Skip to Content

Blue Waters Operations Transition

Users on Expiring Allocations

  • Existing RSA tokens will work for ssh and Globus through March 31, 2020
  • Existing projects will be unable to add/remove users after December 19, 2019

Change to Duo Two-Factor Authentication

  • User portal sign-in switched from RSA to Duo on December 10, 2019
  • New project Duo enrollment instructions are at https://go.ncsa.illinois.edu/2fa
  • Duo-authenticated ssh access is via bw-duo.ncsa.illinois.edu
  • Duo-authenticated Globus access is via endpoints with a -duo suffix
  • Myproxy/gsissh access requires RSA tokens and ends March 31, 2020 April 7, 2020 [Updated]
    • [bw | bw-duo | h2ologin | h2ologin-duo].ncsa.illinois.edu hostnames will all accept Duo authentication
    • Original online storage Globus endpoint names will switch from RSA to Duo authentication April 7, 2020
    • Online storage Globus endpoint names with -duo suffix deprecated April 7, 2020 and permanently retired April 14, 2020

Scheduling and Charging (Starting December 20, 2019)

  • Low queue and other discounts discontinued
  • Maximum job duration extended from two days to one week
  • Topology-aware scheduling disabled

Nearline Storage

  • Nearline (tape) system is currently read-only
  • Nearline (tape) system permanent shutdown occurs March 31, 2020
  • New projects will NOT receive an allocation on nearline

Online Storage

  • New project default scratch quotas reduced from 500TB to 50TB
  • Regular scratch purges of untouched files end December 19, 2019
  • Disaster-recovery backups of home and projects end December 19, 2019
  • Default umask for new file creation changing from 0022 to 0077 on December 19, 2019
  • Top-level folder ACL modification from home, projects, and scratch will be disabled by default
    • New users and projects: December 19, 2019
    • Existing users and projects: January 14, 2020

SSH Key Rotation

  • Login nodes will have ssh host keys rotated
    • DUO logins already using new keys
    • RSA logins will rotate on January 14, 2020 and may see warning message when connecting
  • Recommend user key rotation in some instances as well