Module Systems (Admin Guide)

From HPC Wiki
Admin Guide Module Systems
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Software

  • LMOD
    • Actively developed
    • Integrated by EasyBuild
    • In-build module usage tracking
    • Support for different module naming schemes
    • Supported languages: Lua and TCL
    • Installation via OpenHPC repository package
  • Alternative: Environment Modules
    • Stale development
    • Since 2018 new maintainer
    • Supported languages: TCL

Naming Conventions

We are employing a so-called hierarchical module naming scheme. This means that only those modules are shown to the user which can be loaded based on the current user environment.

Example: A user wants to load the module GROMACS which depends on the GCC compiler and open OpenMPI library. By default the user can only see the GCC module: 1. module load GCC –> now the OpenMPI module is visible 2. module load OpenMPI –> now the GROMACS module is visible 3. module load GROMACS

Module Usage Tracking

Deprecated Modules

  • Create a separate software stack every 6 to 12 months and create meta modules for the users to explicitly load a specific year –> e.g. module load 2020a
  • This way, users get a feeling for how old their used software is
  • You can easily deprecate older software stacks by just deleting the meta module but at the same time keep the software stack for archival purposes
  • Module trees do not get cluttered