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6th EasyBuild User Survey (2022)

Warning

This page currently presents the raw results of the 6th EasyBuild User Survey, which was held in March 2023.

Additional text will be added to help interpret the results soon.

The results of the EasyBuild User Survey are assumed to give a fairly representative view on the EasyBuild community, but they should be interpreted with a grain of salt, since there is no doubt significant bias in terms of participants.

Sampling bias cartoo


Survey participation

00. Survey participation over the years

Participation in the EasyBuild User Survey has been growing steadily over the years, to 118 participants in the 6th survey which was held March 2023.

01. Via which channel did you become aware of the 6th EasyBuild User Survey?

For the previous survey, the majority of the participants were made aware of it via the EasyBuild mailing list (~42%) and the EasyBuild Slack (~34%).

While these two channels were still the most prominent for this survey, it is now the EasyBuild Slack that is the largest trigger to participate in the survey: ~47% (vs 27% via the EasyBuild mailing list).


Demographics

02. What is your primary profile? 02. What is your primary profile? (evolution sine 2017)

03. What type of organisation do you work for? 03. What type of organisation do you work for? (evolution sine 2017)

04. In which part of the world are you located? 04. In which part of the world are you located? (evolution since 2017)

EasyBuild: adoption and experience

05. How long have you been using EasyBuild? 05. How long have you been using EasyBuild? (evolution since 2017)

06. How did you first learn about EasyBuild? 06. How did you first learn about EasyBuild?

07. What is the main aspect of EasyBuild that convinced you to start using it? 07. What is the main aspect of EasyBuild that convinced you to start using it? (evolution since 2017)

Operating system

08. On which operating system(s) do you use EasyBuild? 08. On which operating system(s) do you use EasyBuild? 08. On which operating system(s) do you use EasyBuild? 08. On which operating system(s) do you use EasyBuild?

Python version

09. Which Python version do you usually use to run EasyBuild? 09. Which Python version do you usually use to run EasyBuild? (evolution since 2017)

10. How troublesome would it be for you if EasyBuild becomes incompatible with Python 2.7? 10. How troublesome would it be for you if EasyBuild becomes incompatible with Python 2.7? (evolution since 2019)

System aspects

CPUs

11. What's the aggregate core count for the HPC systems you manage, support, or use?

12. Are you installing software optimized for different CPU types?

13. For which CPU types are you installing software using EasyBuild? (Intel only)

13. For which CPU types are you installing software using EasyBuild? (AMD only)

13. For which CPU types are you installing software using EasyBuild? (non Intel/AMD)

GPUs

14. What's the aggregate GPU count for the HPC systems you manage, support, or use?

15. Are you installing software optimized for different GPU types?

16. For which accelerators are you installing software using EasyBuild? (NVIDIA Tesla only) 16. For which accelerators are you installing software using EasyBuild? (NVIDIA, excl. Tesla) 16. For which accelerators are you installing software using EasyBuild? (non-NVIDIA)

Top500

17. Are you using EasyBuild on a system that's in the current Top500 list (Nov'22)?

EasyBuild version

18. Which EasyBuild version do you mainly use?

19. If you're not using the latest release, why not? 19. If you're not using the latest release, why not? (evolution since 2017)

Toolchains

20. Which (full) toolchain(s) do you use? (only foss) 20. Which (full) toolchain(s) do you use? (only foss + CUDA) 20. Which (full) toolchain(s) do you use? (only intel) 20. Which (full) toolchain(s) do you use? (only intel + CUDA)

Significant increase in use of NVHPC-based toolchains (21%, was 15% and 7% in previous surveys).

21. How frequently should the 'foss' and 'intel' common toolchains be updated? 21. How frequently should the 'foss' and 'intel' common toolchains be updated? (evolution since 2017)

Installations

22. How many software installations did you perform in the last year using EasyBuild? 23. How many software installations/modules installed with EasyBuild do you currently have in production (in total, across different systems)?

24. Is EasyBuild your only way of installing (scientific) software? 24. Is EasyBuild your only way of installing (scientific) software? (evolution since 2017)

25. Do you still install (scientific) software manually? 25. Do you still install (scientific) software manually? (evolution since 2017)

26. Are end users using EasyBuild to install software in their own accounts, or are you doing so yourself?

Customizations

27. Which easyconfig files do you use?

28. Do you use any custom easyblocks not included in the central EasyBuild repository? 28. Do you use any custom easyblocks not included in the central EasyBuild repository? (evolution since 2017)

29. Have you made any site-specific customisations to EasyBuild? 29. Have you made any site-specific customisations to EasyBuild? (evolution since 2017)

Community

30. Do you actively contribute back to EasyBuild?

31. Are you subscribed to the EasyBuild mailing list? 31. Are you subscribed to the EasyBuild mailing list? (evolution since 2017)

32. Do you use the EasyBuild Slack channel? 32. Do you use the EasyBuild Slack channel? (evolution since 2017)

33. Are you planning to attend the next EasyBuild User Meeting?

34. How do you like the new EasyBuild logo?

Documentation

35. How do you like the revamp of the EasyBuild documentation?

36. How complete is the EasyBuild documentation according to you? 36. How complete is the EasyBuild documentation according to you? (evolution since 2017)

37. How often do you consult the EasyBuild documentation? 37. How often do you consult the EasyBuild documentation? (evolution since 2017)

38. How useful is the EasyBuild documentation to you? 38. How useful is the EasyBuild documentation to you? (evolution since 2017)

Tutorial

39. Are you aware of the EasyBuild tutorial?

40. Have you worked through the EasyBuild tutorial?

Other tools & projects

41. Do you use any other tools/projects in combination with EasyBuild? (only modules tool) 41. Do you use any other tools/projects in combination with EasyBuild?

48. Have you heard about the EESSI project?

Modules

43. How long are modules installed with EasyBuild available to users? 43. How long are modules installed with EasyBuild available to users? (evolution since 2017)

44. Which module naming scheme do you use? 44. Which module naming scheme do you use? (evolution since 2017)

EasyBuild aspects

42. What are your favourite EasyBuild features?

46. Which parts of EasyBuild do you not like? (evolution since 2017) 46. Which parts of EasyBuild do you not like? (all)

45. How do you like the frequency of EasyBuild releases?

47. If a commercial support option would be available, would you consider purchasing it? 47. If a commercial support option would be available, would you consider purchasing it? (evolution since 2017)

49. How would you rate the overall quality of EasyBuild? 49. How would you rate the overall quality of EasyBuild? (evolution since 2017)