Would Guix be suited to configure proprietary software on an HPC?

Guix
1

Hi, everyone!

Over at $DAYJOB we have an HPC we’re using to run fire and explosion simulations as a part of risk analysis. I am looking to increase our efficiency for reproducing earlier simulations, with the main issue today being that we have no inherent way to reconfigure the machine to how it was when the simulations where run.

I have absolutely zero experience with Guix, Nix or other “declaratively configured OS’s”. Being able to package a set of results with a short description (a sort of lockfile) for the configuration used to produce those results, sound alluring. Am I correct in thinking this is a suited task for Guix?

I want the equivalent of:

These results were produced using FIRE-SOFTWARE ver. 42
with the input-files defined [here](/path/to/input/files/).

Run again using =guix run-fire-software inputfile=.

where FIRE-SOFTWARE has its own .scm configuration.

The machine is running a fairly old version of CentOS, so I expect we are going to have a fairly comprehensive upgrade procedure soon either way.

Apologies if I have completely misunderstood the appeal of Guix.

2

Generally speaking, yes, you can do such things with Guix. I think you should contact Guix-HPC, cause they can provide more detailed consultation on this topic.

Also check this. I think it looks interesting.

3

That does look interesting.

Thanks! I’ll contact them and take it from there.