Merge branch 'main' into expand-communication

Author: bcumming

docs/alps/clusters.md

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Clusters on Alps are provided as part of different [platforms][ref-alps-platform
 
     [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Clariden][ref-cluster-clariden]
 
-    Bristen is a small system with a100 nodes, used for **todo**
+    Bristen is a small system with A100 nodes used for data processing, development, x86 workloads and ML inference services.
 
     [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Bristen][ref-cluster-bristen]
 </div>

docs/clusters/bristen.md

@@ -1,6 +1,90 @@
 [](){#ref-cluster-bristen}
 # Bristen
 
-!!! todo
-    use the [clariden][clariden] as template.
+Bristen is an Alps cluster that provides GPU accelerators and filesystems designed to meet the needs of machine learning workloads in the [MLP][ref-platform-mlp].
 
+## Cluster Specification
+
+### Compute Nodes
+Bristen consists of 32 A100 nodes [NVIDIA A100 nodes][ref-alps-a100-node]. The number of nodes can change when nodes are added or removed from other clusters on Alps.
+
+| node type | number of nodes | total CPU sockets | total GPUs |
+|-----------|--------| ----------------- | ---------- |
+| [a100][ref-alps-a100-node] | 32 | 32 | 128 |
+
+Nodes are in the [`normal` slurm partition][ref-slurm-partition-normal].
+
+### Storage and file systems
+
+Bristen uses the [MLp filesystems and storage policies][ref-mlp-storage].
+
+## Getting started
+
+### Logging into Bristen
+
+To connect to Bristen via SSH, first refer to the [ssh guide][ref-ssh].
+
+!!! example "`~/.ssh/config`"
+    Add the following to your [SSH configuration][ref-ssh-config] to enable you to directly connect to bristen using `ssh bristen`.
+    ```
+    Host bristen
+        HostName bristen.alps.cscs.ch
+        ProxyJump ela
+        User cscsusername
+        IdentityFile ~/.ssh/cscs-key
+        IdentitiesOnly yes
+    ```
+
+### Software
+
+Users are encouraged to use containers on Bristen.
+
+* Jobs using containers can be easily set up and submitted using the [container engine][ref-container-engine].
+* To build images, see the [guide to building container images on Alps][ref-build-containers].
+
+## Running Jobs on Bristen
+
+### SLURM
+
+Bristen uses [SLURM][ref-slurm] as the workload manager, which is used to launch and monitor distributed workloads, such as training runs.
+
+There is currently a single slurm partition on the system:
+
+* the `normal` partition is for all production workloads.
+    + nodes in this partition are not shared.
+
+| name | nodes  | max nodes per job | time limit |
+| --   | --     | --                | -- |
+| `normal` | 32       | -    | 24 hours |
+
+<!--
+See the SLURM documentation for instructions on how to run jobs on the [Grace-Hopper nodes][ref-slurm-gh200].
+
+??? example "how to check the number of nodes on the system"
+    You can check the size of the system by running the following command in the terminal:
+    ```console
+    $ sinfo --format "| %20R | %10D | %10s | %10l | %10A |"
+    | PARTITION            | NODES      | JOB_SIZE   | TIMELIMIT  | NODES(A/I) |
+    | debug                | 32         | 1-2        | 30:00      | 3/29       |
+    | normal               | 1266       | 1-infinite | 1-00:00:00 | 812/371    |
+    | xfer                 | 2          | 1          | 1-00:00:00 | 1/1        |
+    ```
+    The last column shows the number of nodes that have been allocated in currently running jobs (`A`) and the number of jobs that are idle (`I`).
+-->
+
+### FirecREST
+
+Bristen can also be accessed using [FircREST][ref-firecrest] at the `https://api.cscs.ch/ml/firecrest/v1` API endpoint.
+
+### Scheduled Maintenance
+
+Wednesday morning 8-12 CET is reserved for periodic updates, with services potentially unavailable during this timeframe. If the queues must be drained (redeployment of node images, rebooting of compute nodes, etc) then a Slurm reservation will be in place that will prevent jobs from running into the maintenance window. 
+
+Exceptional and non-disruptive updates may happen outside this time frame and will be announced to the users mailing list, and on the [CSCS status page](https://status.cscs.ch).
+
+### Change log
+
+!!! change "2025-03-05 container engine updated"
+    now supports better containers that go faster. Users do not to change their workflow to take advantage of these updates.
+
+### Known issues

docs/clusters/clariden.md

@@ -73,12 +73,13 @@ There are two slurm partitions on the system:
 
 | name | nodes  | max nodes per job | time limit |
 | --   | --     | --                | -- |
-| `normal` | 1266       | -    | 24 hours |
-| `debug`  | 32         | 2    | 30 minutes |
+| `normal` | 1204       | -    | 24 hours |
+| `debug`  | 24         | 2    | 1.5 node-hours |
 | `xfer`   | 2          | 1    | 24 hours |
 
 * nodes in the `normal` and `debug` partitions are not shared
 * nodes in the `xfer` partition can be shared
+* nodes in the `debug` queue have a 1.5 node-hour time limit. This means you could for example request 2 nodes for 45 minutes each, or 1 single node for the full time limit.
 
 See the SLURM documentation for instructions on how to run jobs on the [Grace-Hopper nodes][ref-slurm-gh200].
 

docs/platforms/mlp/index.md

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ The main cluster provided by the MLP is Clariden, a large Grace-Hopper GPU syste
 <div class="grid cards" markdown>
 -   :fontawesome-solid-mountain: [__Bristen__][ref-cluster-bristen]
 
-    Bristen is a smaller system with [A100 GPU nodes][ref-alps-a100-node] for **todo**
+    Bristen is a smaller system with [A100 GPU nodes][ref-alps-a100-node] for data processing, development, x86 workloads and inference services.
 </div>
 
 [](){#ref-mlp-storage}

docs/running/slurm.md

@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ In these cases SLURM jobs must be configured to assign multiple ranks to a singl
 This is best done using [NVIDIA's Multi-Process Service (MPS)].
 To use MPS, launch your application using the following wrapper script, which will start MPS on one rank per node and assign GPUs to ranks according to the CPU mask of a rank, ensuring the closest GPU is used:
 
-```bash
+```bash title="mps-wrapper.sh"
 #!/bin/bash
 # Example mps-wrapper.sh usage:
 # > srun [srun args] mps-wrapper.sh [cmd] [cmd args]

docs/services/firecrest.md

@@ -45,7 +45,8 @@ FirecREST is available for all three major [Alps platforms][ref-alps-platforms],
 <tr><th>Platform</th><th>Version</th><th>API Endpoint</th><th>Clusters</th></tr>
 <tr><td style="vertical-align: middle;" rowspan="2">HPC Platform</td><td>v1</td><td>https://api.cscs.ch/hpc/firecrest/v1</td><td style="vertical-align: middle;" rowspan="2"><a href="../../clusters/daint">Daint</a>, <a href="../../clusters/eiger">Eiger</a></td></tr>
 <tr>                                 <td>v2</td><td>https://api.cscs.ch/hpc/firecrest/v2</td></tr>
-<tr><td>ML Platform</td><td>v1</td><td>https://api.cscs.ch/ml/firecrest/v1</td><td style="vertical-align: middle;"><a href="../../clusters/bristen">Bristen</a>, <a href="../../clusters/clariden">Clariden</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="vertical-align: middle;" rowspan="2">ML Platform</td><td>v1</td><td>https://api.cscs.ch/ml/firecrest/v1</td><td style="vertical-align: middle;" rowspan="2"><a href="../../clusters/bristen">Bristen</a>, <a href="../../clusters/clariden">Clariden</a></td></tr>
+<tr>                                 <td>v2</td><td>https://api.cscs.ch/ml/firecrest/v2</td></tr>
 <tr><td style="vertical-align: middle;" rowspan="2">CW Platform</td><td>v1</td><td>https://api.cscs.ch/cw/firecrest/v1</td><td style="vertical-align: middle;" rowspan="2"><a href="../../clusters/santis">Santis</a></td></tr>
 <tr><td>v2</td><td>https://api.cscs.ch/cw/firecrest/v2</td></tr>
 </table>