Containerisation to enable binary portability: A use case from climate research

Climate change has far reaching implications, affecting many sectors of society and the economy.  Climate research rests on running large and intricate numerical models to simulate the effect of various emissions scenarios on temperature and other meteorological variables. The Unified Model (UM) used by Dr Pauling is one of such codes. 

Compiling the UM can be a daunting task, as the code not only relies on thousands of files but also configuration files, which point to data stored on remote sites, custom tools to fetch data and code, and a custom build system that determines the order of compilation of Fortran files. 

With the advent of new NeSI computing in 2025 to replace the capability supercomputer Maui, NeSI has devoted resources to help scientists migrate to our AMD Milan based cluster. To facilitate the transition, NeSI has built an Apptainer container with a version of UM, which can be ported to any platform running on a recent Linux operating system. This means that researchers can share their executables with colleagues and/or run on the platform of their choice, whether on NeSI or on another supercomputing site. Here we present our experience in containerising the UM with an emphasis on lessons learned and gotchas. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Pletzer helps scientists run better and faster on NeSI platforms. Alex has a PhD in physics. But over the years, he found himself drifting towards computing and considers himself now a research software engineer. You can find him windsurfing in Wellington and watercolour painting in his free time.

-----

For more information about the eResearch NZ / eRangahau Aotearoa conference, visit:
https://eresearchnz.co.nz/