Software Infrastructure for the fully containerized Cluster at GSI/FAIR

Abstract

Scientific research at the FAIR accelerator facility spans a wide range of fields, including Nuclear Physics, Atomic Physics, and Heavy Ion Physics. Work- flows for simulations and data analysis in FAIR experiments range from High Through- put Computing to OpenMPI calculations and traditional batch processing. Operating a shared computing cluster that is scalable enough to meet the diverse needs of such a heterogeneous user community presents a significant challenge.
We briefly summarize the principles of a fully containerized approach used in the GSI/FAIR computing cluster, which has been successfully operating for five years. This approach involves additional software infrastructure to support a reproducible containerized environment and enable reliable testing. This paper presents the fun- damental building blocks of this software infrastructure in detail.