Support#
Support is offered by the CLIMAAX project for climate risk assessments following the Framework and utilizing the workflows in this Handbook.
Public and exclusive support
The Handbook with the Framework description, workflows, technical documentation and supporting pages are public and open to everyone. You can get reach out to us with questions and contribute via the Forum and GitHub, independent of your relationship with the CLIMAAX project.
The service desk and JupyterHub server are exclusively offered to our project partners and participating regions that receive financial support through the CLIMAAX project.
We recommend to always check the Handbook for information before reaching out to us. The website is regularly updated by the CLIMAAX team and frequently asked questions added to our FAQ. A basic search function is available in the top left under our logo or you can use your favourite search engine.
When reaching out to us, please prefer our general channels, i.e. the forum, GitHub and service desk, rather than contacting individuals from the CLIMAAX team directly via email. This way we can process requests more efficiently and transparently.
ECMWF account#
To use the support described below, registering at ECMWF is necessary. An account is created by following these steps:
Go to https://www.ecmwf.int.
Select “Log in” in the top right corner.
Select “Register” in the box at the bottom.
Follow the instructions to create a new account.
Tip
An ECMWF account will also give you access to datasets in the Copernicus Climate Data Store which are used extensively in the risk assessment workflows.
Forum#
A CLIMAAX tag is available to associate topics in any category of the public ECMWF forum with the CLIMAAX project. All topics with our tag can be viewed on a dedicated overview page. Posts in the forum are public and anyone registered can participate, giving you the opportunity to interact with the whole CLIMAAX community.
Service desk#
For questions and support related to the CLIMAAX Handbook, including the Framework, workflows, datasets and software, as well as all services associated with your ECMWF account, the exclusive CLIMAAX service desk can be contacted via our support request form:
Go to https://jira.ecmwf.int/plugins/servlet/desk/portal/4/create/186?customfield_13413=14215.
Log in with your ECMWF account if you are not already. Information and help for the login process is available in the user documentation of ECMWF.
Provide a title and description of your request and make sure that the “CLIMAAX” service is selected in the list at the bottom. We recommend to also add “CLIMAAX” to the title or description of your request to make sure your request reaches the CLIMAAX team without delay.
Click “Create” to send the request.
The service desk team will provide a first response to eligible requests in at most 3 working days. You will receive email notifications with updates to the status of your request. Depending on the topic of the request, experts from the CLIMAAX team, e.g., the developers of a specific risk assessment workflow, are consulted when answering a request. Service desk requests are otherwise private.
Important: eligibility
Eligibility for support through the service desk is validated via an allowlist. The allowlist is initialized with the email addresses known to us from the selection process following the open calls. To extend eligibility to accounts not yet on the allowlist, please inform us about the email addresses of the accounts to be added in a service desk request from a known account.
We recommend to register ECMWF accounts for all added email addresses before their addition to the allowlist. Only then can we also immediately grant permissions to access the CLIMAAX JupyterHub. Email addresses added to our eligibility allowlist without a corresponding registered ECMWF account will not receive these permissions when added to the allowlist and have to ask for them explicitly via a service desk request.
JupyterHub#
The exclusive CLIMAAX JupyterHub provides access to a JupyterLab web interface where the risk assessment notebooks can be edited and executed on ECMWF cloud computing infrastructure.
Please note the following information on our JupyterHub setup and usage:
Access requirements
In order to be able to use the CLIMAAX JupyterHub, you need to:
Have an ECMWF account.
Activate two factor authentication on that account.
Be eligible for CLIMAAX support. Eligibility is managed through an allowlist, see the information on eligibility and JupyterHub access in the documentation of the service desk.
Access to the JupyterHub requires that special permissions are set on your ECMWF account. If your account did not receive these permissions when added to the allowlist, you have to ask for them via a service desk request.
Sessions and resource usage
If your sessions fails to start for the first time after login, try again immediately. If the startup problem persists, please contact support via the service desk.
The runtime of an individual session is currently limited to 12 h. The time at which a session finishes is displayed in the top right corner of the JupyterLab interface (please convert the UTC time to your local time zone). Save your work regularly to avoid data loss when a session finishes. We will update our session runtime policy as necessary to suit user needs and ensure that the provided computing resources are used responsibly. A session can be shut down manually via the Hub Control Panel (under the File menu in the JupyterLab interface). Logging out will not stop a running session.
Persistent storage
Each account can use up to 75 GB of persistent storage.
Only data saved in the home directory (/home/jovyan) is persistent between sessions.
Data cannot be shared between accounts.
Data stored on the CLIMAAX JupyterHub is not backed up. Users are responsible for keeping copies of important data that cannot easily be re-obtained in other locations.
Software environment
The default Python environment of the JupyterHub comes with all packages required to run CLIMAAX workflows and is managed by the CLIMAAX team.
Run conda list or pip list in a terminal to see all installed packages.
Additional packages can be installed by users with conda or pip.
We recommend using the --user option for pip install to ensure that packages are installed in the home directory and therefore persistent between sessions.
Packages installed outside of the home directory have to be reinstalled in every session.
We welcome suggestions for adding packages to the default environment via the service desk.
Workflow downloads and updates
To simplify access to workflows for users, all CLIMAAX workflow repositories are automatically cloned (i.e., downloaded with git) into a workflows folder in the home directory.
This automated action is run every time a new session is started, but only clones a repository if a folder with the repository name does not already exist.
Existing repositories are not updated automatically to avoid overwriting user-made modifications to existing workflow files. To update a workflow, navigate into its folder and select Pull from remote in the Git menu at the top. Note however, that this may result in a conflict if you have already made modifications to a file that is being updated. These conflicts can be resolved with git, although some experience with git is recommended before attempting the manual resolution of a merge conflict.
CDS API token configuration (.cdsapirc)
We recommend to save your CDS access token/key in a configuration file in your home directory so you don’t have to specify it explicitly in the workflow notebooks that use cdsapi.
With the KEY variable in these notebooks set to None, the token from your configuration file is used instead.
This also reduces the likelihood of you accidentally sharing your personal key with others.
Because the JupyterLab file browser does not handle files starting with a ., the .cdsapirc file has to be created in another way, e.g., by running
%%writefile ~/.cdsapi
url: https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/api
key: ********-****-****-*****-************
once from a Python console or notebook (put your own key instead of the ***).
Technical assistance for the JupyterHub is provided through the service desk.