spake stack on Hera and Jet

[hu5970]

The ufs model is updating to use spack stack 1.5.1. But it points to
Hera: prepend_path("MODULEPATH", "/scratch1/NCEPDEV/nems/role.epic/spack-stack/spack-stack-1.5.1/envs/unified-env/install/modulefiles/Core")
JET: prepend_path("MODULEPATH", "/mnt/lfs4/HFIP/hfv3gfs/role.epic/spack-stack/spack-stack-1.5.1/envs/unified-env/install/modulefiles/Core")

While the GSI points to:
Hera: prepend_path("MODULEPATH", "/scratch1/NCEPDEV/nems/role.epic/spack-stack/spack-stack-1.5.1/envs/gsi-addon/install/modulefiles/Core")
JET: prepend_path("MODULEPATH", "/mnt/lfs4/HFIP/hfv3gfs/role.epic/spack-stack/spack-stack-1.5.1/envs/gsi-addon/install/modulefiles/Core")

Anyone know what are differences between unified-env and gsi-addon? Or what module is missing in unified-env for GSI to compile and run?

[RussTreadon-NOAA]

Not sure this fully answers your question, but here is a g-w comment from Dave about gsi-addon:
NOAA-EMC/global-workflow#1868 (comment)

[DavidHuber-NOAA]

Yeah, the gsi-addon environment is built on top of the unified-env and just adds a few libraries. It should work with the UFS when it is upgraded to spack-stack/1.5.1/unified-env.

[hu5970]

@DavidHuber-NOAA I do not know how those spack-stacks are maintained. The FV3 model is testing to use 1.5.1. If they found some module in unified-env need to be updated. Will gsi-addon get the same module version update automatically. Why those libraries needed by GSI cannot be part of unified-env?

[DavidHuber-NOAA]

@hu5970 If a library is installed into unified-env, then the module files in gsi-addon may need to be updated afterwards. I believe this is a simple step with a single command to generate all of the module files, though it's possible that the installation in gsi-addon would need to be refreshed.

JCSDA manages the spack-stack repository and a combination of JCSDA, EPIC, and EMC staff manages the builds. The repository, here, allows users to request installations through issues and also report any problems.

There are a total of 6 libraries installed in gsi-addon that are not in unified-env. It was built this way because 1) it's easier to maintain, 2) this was initially a test environment, and 3) (I believe) that one pair of those libraries, met/9.1.3 and metplus/3.1.1, would have caused conflicts in unified-env's met/11.1.0 and metplus/5.1.0. These pair of libraries are actually needed for EMC_verif-global -- the global verification system. I had requested them as part of the installation to support the upgrade of the entire global-workflow pipeline, in particular the GSI, GFS-utils, and EMC_verif-global.

Of the remaining 4 libraries, two were needed for the GSI: bufr/11.7.0 and gsi-ncdiag/1.1.2. bufr/11.7.0 is need because of runtime performance issues with bufr/12.0.0 (which is installed in unified-env). gsi-ncdiag/1.1.2 fixed a memory over-allocation when appending to netCDF files which had existed since its inception, but only materialized when hdf5 was upgraded to 1.14.0.

The final two libraries were needed by the GFS-utils and are the same versions as are available in unified-env, but with added 8-byte integer support: w3emc/2.10.0 and ip/4.3.0.

[RussTreadon-NOAA]

@hu5970 , is @DavidHuber-NOAA 's reply sufficient? If so, please close this issue. If not, what else do you need to know?

[RussTreadon-NOAA]

@hu5970 , may we close this issue?

[hu5970]

@RussTreadon-NOAA @DavidHuber-NOAA Thanks for detailed explanation of the spack-stack gsi-addon. Please close this issue.