The purpose of this space is to keep users of ECMWF services informed about the move to the new data centre, update them any service disruptions or degradation this might cause and to highlight any action user might need to take.

General

HPCF (and ecgate)

The Atos system...

Who is affected?

Action to take

DHS move (MARS and ECFS)

The Data Handling System (DHS), providing the MARS and ECFS services, needs to be moved to Bologna before the new Atos HPCF will produce an increased archive load. A detailed migration timeline is shown in the transition plan where all events are relative to day D, the day when the access to MARS and ECFS in Reading will be switched off. The DHS move is expected to last up to 4 weeks. To minimise the impact of the move, essential data, necessary to continue operational and time-critical activities, has been identified and archived in a Temporary-DHS. In preparation of the DHS move we will conduct a number of dry-runs, during which the access to the main DHS in Reading will be blocked. The purpose of the dry runs is to verify that the Temporary-DHS contains all essential data necessary to continue all critical activities during the move. Some of the dry-runs will last for 1-2 days. A final longer dry-run, lasting 5-7 days, is expected to happen 4 weeks before the move and will help to establish the exact date of day D.

Main service disruptions

The table below gives an indication on the service disruptions foreseen as part of the DHS-Move.

Impact to MARS service

No impact expected

The following services/data are not expected to be impacted by the dry-runs and the DHS-moveMove:

• Operational Forecast Production (Everything listed in the Catalogue of ECMWF real-time products, ERA5T, CAMS, …)
• Access to recent operational data (verification time less than 1 month in the past)
• Archiving into MARS
• MS Time-critical suites
• Atos HPC Alpha/Beta testing

For any Any other access to services/data please see will be affected as described below. 

Degradation of service/data access

The following services/access to data will be degraded during dry-runs and the DHS-move

• WebAPI registered (private)
• MARS
• ERA5 BX production

Unavailability of service/data

The following services/data might be severely impacted or even unavailable are not expected to be available during dry-runs and the DHS-move:

• WebAPI public
• ADS/CDS external
• Public datasets TIGGE/S2S/
• IFS Research experiments
• Historical data: Operational data, ERA5

Impact to ECFS service

During services disruptions retrieval of any data dry-runs and the DHS move access to data archived in ECFS which has not been identified as essential will be degraded or not be possible. Archiving is not expected to be available. However, archiving into ECFS should not be affected by the DHS migration.

Who is affected?

Recommended user action

• Users of MARS and ECFS are urged to check if and how their work might be affected by the DHS-Move and plan accordingly.
• Major changes to production processes etc. are best avoided during this period. For some activities the best course of action might be to avoid the migration period entirely...