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Software Update 2025

This page describes the impact of the update to ARCHER2 system software happening on 16 October 2025.

If you encounter any issues after the update, you should contact the service desk.

User impact summary

  • Users should not need to recompile software on updated ARCHER2
  • The default Cray Programming Environment (CPE) will change from 22.12 to 23.09
  • No changes are required to job submission scripts or module commands
  • There will be a short interruption (5-10 mins) of login access on 16 Oct 2025
  • There is no impact on file system access or data stored on the ARCHER2 file systems

What is happening?

The system software on all user-facing ARCHER2 nodes (login nodes, data analysis nodes, and compute nodes) is being updated to a version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES 15 SP4) that is decoupled from the HPE Cray sources. The HPE Cray Programming Environment (CPE) is being updated from 22.12 to 23.09.

Why is this happening?

This change is to allow ARCHER2 to continue to receive critical security updates for the remainder of its lifetime.

Description of user-facing changes and impacts

  • OS version: Nodes will be updated to use SLES 15 SP4 direct from SLES sources instead of SLES 15 SP4 from the HPE Cray sources

    • As the base OS version is the same, software recompilation is not generally needed. This has been verified by extensive testing by ARCHER2 CSE service at EPCC and HPE
    • If users see issues with software following the update, we will ask them to recompile in the first instance to eliminate this as a potential issue

  • Default CPE version changed from 22.12 to 23.09

  • New version (1.20.1) of libfabric available but default is not changing

    • libfabric 1.20.1 is available via module swap libfabric libfabric/1.20.1
    • The default version remains at libfabric 1.12.1.2.2.0.0
    • In testing, some applications saw performance improvements with the new libfabric while others experienced worse performance