2018 - Initial Facility Design & Location
At the suggestion of OGERO, the HPC4L facility was planned to be setup in Ras Beirut.
The technical drawings of the facility were produced and cost estimates gathered. Already in this preliminary phase, the ambition was to meet the quality criteria found in the most modern high performance computing centers! The planned facility included all the necessary space and equipment for the technical staff, system administrators, and students.
3D models had been produced to carry out integration studies to define how the servers would fit in the available space and how the cooling system would be installed.
2020 - Revised Plans
In 2020, the initial plan was amended and it was decided that the HPC4L facility would be setup at the OGERO premises in Bir Hasan.
This would make it easier for the technical staff in charge of the infrastructure (rack cooling, UPS, HVAC) to lead the operation of the supercomputer.
Because of the foreseen high power density in the HPC4L racks, the choice of the cooling technology to be used required a lot of efforts. Two options were discussed for this project: water-cooling and air-cooling.
However, after further consultation, it was decided that air cooling was to be chosen. The main reasons motivating that decision were that air cooling does not require chillers and that OGERO already possessed the expertise to maintain and operate such cooling systems. The next step consisted in designing the specifications of the cooling system to be used for the HPC4L facility. An in-row cooling scheme was defined and procurement studies were launched.
The images below illustrate how the in-row cooling system adapted in the HPC4L works.
In December 2020, the cooling system was designed and the procurement got underway. The dedicated room chosen to host the HPC4L facility was then equipped with the necessary safety features. A virtual visit of the facility can be accessed through the link in the "Data" tab in menu bar (restricted to the members of the HPC4L consortium).
2022 - Donation Ceremony
After having all the paperwork from both CERN and the Lebanese side done, and the servers have been set to sail to Lebanon during February 2022 and received from Lebanon by the end of February - beginning of March;
The consortium was set to have a donation ceremony on January 14, 2022; where the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, permanent representative of the Lebanese Republic to the United Nations, Mr. Salim Baddoura and several others had the ceremony at the CMS Point 5 where the donated servers where presented as well as an online meeting was done with his excellency, Mr. Johny Corm, minister of Posts and Telecommunications in Lebanon and another roundtable online meeting was done with the HPC4L consortium in Lebanon and at CMS Point 5.
2022 - Donation Shipment
After a few weeks of the donation ceremony, the shipment has set sail to Lebanon from Geneva! The shipment is expected to reach Lebanon within a few weeks and then the servers and all their components will be ready to be installed at the HPC.
2022 - Donation Reception
The shipment has docked at the Beirut Port on April 6th, 2022, where there was a reception of the goods by several members of the HPC4L consortium.
The next day, the shipment was sent to the OGERO headquarters, in Bir Hasan, Beirut. This is where the servers will be installed, in the already build and fully equipped high performance computing facility
2023 - Server Installation
After the reception and delivery of the servers to the OGERO headquarters in Beer Hasan, where the newly built HPC center is located, the servers were then loaded and installed into the HPC, completing the center's infrastructure. The HPC4L project at this point is on the verge completion and the only thing left to do is to configure the servers and connect them to the grid, as Lebanon becomes a CMS Tier 2!
May 2023 - HPC4L Inauguration
H.E. Mr. Najib Mikati, Prime Minister of Lebanon, saluted the efforts of all involved in the HPC4L project during a ceremony in Beirut’s Grand Sérail (image: Office of the President of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon)
On 23 May 2023, European and Lebanese stakeholders gathered in the Grand Sérail of Beirut – the headquarters of the Prime Minister of Lebanon – to inaugurate the computing equipment donated by CERN to the country for use by the HPC4L team. Academics from all over the country were encouraged to engage with the project and access the computing power they need for their research. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Swiss and French embassies, the HPC4L consortium, and CERN/CMS. Enrica Porcari, Head of the CERN IT department, Patricia McBride, spokesperson of the CMS delegation and Martin Gastal, CERN advisor for the Middle East, each gave talks to an audience composed of Lebanese scientists and policymakers. Prime Minister H.E. Mr. Najib Mikati concluded the ceremony by saluting the remarkable efforts achieved by all involved in the HPC4L project.
October 2023 - HPC4L Head of Steering Committee Visit to CERN
In early October, Dr. Yousif Asfour, head of HPC4L steering committee, paid a significant visit to CERN. The purpose was to finalize the integration of HPC4L into the LHC community. During this visit, Dr. Asfour presented in the Fall 2023 Offline and Computing event, conveying the HPC4L team’s appreciation and eagerness to start analysis CMS data. You can check the slides on Indico!
He also convened with members of the community, engaging in discussions regarding the essential steps needed to cement the integration of HPC4L with the CMS WLCG. This collaborative effort aimed to finalize the necessary procedures and connectivity protocols, fortifying the bond between HPC4L and the wider CERN community.
Additionally, Dr. Asfour engaged in discussions with Enrica Porcari, Head of the CERN IT department, and other key members of the IT team. The focus was on planning an on-site storage training session tailored for HPC4L system administrators.