Testing GROMACS on Linux ARM64

User discussions
1

GROMACS version: Latest
GROMACS modification: No

Hello devs!

At Installation guide — GROMACS 2021.2 documentation it is clearly stated that ARM64 architecture is a supported one!

I see that the project uses GitHub Actions as a CI tool: Actions · gromacs/gromacs · GitHub.
Since GitHub Actions does not support non-x86_64 I was wondering whether the project also uses a second CI for testing regularly on non-x86_64 architectures ?

Regards,
Martin

2

Hi Martin,

Github actions are mainly used for Windows. We use our gilab CI infrastructure, but at the moment, since the transition, we only do automated testing on x86 platforms.

Cheers,
Szilárd

3

Thank you for your answer, @pszilard !

I work for OpenLab Testing (https://openlabtesting.org) and we would like to donate a Linux ARM64 VM to GROMACS project that could be used as a CI agent and/or for debugging purposes long term.
If the project team is interested then please contact me privately at mgrigorov at apache dot org to discuss the details (preferred Linux distro, hardware specs, etc.).

Regards,
Martin

4

Hi,

I am glad to see that others are also interested in running GROMACS on Linux ARM64!
What was the outcome of this discussion - was an ARM64 CI agent have been added to Gitlab ?

Cheers,
Mark

5

Hello, sorry for the silent from my side since this was posted, I was on parental leave.

@mgrigorov, what would be the conditions for the project to use your resources, and would it be possible to use a system provided by you as part of our CI on GitLab?

Cheers

Paul

6

Hi @pbauer !

We could donate you long-term a VM that you could use for the project needs - as a CI agent, to debug issues on ARM64 via SSH connection, etc. Basically that’s the conditions - to use it for the project’s needs for anything that is not criminal.

Please send me the preferred hardware specs (CPU, RAM, disk, …) at martin.grigorov at gmail dot com and I will send you back the SSH details once the VM is allocated.

Regards,
Martin

2 Likes
7

Salut!

I am going to use GROMACS on AWS Graviton3.
Knowing that there is a Linux aarch64 CI agent would make me sleep better! :-)
Thank you for your work!

Kind regards,
Julien

1 Like
8

Hi,

I just wanted to check whether there was any progress on the ARM64 CI ?
Maybe @pbauer and @mgrigorov discussed it privately …

Cheers,
Mark

9

Hi @markjens !

Unfortunately there is no progress on this topic.
At least I am not aware and involved.

Regards,
Martin

10

Hello,

Sorry from the silence from our (or more specific my) side.
We have been debating this and don’t have the resources on our side to help maintaining this kind of testing.

Again apologies for not communicating this before.

Paul