Merge pull request #380 from boegel/blog_post_efp

add blog post on integration of EESSI into EuroHPC Federation Platform

Author: bedroge

docs/blog/posts/2025/02/EESSI-logo.webp

@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+---
+authors: [boegel]
+date: 2025-02-10
+slug: integration-efp
+---
+
+# Integration in the EuroHPC Federation Platform
+
+A couple of weeks ago the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) [announced the consortium that will develop the
+**EuroHPC Federation Platform (EFP)**](https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/paving-way-eurohpc-federation-platform-2024-12-19_en).
+
+This ambitious effort will deliver a 'one-stop shop' for researchers using the EuroHPC supercomputers,
+as well as the upcoming EuroHPC AI Factories and quantum computers, built with open source software.
+
+<figure markdown="span">
+![EuroHPC JU logo](eurohpc-ju-logo.webp){width=70%}
+</figure>
+
+Ghent University is part of this consortium to **integrate EESSI into the EuroHPC Federation Platform** as common software stack.
+
+Henrik Nortamo (CSC), the technical lead of the EFP consortium, gave an excellent 20-minute talk on EFP
+last weekend in the 10th *HPC, Big Data, and Data Science* devroom at FOSDEM'25 in Brussels.
+**Slides and recording of the talk are available [here](https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-6718-eurohpc-fp-a-federated-platform-for-hpc-infrastructure-in-europe-built-with-open-source-software/).**
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+
+## The EFP consortium
+
+The consortium that will develop the EuroHPC Federation Platform consists of:
+
+* [CSC](https://csc.fi/en) in Finland, the Hosting Entity for [LUMI](https://www.lumi-supercomputer.eu), as lead partner;
+* [IT4Innovations](https://www.it4i.cz/en) in Czech Republic, the Hosting Entitory for [Karolina](https://www.it4i.cz/en/infrastructure/karolina);
+* [Ghent University](https://www.ugent.be/en) in Belgium;
+* [University of Tartu](https://ut.ee/en) in Estonia;
+* [GÉANT](https://geant.org), the pan-European data network for the research and education community;
+* [NORDUnet](https://www.nordu.net), a Nordic collaboration connecting national research and education network;
+
+<figure markdown="span">
+![EuroHPC JU logo](EFP-group-picture-kickoff-meeting-20250117.webp){width=100%}
+</figure>
+
+A productive kickoff meeting was held on 16+17 January 2025 in Helsinki, Finland.
+
+Each of the components of the federated platform were presented by and to the consortium partners,
+and practical aspects of executing the planned work in the coming months and years were discussed.
+
+## Scope and timeline of EFP
+
+The federated platform aims to facilitate access to and usage of the EuroHPC infrastructure.
+
+It will provide:
+
+* Federated Single-Sign-On, based on [MyAccessID](https://wiki.geant.org/display/MyAccessID);
+* Direct access using (short-lived) SSH certificates;
+* Web interface for interactive use, based on [Open OnDemand](https://openondemand.org);
+* Common software stack, based on [EESSI](https://eessi.io);
+* Resource allocation and management across systems, based on [Waldur](https://waldur.com);
+* Advanced workflows and data transfer, based on [LEXIS](https://docs.lexis.tech/) and [HEAppE](https://heappe.eu/);
+
+<figure markdown="span">
+![EuroHPC JU logo](EFP-architecture-20250202.webp){width=100%}
+</figure>
+
+The development of the federated platform started just a couple of weeks ago (January 2025).
+An initial production version of the platform with currently online EuroHPC JU systems integrated
+is planned to be operational by March 2026.
+
+The work is funded by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, who is providing a total budget of ~20 million Euro
+to the EFP consortium for 2025-2029.
+
+
+## Powered by open source software
+
+<figure markdown="span">
+![EuroHPC JU logo](EFP-Henrik-FOSDEM-20250202.webp){width=100%}
+</figure>
+
+!!! quote "Quote by Henrik Nortamo (CSC.fi), technical lead of EFP @ HPC devroom at FOSDEM'25"
+
+    ***This would not be possible without open source.***
+
+    *If you consider the scope of the functionality, and the implicit understanding
+    the implemented technologies have of user requirements, starting from scratch and
+    compiling that into something sensible would be an *extremely* large job.*
+
+    *Federation requires of course a degree of trust that our stuff works.
+    With open source, somebody else is running it, you can have a look at it, you can go and check it out.
+    It's much easier than going "here's my binary blob, please install it so that stuff works".*
+
+    *Also on the promised features: I've shown you a bunch of stuff, I'm promising you many things
+    which can be done. If this was a closed-source solution, which wasn't used anywhere
+    and you couldn't look into it, you would probably think that "he's trying to bullshit us, there's no way".
+    But now you know: yes, that is an open source component, it works there, I understand why it works,
+    this could also work.*
+
+    [(see also slides + recording of Henrik's talk on EuroHPC Federation Platform)](https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-6718-eurohpc-fp-a-federated-platform-for-hpc-infrastructure-in-europe-built-with-open-source-software/)
+
+
+## EESSI as common software stack
+
+<figure markdown="span">
+![EESSI logo](EESSI-logo.webp){width=70%}
+</figure>
+
+[EESSI](https://eessi.io/docs) will be integrated in the EuroHPC Federation Platform as a part of
+the *Federated Software Catalogue* component, a common software stack that will be available on the EuroHPC systems.
+
+Researchers will be able to consult which software is available on the various EuroHPC systems through
+the *Federated Software Listing* component of the federated platform.
+
+
+## Current status of EESSI on EuroHPC JU systems
+
+This work will foster a quick(er) and broad adoption of EESSI on EuroHPC infrastructure.
+
+We expect that there will also be a "trickle-down" effect to national and local supercomputers
+throughout Europe (and beyond) to also make EESSI available there in the short term.
+
+Today, EESSI is already available on various EuroHPC JU supercomputers,
+including Vega in Slovenia, Karolina in Czech Republic, and (the A64FX partition of) Deucalion in Portugal.
+
+Discussions with various other EuroHPC JU systems to also make EESSI available there are ongoing, including
+MeluXina in Luxembourg, MareNostrum 5 in Spain, LUMI in Finland, and JUPITER in Germany.
+
+An up-to-date overview of systems where EESSI is known to be available is available in the EESSI documentation:
+[https://eessi.io/docs/systems](https://www.eessi.io/docs/systems).