European Environment for Scientific Software Installations (EESSI, pronounced as "easy") is a scientific software stack maintained and hosted by different European partners in the HPC community. We offer it as a catalog item on top of a plain Ubuntu workspace. This will allow you to access the EESSI software stack conveniently. EESSI grants its users access to over 2,000 software packages. EESSI leverages the CernVM-FS (CVMFS) ensuring access to all available software packages without needing local installation. 

Additionally, you can include the component in other catalog items to include the software stack. In this document, we show how to work with EESSI in both of these ways.

Ubuntu with EESSI

To get a Ubuntu workspace with the EESSI software stack you need to perform the following steps:

  1. Create a workspace and select the "Ubuntu 20.04 with EESSI Client"
  2. Once the workspace is started, access it via SSH
  3. Run the following command to activate EESSI:
    source /cvmfs/software.eessi.io/versions/2023.06/init/bash
  4. Check for available software modules:
    module avail

Example setup: Accessing R

  • After browsing the available modules, navigate to R and the desired version. Load the module by typing:
module load R/4.3.2-gfbf-2023a
  • To access and run the module type:
R
  • To exit the module type:
q()

If you wish to save your session type "y" (yes) or "n" (no)

For more on how to use EESSI and the basic commands, please go to: https://www.eessi.io/docs/using_eessi/basic_commands/

Creating your catalog items with EESSI

To create your catalog items with the EESSI software stack included, you need to perform the following steps:

  1. Follow the regular steps for creating a catalog item: https://servicedesk.surf.nl/wiki/display/WIKI/Create+a+catalog+item
  2. In the step where you select the relevant components, add the "EESSI Client" component. Make sure that it is added after the "SRC-External plugin" component
  3. If you wish to make use of the software within EESSI in your components, make sure to run the command mentioned in the "Ubuntu with EESSI" section above


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