Update of HPC portal applications

We have updated the JupyterLab, RStudio and MATLAB applications in VUB’s OnDemand portal with newer versions of their software environments and a simplified form that should make the default settings of these applications more useful.

• JupyterLab

  • new environment in 2024a with Python v3.12

  • software modules SciPy-bundle (numpy, scpy, pandas) and matplotlib are now loaded by default, no need to click any checkboxes

  • the module panel in JupyterLab will now only display those modules that can be loaded in the active version of the environment avoiding load errors

• RStudio

  • new environment in 2024a with R v4.4.2

  • software modules R-bundle-CRAN and R-bundle-Bioconductor are now loaded by default, which means that more than 1500 R packages are readily available without any further action

  • removed the option to select multiple nodes as R does not support distributed resources by default, if you have a workload that needs using multiple nodes in R please contact VUB-HPC Support

• MATLAB

  • removed version MATLAB/2024a-r3 as it has known bugs, users are encouraged to switch to MATLAB/2024a-r6 instead

  • removed the option to select multiple nodes as MATLAB does not support distributed resources by default, if you have a workload that needs using multiple nodes in MATLAB please contact VUB-HPC Support

The experience with VUB OnDemand since its release has been very positive and hence, it is now time to say goodbye to our notebook platform launched 3 years ago. All the features on the notebook platform are already available in the OnDemand portal so all users can easily switch to the aforementioned applications in the new portal.

Warning

The notebook platform will be shut down on September 1st, 2025 and notebooks.hpc.vub.be will redirect to portal.hpc.vub.be on that date.

Contact us at VUB-HPC Support if you have any comments or questions about these changes.