<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
Hello Christian,
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I only manage two workstations, but with very different hardware (all the types of differences you describe). They initially ran CentOS 8, but since its end of support was shifted earlier than originally scheduled, I did a fresh installation of
Rocky Linux (8.4 at the time, now they are both on 8.5 through regular updates). I have had a very good experience with Rocky as the base system to run cryoSPARC and RELION (I now even have them set up to automatically queue jobs to SLURM, it works fine),
and a bunch of other cryoEM programs (Topaz, cryoDRGN, etc.). It is pretty much "set up once and forget", with minimal maintenance efforts.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">If you are already familiar with CentOS, Rocky will be a smooth transition. Alma Linux is probably also a sensible option (also a RHEL rebuild).</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">CentOS Stream is not a good option, because it updates the kernel more often than new versions of the Nvidia driver get released (because Nvidia follows RHEL updates, and CentOS Stream’s purpose is to be just ahead of RHEL; it doesn’t seem like
Nvidia has any plan of supporting CentOS Stream).<br class="">
<div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
</div>
<div class="">Arch is updated even more often than CentOS Stream, so it will probably be the same kind of struggle to maintain than CentOS 7, but the opposite way: most things in the base OS will be too new and changing too often for the research software you
want to run. Also note that Nvidia does not support Arch, so you would have to rely on the community repository. Since the Nvidia driver is so critical to a base system for GPU workstations, I would recommend limiting your choice of OS to the ones Nvidia supports,
see: <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__developer.nvidia.com_cuda-2Ddownloads-3Ftarget-5Fos-3DLinux-26target-5Farch-3Dx86-5F64&d=DwMGaQ&c=-35OiAkTchMrZOngvJPOeA&r=L7-zyQ-04fFCMRqzLIOnx7H0exGZHwIQe_wMPuY600I&m=CkvlK51L4BVJq-WOK3yXrz_7t-L3SNOr3WKUExu2ZcNWBojC7nAL5PdrAi5yHcbu&s=_cizLH5i2tmuI0nb8-uL8hV0aW0pDqboVN9toCsQZOc&e=" class="">https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads?target_os=Linux&target_arch=x86_64</a> (knowing that you can use Rocky or Alma instead of RHEL). Moreover, I
would strongly recommend installing the Nvidia driver with their RPM or DEB package, not with the "runfile", as this will ensure you never end up with incompatible driver and kernel versions (which the runfile installation does not guard against; been there,
done that).</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I don’t have recent experience with the Debian family to say much about them, but it would probably be fine if you limit your choice to the versions supported by Nvidia (so Debian 11 or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS).</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I hope this helps,</div>
<div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
Guillaume</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<div><br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">On 10 May 2022, at 10:28, Christian Tüting <<a href="mailto:christian.tueting@biochemtech.uni-halle.de" class="">christian.tueting@biochemtech.uni-halle.de</a>> wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<div class="">
<div class="">Dear 3dem mailing list recipients,<br class="">
<br class="">
I would like to get your opinion on which operating system is the most<br class="">
suitable for our local server environment.<br class="">
<br class="">
To frame the question:<br class="">
We have multiple local workstations and storage servers with a very<br class="">
heterogeneous architecture:<br class="">
Different GPUs (2080Ti, 3090), different CPUs (Intel i9, Intel Xeon, AMD<br class="">
EPYC), sometimes with a cache SSD, sometimes not. Different memory<br class="">
sizes/types, different hard drive organization, etc.<br class="">
<br class="">
Currently, Centos 7 is installed on all the machines, but as you might<br class="">
know, this OS is pretty old and the EOL is just in 2 years. As some of<br class="">
the workstations needs some maintenance, I would like to not install<br class="">
Centos 7 again, just to redo this in a couple of months.<br class="">
<br class="">
Our need for the machines is the following:<br class="">
cryoSPARC, Scipion3, Relion<br class="">
AlphaFold, NAMD/Gromacs<br class="">
<br class="">
For the storage/main node servers, there is no special need. We don't<br class="">
have any workload balancer like SLURM, and also the storage servers<br class="">
"just" stores the data, without any special need. Interconnectivity is<br class="">
established over NFS or sshfs, but these should be possible in any unix<br class="">
OS.<br class="">
<br class="">
I personally have experience with [X/K/U]buntu, Centos, and some Arch<br class="">
Linux, so I am aware of the basic differences (e.g. apt vs yum).<br class="">
<br class="">
Proposed by cryoSPARC is Ubuntu, at some other point (might be in the<br class="">
Scipion mailing list), Rocky Linux was proposed. Also, afaik, Scientific<br class="">
Linux is often used.<br class="">
<br class="">
As I am used to Centos 7, handling outdated repos (e.g. GCC4 being the<br class="">
default compiler) is a daily business, I would like to avoid in the<br class="">
future. I think, this strongly points to Ubuntu, where a big and active<br class="">
community is present.<br class="">
<br class="">
Thank you for your feedback :)<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
Best regards<br class="">
Christian<br class="">
Dr. rer. nat. Christian Tüting<br class="">
<br class="">
Kastritis Laboratory for Biomolecular Research<br class="">
Cryo-Electron Microscopy & Computational Structural Biology <br class="">
________________________________________________<br class="">
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg<br class="">
Biozentrum, Room A.2.19<br class="">
IWE ZIK HALOmem NWG III<br class="">
"Kryo-Elektronenmikroskopie an Membranproteinkomplexen"<br class="">
Weinbergweg 22, 06120 Halle<br class="">
tel: +49 345 5524985<br class="">
web (Lab): <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__blogs.urz.uni-2Dhalle.de_kastritislab_&d=DwIDaQ&c=-35OiAkTchMrZOngvJPOeA&r=L7-zyQ-04fFCMRqzLIOnx7H0exGZHwIQe_wMPuY600I&m=M5tV4i7vwtyCEWiBFwqltoUDbWfJrQ6Rq4OeG3w6Pf3szICL5sanWtIgUYWC3B5_&s=UJR09zZF0h0c-vOZd4S3RmffzgEiJ7y_XgkY01dJpm8&e=" class="">
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__blogs.urz.uni-2Dhalle.de_kastritislab_&d=DwIDaQ&c=-35OiAkTchMrZOngvJPOeA&r=L7-zyQ-04fFCMRqzLIOnx7H0exGZHwIQe_wMPuY600I&m=M5tV4i7vwtyCEWiBFwqltoUDbWfJrQ6Rq4OeG3w6Pf3szICL5sanWtIgUYWC3B5_&s=UJR09zZF0h0c-vOZd4S3RmffzgEiJ7y_XgkY01dJpm8&e=</a>
<br class="">
web (HALOmem): <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.halomem.de_en_&d=DwIDaQ&c=-35OiAkTchMrZOngvJPOeA&r=L7-zyQ-04fFCMRqzLIOnx7H0exGZHwIQe_wMPuY600I&m=M5tV4i7vwtyCEWiBFwqltoUDbWfJrQ6Rq4OeG3w6Pf3szICL5sanWtIgUYWC3B5_&s=YPBQ4XfDHsZK6U3AgwzMuzhoNUcTjc4S2ntJIQ9jrJo&e=" class="">
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.halomem.de_en_&d=DwIDaQ&c=-35OiAkTchMrZOngvJPOeA&r=L7-zyQ-04fFCMRqzLIOnx7H0exGZHwIQe_wMPuY600I&m=M5tV4i7vwtyCEWiBFwqltoUDbWfJrQ6Rq4OeG3w6Pf3szICL5sanWtIgUYWC3B5_&s=YPBQ4XfDHsZK6U3AgwzMuzhoNUcTjc4S2ntJIQ9jrJo&e=</a>
<br class="">
<br class="">
_______________________________________________<br class="">
3dem mailing list<br class="">
<a href="mailto:3dem@ncmir.ucsd.edu" class="">3dem@ncmir.ucsd.edu</a><br class="">
https://mail.ncmir.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/3dem<br class="">
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br class="">
</div>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<title>Page Title</title>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
När du har kontakt med oss på Uppsala universitet med e-post så innebär det att vi behandlar dina personuppgifter. För att läsa mer om hur vi gör det kan du läsa här: <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.uu.se_om-2Duu_dataskydd-2Dpersonuppgifter_&d=DwQGaQ&c=-35OiAkTchMrZOngvJPOeA&r=L7-zyQ-04fFCMRqzLIOnx7H0exGZHwIQe_wMPuY600I&m=CkvlK51L4BVJq-WOK3yXrz_7t-L3SNOr3WKUExu2ZcNWBojC7nAL5PdrAi5yHcbu&s=1H-3ATQw0LNN6FPBxOEq0wh03XKun3SLQSI_opFoY64&e=">http://www.uu.se/om-uu/dataskydd-personuppgifter/</a>
<br>
<br>
E-mailing Uppsala University means that we will process your personal data. For more information on how this is performed, please read here: <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.uu.se_en_about-2Duu_data-2Dprotection-2Dpolicy&d=DwQGaQ&c=-35OiAkTchMrZOngvJPOeA&r=L7-zyQ-04fFCMRqzLIOnx7H0exGZHwIQe_wMPuY600I&m=CkvlK51L4BVJq-WOK3yXrz_7t-L3SNOr3WKUExu2ZcNWBojC7nAL5PdrAi5yHcbu&s=oqq2d5QKG47Iu5cXgfEOcrLUtJtfziSF2Gww78VTp2k&e=">http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/data-protection-policy</a>
</body>
</html>