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

General

HPCF (and ecgate)

The Atos system...

Who is affected?

Action to take

DHS move (MARS and ECFS)

Transition plan

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

MARS and ECFS

service will stop accessing the Main-DHS-Reading. Instead the MARS and ECFS service will be provided by a temporary DHS which has been pre-filled with essential data, necessary to continue operational and time-critical activities,

to minimise the impact of the DHS move. After 6 days we will start to fill the new Main-DHS-Blank with the data from the Temporary-DHS-prod and from the Main-DHS-Reading. At the end of the DHS-Move, expected to take 28 days, there will be a new operational DHS in Bologna.  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

does contain 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.

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Main service disruptions

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

Summary of impact to users: 

Impact to MARS service

No impact expected

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

• Operational Forecast Production (Everything Recent output (~ one month) from operational production systems: All products listed in the Catalogue of ECMWF real-time products, ERA5T (near real-time), CAMS, …)

• Observations, analysis input, tropical cyclones for the entire period

• ERA5 data required as initial conditions for the operational hindcasts (20 years for the relevant weeks

  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

Any other access to Access to non-essential services/data will be affected as described below. 

Degradation of service/data access

The following services/Non-essential services and access to data will be degraded during dry-runs and the DHS-moveMove:

• Retrieval via the WebAPI registered (private)
• MARS
• ERA5 BX production
• by MS-registered and commercial users will be limited to the essential data listed above
• Retrieval via the MARS client on ECMWF computers will be limited to the essential data listed above

Unavailability of service/data

The following services/data are will not expected to be available during dry-runs and the DHS-moveMove:

• WebAPI publicPublic datasets
• ADS/CDS externalPublic datasets TIGGE/S2S/data served by MARS
• IFS Research experiments
• Historical operational data: Operational data, non-essential ERA5 data
  

Impact to ECFS service

During dry-runs and the DHS move access to data archived in ECFS which has not been identified as essential is not expected to be available. However, archiving into ECFS should not be affected by the DHS migration.

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... 
• Users missing access to data for any critical activity during the DHS-move should contact ServiceDesk at their earliest convenience with their requirements.