugging, on 20/11/2025
• Introduction to OpenACC and OpenMP GPU, from 26/11/2025 to 28/11/2025
• PETSc, from 04/12/2025 to 05/12/2025

For more information on the IDRIS training catalogue and registration procedures: http://www.idris.fr/formations/catalogue.html.

Dear Jean Zay users,

On January 1, 2025, IDRIS joined the European large-scale AI Support Centre MINERVA: http://www.idris.fr/minerva.html

In this context, we invite you to take part in a survey on the needs of AI users, in order to better understand the expectations and challenges faced by the AI community using HPC resources such as Jean Zay.

Your feedback will help improve services, technical support, training programmes, and more.

The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and is aimed at individual users, teams, and organisations alike.

Survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWdowBcyc1d9bMsh6BGcolZQj_pECPpoCsF9Mdyf60Fcr68w/viewform?usp=header

Your contribution is valuable to help us improve the accessibility and quality of AI services on Jean Zay and other HPC platforms.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

Best regards, IDRIS – MINERVA Project Team

Hello everyone,

We are pleased to invite you to the

3rd Deep Learning for Science Day (JDLS 2025)

which will take place on Thursday, 5 June 2025 at the CNRS headquarters in Paris.

This event, free and open to all, is organised by IDRIS and the CNRS Fidle National Training Action, with the support of the CNRS, the Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), the University of Montpellier, via the ISDM and the MIAI AI Cluster.

The objective of this day is to promote the sharing of experiences and exchanges around the applications of Deep Learning in science :-)

The entire day will be broadcast live on YouTube on the FIDLE channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CNRS-FIDLE.

Participation in this day is free and open to all, but registration is mandatory if you wish to attend in person.

It is also possible, especially if you are a PhD student, to contribute to the event by presenting a poster and/or a 3-minute flash presentation. Prizes will be awarded for the best posters/presentations!

Registration, poster submission and programme: https://jdls-2025.sciencesconf.org

Feel free to share/forward this announcement :-)

Looking forward to seeing you there!

The JDLS Organising Committee

• Why participate?

  Attend talks by recognised specialists on AI for science and science for AI,

  Discover concrete cases of Deep Learning applications in many disciplines: chemistry, physics, language processing, numerical simulation...

  Exchange with the scientific and AI community during dedicated discussion times and poster presentations,

  Meet the actors and actresses involved in the appropriation of Artificial Intelligence tools in the various fields of research.

• Confirmed speakers

We are pleased to welcome:

Prof. Jean-Philip Piquemal – Sorbonne University Director of the Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory (LCT), Honorary Member of the Institut Universitaire de France

Steeven Janny – LAGEPP/LIRIS, INSA de Lyon Former student of the École Normale Supérieure, his work focuses on the use of deep learning for the simulation of physical phenomena, particularly fluid mechanics.

Prof. Karën Fort – Université de Lorraine, LORIA / INRIA Talk on biases and ethics of LLM (Large Language Models) Member of the SEMAGRAMME project team (Semantic Analysis of Language) Specialist in automatic language processing and AI ethics.

The programme is being finalised. Other speakers will be announced soon on the conference website.

• Call for participation – PhD students

It is possible to contribute, especially if you are a PhD student, to the event in two formats:

Presentation of a scientific poster displayed throughout the day

"My project in 3 minutes" session: a flash presentation of your research project to the public.

Prizes will be awarded for the best posters/presentations :-) Free registration, poster submission, and programme: https://jdls-2025.sciencesconf.org/

You are receiving this email because you are a user of the IDRIS machines.

You can view this issue of the IDRIS Flash Info and previous issues on the IDRIS website: http://www.idris.fr/flash-info.html

Summary:​

• Power outage: Tuesday 8 April 2025 (reminder)
• 3rd Deep Learning for Science Day on Thursday 5 June 2025 at the CNRS headquarters
• IDRIS Training

• Power outage: Tuesday 8 April 2025 (reminder)

As previously announced, maintenance of the IDRIS technical infrastructure requires the centre to be shut down tomorrow, Tuesday 8 April. The Jean Zay machine will be unavailable all day.

The User Support service will be closed. The website will remain accessible and you can follow the availability of the machines on the usual page: http://www.idris.fr/statut.html.

• 3rd Deep Learning for Science Day on Thursday 5 June 2025 at the CNRS headquarters

IDRIS and the CNRS Fidle National Training Action are organising the third Deep Learning for Science Day (JDLS) on Thursday 5 June from 9 am to 5:30 pm at the CNRS headquarters, Paris Michel Ange. Speakers from various scientific fields will present their use of artificial intelligence methods throughout the day. It is also possible to participate in the day by taking part in the "My project in 3 minutes" session and/or the poster session that will follow. Information and registration at https://jdls-2025.sciencesconf.org.

• IDRIS Training

Remember to register now for the IDRIS training sessions scheduled for the coming months:

• Hybrid MPI/OpenMP Programming, 5-6 June
• Jean Zay Workshop, 12-13 June
• OpenMP/MPI, 16-20 June
• Optimised Deep Learning on Jean Zay, 24-27 June

For more information on the IDRIS training catalogue and registration procedures: http://www.idris.fr/formations/catalogue.html.

You are receiving this newsletter because you are a user of the IDRIS machines.

You can view this issue of the IDRIS Flash Info and previous issues on the IDRIS website: http://www.idris.fr/flash-info.html

Hello,

During tomorrow's maintenance (April 1st, 2025), the operating system of the Jean Zay supercomputer will be updated to Red Hat 9.4 (from 9.2 currently). This update aims to provide a recent software environment on Jean Zay.

This operating system version change should have a limited impact on your use of the machine. The majority of your executables should continue to work without any action on your part; in case of issues, we recommend that you try to recompile your codes.

The GNU compilers bundled with the operating system will be updated to version 11.4.1. The "gcc/11.3.1" module will become an alias for a new "gcc/11.4.1" module to ensure an easy transition.

In case of problems, contact the IDRIS Support.

Best regards, The IDRIS user support team

• GPU HPC and AI Hackathon: only a few days left to apply
• Panoram'IA: meet on Friday 28/02 at 10 am
• CEEMS: an energy measurement tool on Jean Zay
• IDRIS Training

• GPU HPC and AI Hackathon: only a few days left to apply

We remind you that the deadline for registration for our GPU HPC and AI hackathon is set for 4 March. As a reminder, this event, organised jointly with NVIDIA, will take place on 13 May (remotely) and on 20, 21 and 22 May (at the IDRIS premises).

Registration is via the event page (in English): https://www.openhackathons.org/s/siteevent/a0CUP00000sO9LV2A0/se000364.

• Panoram'IA: meet on Friday 28/02 at 10 am

IDRIS support invites you on Friday morning 28/02 at 10 am for a live broadcast of its "Panoram'IA" show. This show will feature our guest Jérôme Louradour, who will share his experience with the pretraining of Lucie on our Jean Zay supercomputer. The live broadcast and replays are available on our YouTube channel "Un oeil sur l'IDRIS": https://www.youtube.com/@idriscnrs.

• CEEMS: an energy measurement tool on Jean Zay

As announced at the last User Committee meeting, the CEEMS energy measurement tool is now available on Jean Zay: see the page http://www.idris.fr/jean-zay/jean-zay-doc-energie.html for more information.

• IDRIS Training

Remember to register now for the IDRIS training sessions scheduled for the coming months:

• MPI, from 18 to 21 March
• OpenMP, from 26 to 28 March
• Modern Scientific C++, from 9 to 11 April
• Introduction to OpenACC and OpenMP GPU, from 16 to 18 April
• Hybrid MPI/OpenMP Programming, from 5 to 6 June
• Jean Zay Workshop, from 12 to 13 June
• OpenMP/MPI, from 16 to 20 June

For more information on the IDRIS training catalogue and registration procedures: http://www.idris.fr/formations/catalogue.html.

[Version française ci-dessous]

IDRIS is hosting its fifth IDRIS Open Hackathon (https://www.openhackathons.org/s/siteevent/a0CUP00000sO9LV2A0/se000364) from May 13 to May 22, 2025 and we are actively seeking applications (deadline: March 4th).

If you are not familiar, this hands-on coding event helps researchers and engineers to optimise, accelerate, and scale their HPC and AI applications on Jean Zay by pairing them with expert programming mentors whose guidance can take your HPC and AI projects to the next level.

This year NVIDIA invites you to an informational webinar “Getting Hackathon Ready” focused on AI applications, with the participation of IDRIS:

Join us on February 18th, 11AM CET to learn more about how to participate in this unique opportunity.

By attending the webinar, you will:

• Get an overview of the upcoming IDRIS Open Hackathon (https://www.openhackathons.org/s/siteevent/a0CUP00000sO9LV2A0/se000364) and how it can benefit your AI research;
• Examine AI use cases advanced at previous hackathons;
• Understand how Jean Zay can support your AI projects; and
• Get the chance to meet AI specialists from NVIDIA for a private consultation on your project.

Space is limited, sign up now: https://bit.ly/IdrisGHR.

For a glimpse of the projects that benefited from attending last year’s event, read the 2024 IDRIS Open Hackathon recap: https://www.openhackathons.org/s/article/IDRIS-Contributing-to-the-Excellence-of-Scientific-Research.

We hope you will join us to learn more and receive personalised expert support.

Should you have any questions, please contact events@openhackathons.org.

IDRIS is organising its 5th Hackathon (https://www.openhackathons.org/s/siteevent/a0CUP00000sO9LV2A0/se000364) from 13 to 22 May 2025 and we are looking for interested teams to participate (registration deadline: 4 March).

What is a hackathon? It is an event dedicated to scientific code developers aimed at helping researchers and engineers to optimise, accelerate, and scale their HPC or AI applications on Jean Zay. To do this, you will be supported by programming expert mentors whose advice will boost your HPC or AI projects.

This year NVIDIA invites you to an informational webinar "Getting Hackathon Ready" focused on AI applications, with the participation of IDRIS:

Join us on 18 February at 11am to discover how to make the most of this opportunity.

By participating in the seminar, you will be able to:

• Get an overview of the upcoming IDRIS Hackathon (https://www.openhackathons.org/s/siteevent/a0CUP00000sO9LV2A0/se000364) and how it can benefit your AI research;
• Discover AI use cases that have benefited from previous hackathons;
• Understand how to take advantage of Jean Zay for your AI projects;
• Meet AI specialists from NVIDIA for a private exchange about your project.

The number of places is limited, register now: https://bit.ly/IdrisGHR.

For an overview of the projects that benefited from last year's hackathon, you can read the IDRIS Hackathon 2024 recap: https://www.openhackathons.org/s/article/IDRIS-Contributing-to-the-Excellence-of-Scientific-Research.

We hope you will participate to learn more and receive personalised support.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact events@openhackathons.org (in English).

Migration of the DSDIR space to Lustre

[English version below]

Hello,

During the maintenance on January 21, 2025, the DSDIR environment variable was modified and now points to a new Lustre storage space: "/lustre/fsmisc/dataset".

All databases and models downloaded to DSDIR since the beginning of Jean Zay have been migrated to this new space. This new space is accessible from all Jean Zay nodes, including the nodes of the new H100 extension.

This new space will now be used for downloading public datasets or models. The old disk spaces "/gpfsdsdir/dataset" and "/gpfsdswork/dataset" are now deprecated and will no longer be accessible as of the end of January.

If you are already using the DSDIR environment variable in your scripts, the data migration will have no impact on your runs. However, if you are using hardcoded paths, you will need to update them. We invite you to take this opportunity to switch to systematic use of the DSDIR variable, as in the following script for example:

''' import os from datasets import load_dataset dataset = load_dataset(os.environ['DSDIR']+"/HuggingFace/wikimedia/structured-wikipedia") '''

As a reminder, DSDIR is a dedicated disk space for storing public databases or models needed for the use of Artificial Intelligence tools. It is visible to all Jean Zay users. For more information: http://www.idris.fr/eng/jean-zay/cpu/jean-zay-cpu-calculateurs-disques-eng.html#the_dsdir

Please do not hesitate to contact the support team at assist@idris.fr if you encounter any issue.

Best regards, The IDRIS support team

For the fifth consecutive year, IDRIS is organising, together with NVIDIA, a GPU HPC and AI Hackathon.

It will take place on 13 May (remotely) and from 20 to 22 May 2025 (on-site at IDRIS). The registration deadline is 4 March.

GPU Hackathons allow teams of three or four developers or researchers to improve the performance of their HPC or AI codes under the guidance of one or more mentors, who are experts in GPU programming and come from universities, national laboratories, computing centres, government institutions and manufacturers.

You do not need to be an IDRIS user to participate in this event, so feel free to share this message with your colleagues. You will have access to IDRIS's computing resources, allowing you to test your code on recent GPUs, including NVIDIA H100s.

For HPC projects, it could be an opportunity to start porting a code to GPU using OpenACC, OpenMP, Kokkos, GPU libraries, CUDA, etc., or to optimise an existing GPU implementation. If your codebase is large, it is recommended to prepare a representative mini-application to be more efficient during the event.

For AI projects, this hackathon offers a unique opportunity to explore fine-tuning, developing or evaluating state-of-the-art models such as LLMs and GenAI applications. You will be able to optimise your models using advanced techniques such as mixed precision, multi-GPU or multi-node parallelisation (DDP, PP, TP, CP), using standard frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, or specialised tools such as DeepSpeed, Megatron-LM, Nanotron or NVIDIA NeMo. Although full pre-training is out of reach within the hackathon's time frame, preparing a pre-training code for large-scale models is still possible.

Registration is via the event page (in English): https://www.openhackathons.org/s/siteevent/a0CUP00000sO9LV2A0/se000364.