FAQ

What does the acronym HEAppE stand for? High-End Application Execution Middleware.

What is the main purpose of the HEAppE Middleware? To establish a connection between a user and an HPC infrastructure without direct access to it (access is secured by the HEAppE Middleware). To put it simply, users only access the Middleware software and can use only the Middleware’s functions.

Why is better to have indirect access to an HPC infrastructure? There are two main reasons: security and the user’s level of experience. In terms of security, users cannot intentionally or unintentionally violate any security laws (norms) set by an HPC infrastructure or endanger the operation of the entire system through careless handling. In the latter case, the user’s level of experience, users run only pre-prepared user-friendly job execution templates, and therefore do not require any special knowledge or skills about specific query languages for running jobs. It is worth mentioning that there are also fewer complicated administration steps (e.g. no AUP) and account management (e.g. creating accounts) is easier.

What are the main functionalities of the HEAppE Middleware?

  1. Provides HPC capabilities as a service to client applications and their users

  2. Offers a unified interface for different operating systems and schedulers

  3. Provides authentication and authorization to provided functions

  4. Provides monitoring and reporting of executed jobs and their progress

  5. Provides concurrent information about the state of the cluster

What do I need to be able to deploy the HEAppE Middleware software? This depends on your planned application. There are two options – Local and HPC Cluster mode; both possibilities are described in detail if you follow this link. In most cases (but not all implementations) you need: a virtual machine (VM) for running the docker container (for security purposes, the VM should be part of an internal HPC infrastructure network), an accepted project for HPC resources, external user accounts (usually, it will create an admin HEAppE instance) and HPC functional accounts (accounts assigned to the project). The details are described in the HEAppE deployment manual.

Is the HEAppE deployment simple? It depends; for the local mode/purpose it is simple, but for cluster deployment you need to have certain PC skills (intermediate).

Do I need any special skills? Yes, but they are not so special. Being able to use and work with Linux, VMs, networking (DNS, proxy, SSL), and dockers are required skills.

What is Middleware? Middleware is software that resides between two applications or services to facilitate communication and data management.

What kind of HPC schedulers does HEAppE support? Slurm and PBS Professional workload managers.

What is the release frequency quarterly

What is the HEAppE support email address? support.heappe@it4i.cz

Where was the HEAppE software developed? At IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center.

Who is the target user/customer? The target audience is anyone (researchers, SMEs) who wants to utilize the powerful computational capabilities of an HPC infrastructure.

What is the HEAppE Public License? GNU General Public License v3.0.

Can Open Source software be used for commercial purposes? Absolutely. All Open Source software can be used for commercial purpose.