Nekkloud: A software environment for high-order finite element analysis on clusters and clouds

J. Cohen, D. Moxey, C. D. Cantwell, P. Burovskiy, J. Darlington, S. J. Sherwin

2013 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing, pp. 1-5 (2013)

@inproceedings{cohen-2013b,
  author = {Cohen, J. and Moxey, D. and Cantwell, C. D. and Burovskiy, P. and Darlington, J. and Sherwin, S. J.},
  booktitle = {2013 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing},
  title = {Nekkloud: A software environment for high-order finite element analysis on clusters and clouds},
  year = {2013},
  pages = {1-5},
  doi = {10.1109/cluster.2013.6702616},
  url = {https://davidmoxey.uk/assets/pubs/2013-cluster.pdf},
  abstract = {As the capabilities of computational platforms continue to grow, scientific software is becoming ever more complex in order to target these platforms effectively. When using large-scale distributed infrastructure such as clusters and clouds it can be difficult for end-users to make efficient use of these platforms. In the libhpc project we are developing a suite of tools and services to simplify job description and execution on heterogeneous infrastructure. In this paper we present Nekkloud, a web-based software environment that builds on elements of the libhpc framework, for running the Nektar++ high-order finite element code on cluster and cloud platforms. End-users submit their jobs via Nekkloud, which then handles their execution on a chosen computing platform. Nektar++ provides a set of solvers that support scientists across a range of domains, ensuring that Nekkloud has a broad range of use cases. We describe the design and development of Nekkloud, user experience and integration with both local campus infrastructure and remote cloud resources enabling users to make better use of the resources available to them.}
}

Making good use of clusters and clouds is difficult for people whose expertise lies in the science rather than the infrastructure. This paper presents Nekkloud, a web-based environment for running the Nektar++ high- order finite element code on cluster and cloud platforms, where a user submits a job and Nekkloud handles its execution on the chosen platform.