NCAS Computational Modelling Services

Momentum Partnership newsletter 📰

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Date: 3 August 2026

The latest newsletter from the Momentum Partnership is now available online here.

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ARCHER2 end of service

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Date: 29 July 2026

ARCHER2 will be decommissioned on November 21st 2026. Lots of further information can be found on the ARCHER2 webpage.

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UM Introduction Course

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Dates: 3-5 February 2026
Location: In person: University of Leeds

The course is a mix of practical exercises and informal lectures covering a range of topics including: running UM suites, managing Cylc workflows, handling UM data files, and troubleshooting common problems.

For further details, including how to apply, see the NCAS Training pages

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Important: n02 disk space is full

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The n02 work disk continues to operate very near the project quota. This is unsustainable and is likely the cause of recent job slow-downs, see Archer2 known issues.

We all need to take action to reduce data volume or we will not be able to use the service. We have provided some advice for managing your disk space here: https://cms.ncas.ac.uk/archer2/storage/

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PUMA2 & ARCHER2 Outage

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As announced by ARCHER2 there will be a full power outage at the Advanced Computing Facility (ACF) from Friday 29th August 2025 to Monday 15th September 2025 in order to fix a significant Health and Safety risk associated with the power supply to the site. This means that both ARCHER2 & PUMA2 will be unavailable during this time.

Further details at: https://www.archer2.ac.uk/support-access/status.html

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IMPORTANT: Retirement of JASMIN Gridftp server

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

JASMIN will be retiring the Gridftp server (gridftp1.jasmin.ac.uk) on 13 December 2024. Globus will then become the recommended way for transferring data between ARCHER2 and JASMIN within Rose/Cylc workflows. All users are asked to register for Globus and change their suites to use Globus for data transfer from ARCHER2 to JASMIN as soon as possible.

Globus can also be used for one-off data transfers. Please see the JASMIN webpages & Globus documentation for information on how to do this.

Instructions for updating UM Workflows

1. Register for Globus Online:

Register for Globus and follow the setup instructions at Setting up Globus for PPTransfer (If you have an NCAS google account, you can register using that)

2. Suite Changes:

In panel fcm_make_pp -> configuration check you are using one of the following 2 postproc branches:
- postproc_2.3_archer2_jasmin_rewrite
- postproc_2.4_archer2_jasmin_rewrite
If you are not using either of these branches please contact CMS Support for advice by raising a ticket on the CMS Helpdesk.
In panel fcm_make_pp -> configuration: Make sure config_rev is blank and that no revision number is specified for the postproc_2.X_archer2_jasmin_rewrite branch in pp_sources.

Note: Your suite may be setup to use optional configuration overrides, if so, you will need to look in app/postproc/opt/rose-app-archer2.conf instead.
In app/postproc/rose-app.conf add the following variables to the [namelist:pptransfer] section and set gridftp=false:
```
globus_cli=true
globus_default_colls=true
globus_notify='off'
```
Optionally at the top of the file, change the meta line so that you can see the options in the rose edit gui:
```
meta=/home/n02/n02/ros/meta/postproc_2.X_archer2_jasmin_rewrite/rose-meta/archive_and_meaning/postproc/pp2X_globus
```
Where both Xs in the above should be replaced with either 3 or 4 depending on the version of postproc you are using.

3. Updating a Running Suite:

Reload the suite: rose suite-run --reload
Hold the whole suite, or just the next postproc task
In the Cylc GUI: Control -> Insert Task(s)…
Set TASK-NAME.CYCLE-POINT=fcm_make_pp.<YYYYMMDDT0000Z>, where <YYYYMMDDT0000Z> is an active cycle point
Leave stop-point=POINT blank
Check the “Do not check if a cycle point is valid or not” box
Insert, and wait for the task to complete.
If nothing happens: You probably typed something incorrectly! Try again.
In the Cylc GUI: Control –> Insert Task(s)…
Set TASK-NAME.CYCLE-POINT=fcm_make2_pp<YYYYMMDDT0000Z>, where <YYYYMMDDT0000Z> is an active cycle point
Leave stop-point=POINT blank
Check the “Do not check if a cycle point is valid or not” box
Insert, and wait for the task to complete.
Release the held suite/postproc task

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ARCHER2 File copy failures

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The error will potentially affect all Rose/Cylc suites that use the postproc app, which stages data on ARCHER2 prior to transferring it to JASMIN.

As a matter of urgency:

All suites that use postproc should be paused now.
Users need to check on ARCHER2 that post-processed data is complete and not corrupted.
Users need to check on JASMIN group workspace and tape that post-processed data is complete and not corrupted.

CMS will deploy a fix to postproc shortly.

If data corruption has occurred, UM suites will need to be re-run.

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UM Introduction Course

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Dates: 28-30 November 2023
Location: University of Leeds

The course is a mix of practical exercises and informal lectures covering a range of topics including running suites, code management, file formats, and troubleshooting common problems.

For further details, including how to apply, see the NCAS Training pages

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OS upgrade - Unified Model

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Following the ARCHER2 OS Upgrade, NCAS-CMS have now rebuilt and tested the majority of underpinning UM software that we maintain. We are happy to announce that users can now resume running the UM on ARCHER2.

Before restarting UM suites, however, there are a number of changes that need to make to the suites. The model executables must also be rebuilt before resuming the run.

Suite changes and instructions on how to restart a suite are detailed on our ARCHER2 OS Upgrade page.

Please note, we are working to increase the coverage for less frequently used suites and versions of the model, so please check the instructions for further updates.

If you encounter any problems please raise them on the NCAS-CMS Helpdesk

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Major Software Upgrade

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Following the ARCHER2 return to service NCAS-CMS will rebuild and reinstall software that we maintain. UM suites will not run until we have completed this work, please wait for an announcement from us before attempting to run UM suites.

Further general information can be found on the ARCHER2 upgrade page: https://docs.archer2.ac.uk/faq/upgrade-2023/#after-the-upgrade-process

Any changes that need to be made to UM suites will be added here as and when they become available.