Azure Updates - Latest from Azure Charts

Announcing Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm: Version 2025.12.01 Release

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:22:00 Z

The Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm 2025.12.01 release introduces major upgrades that strengthen performance, monitoring, authentication, and platform flexibility for HPC environments. This upda...
Update Type: Announcement, Services: CycleCloud, Categories:

Product Announcement: Open OnDemand Integration with Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 09:39:00 Z

This exciting integration with CycleCloud enables end users to dynamically create and configure an Open OnDemand server within minutes. The system automatically deploys Open OnDemand and registers an...
Update Type: Announcement, Services: CycleCloud, Categories:

Preview Announcement: Open OnDemand Integration with Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 09:39:00 Z

Fine-tuning a Hugging Face Diffusion Model on CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 06:02:08 Z

Introduction Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm (CCWS) is a new Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution which allows the users to purpose build the environment for their distributed AI training and HPC simulation needs. This offering is available through Azure marketplace to simplify and streamline the creation plus management of Slurm clusters on Azure. Users can easily create and configure pre-defined Slurm clusters with Azure CycleCloud, without requiring any prior knowledge of the cloud or Slurm giving a full control of the infrastructure to the user. Slurm clusters will be pre-configured with PMix v4, Pyxis and enroot to support containerized AI Slurm jobs and users can bring their own libraries or customize the cluster with the choice of their software and libraries to suit their needs. Users can access the provisioned login node (or scheduler node) using SSH or Visual Studio Code to perform common tasks like submitting and managing Slurm jobs. This blog will outline the steps to fine-tune a diffusion model from Hugging Face using CCWS. Deploy Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm To deploy Azure CCWS from Azure Marketplace follow the steps mentioned here. Our provisioned environment for CCWS comprises of the following (1) One Login node of F4sv2 and one Scheduler Node of D4asv4 SKU with Slurm 23.11.7. (2) Up to 8 on-demand GPU nodes of NDasrA100v4 SKU in gpu partition. (3) Up to 16 on-demand HPC nodes of HBv3 SKU in hpc partition (4) Up to 10 on-demand HTC nodes of NCA100v4 in htc partition. (5) 1 TB shared NFS. Note: For Steps (1) to (4) above it is important to request for quota from the Azure portal before CCWS is deployed. Once CCWS is deployed, SSH into the scheduler node. We can query on the mounted storage using df -h This cluster has 1 TB of shared NFS available on all the nodes. Prepare the environment Once CCWS is deployed SSH into th
Update Type: Announcement, Services: CycleCloud, Azure AI Foundry, Azure AI Services, Categories: Services, Management

Announcing the General Availability of Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 21:08:18 Z

Announcing the General Availability of Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm We are excited to announce the general availability of Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm https://aka.ms/ccw4slurm , a groundbreaking solution template available on the Azure Marketplace. This innovative template allows users to effortlessly create, configure, and deploy pre-defined Slurm clusters with CycleCloud on Azure, all without requiring any prior knowledge of Azure or Slurm. What is Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm? Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm is designed to simplify and expedite the deployment of Slurm clusters for High Performance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads. It comes pre-configured with PMix v4, Pyxis, and enroot to support containerized AI/HPC Slurm jobs. This means users can immediately start running their computationally intensive tasks in a robust and scalable environment. Key Features Ease of Use: Users can deploy the Slurm cluster directly from the Azure Portal or via the Azure CLI, reducing the setup time from days or weeks to just minutes. Pre-Configured Environment: The Slurm cluster is pre-configured with essential tools like PMix v4, Pyxis, and enroot, ensuring a seamless experience for containerized workloads. Flexible Access: Users can access the provisioned login node using SSH or Visual Studio Code thru Bastion, to perform common tasks such as submitting and managing Slurm jobs. Advantages Over Traditional Setup While Azure CycleCloud already offers some deployment capabilities, it doesn't automatically deploy the AI/HPC infrastructure. Typically, users need to handle tasks such as installing and configuring CycleCloud, setting up the network and storage, and creating and configuring the Slurm cluster. Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm eliminates these steps by automating the entire process through a convenient Marketplace Solution Template. This streamlines the setup process dramatically, allowing users to be op
Update Type: GA, Services: CycleCloud, Categories: Features

Introducing Azure CycleCloud Slurm Workspace (Preview)

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 14:47:03 Z

A new way to create and manage CycleCloud Slurm clusters on Azure Slurm is one of the most popular and widely used open-source workload managers for AI/HPC and cloud computing. Slurm enables users to run large-scale parallel and distributed applications across a set of compute nodes, and provides features such as job scheduling, resource management, fault tolerance, and power management. Slurm is used by many of the world's top supercomputers, research institutes, universities, and enterprises. However, setting up and managing Slurm clusters on the cloud can be challenging and time-consuming, especially for users who are not familiar with the cloud environment or the Slurm configuration. Users must deal with tasks such as provisioning and scaling compute nodes, installing and updating Slurm software, configuring network and storage, monitoring cluster health and performance, and troubleshooting issues. These tasks can distract users from their core research or business objectives and reduce the productivity and efficiency of their AI/HPC workloads. What is Azure CycleCloud Slurm Workspace? Azure CycleCloud Slurm Workspace is a new solution that simplifies and streamlines the creation and management of Slurm clusters on Azure. Azure CycleCloud Slurm Workspace is an Azure marketplace solution template that allows users to easily create and configure pre-defined Slurm clusters with Azure CycleCloud, without requiring any prior knowledge of the cloud or Slurm. Slurm clusters will be pre-configured with PMix v4, Pyxis and enroot to support containerized AI Slurm jobs. Users can access the provisioned login node using SSH or Visual Studio Code to perform common tasks like submitting and managing Slurm jobs. The attached 5 minutes video will provide you with a good overview of this new solution. What are the benefits of Azure CycleCloud Slurm Workspace? Azure CycleCloud Slurm Workspace offers several benefits for users who want to run Slurm workloads on Azure, such as:
Update Type: Preview, Services: CycleCloud, Categories: Features, Management

Azure CycleCloud support for Chef run_lists and cookbooks in cluster-init projects is ending on 31 March 2025

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:00 Z

End of Life Announcement for Chef Run_lists and Cookbooks in Azure CycleCloud Cluster-Init Projects on 31 March 2025
Update Type: Deprecation, Services: CycleCloud, Categories: Retirements

Azure CycleCloud support for HTCondor scheduler cluster type will be retired on 30 September 2024

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 00:00:00 Z

Community support for Azure CycleCloud HTCondor scheduler cluster type is ending on 30 September 2024
Update Type: Deprecation, Services: CycleCloud, Categories: Features, Retirements

Azure CycleCloud support for BeeGFS filesystem cluster type will be retired on 30 September 2024

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 00:00:00 Z

Community support for Azure CycleCloud BeeGFS filesystem cluster type is ending on 30 September 2024
Update Type: Deprecation, Services: CycleCloud, Categories: Features, Retirements

Azure CycleCloud support for automatic configuration of LVM for Azure CycleCloud volume mounts will be retired on 30 September 2024

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 00:00:00 Z

Community support for Automatic configuration of LVM for Azure CycleCloud volume mounts is ending on 30 September 2024
Update Type: Deprecation, Services: Virtual Machines, CycleCloud, Categories: Features, Retirements