Yesterday’s Birds of a Feather session “OpenHPC and the Future of Open Source HPC Provisioning Featuring Warewulf and OpenCHAMI” at ISC 2026 drew over 100 attendees to Hall F for what turned out to be a lively and wide-ranging discussion about the present and future of Open Source HPC system provisioning.
The Panel
As announced earlier this week, the session was moderated by Chris Simmons from the OpenHPC project. After a brief overview of the latest developments in OpenHPC, three panelists each introduced their provisioning project:
- Markus Hilger — representing Confluent
- Jonathon Anderson — representing Warewulf
- Travis Cotton — representing OpenCHAMI
40 Minutes of Non-Stop Questions
With introductions wrapped up, about 40 minutes remained for questions — and the audience did not hold back. We had pre-seeded six questions through an online tool, but attendees quickly joined in with their own, both online and from the floor. The conversation never stopped, and when the hour was up there were still questions left unanswered.
Topics ranged from fundamental design questions to practical operational concerns:
- What should a provisioner do — and what should it not?
- Which provisioner is the best? (A question the panelists wisely declined to answer definitively.)
- What are the biggest challenges when provisioning at scale?
- Can provisioners be extended for specialized needs?
The level of engagement made it clear that HPC system provisioning remains a topic the community cares deeply about. We are grateful to all three panelists and to everyone who attended and contributed to the discussion.
More at ISC 2026
ISC 2026 is not over yet — the OpenHPC booth H40 is open through today (Thursday, June 25), and ISC workshops continue on Friday. Come say hello, pick up some stickers and Lego minifigures, and tell us what you’d like to see in future releases.