Making HPC Containers More Flexible with OCI Hooks and Sarus - Alberto Madonna, ETH Zurich/CSCS
The rapid evolution of scientific computing workflows is putting pressure on HPC containers to go beyond their original function of enabling user-provided software stacks. The OCI industry standards define an interface supporting standalone hook programs to customize and enhance containers in a modular fashion. This presentation will illustrate how the Sarus container engine was designed around conveniently applying OCI hooks to containers in HPC, in order to flexibly extend their features. Several hooks use cases will be demonstrated, ranging from support for native GPUs, MPI, and fabrics to remote debugging.