Research Software Engineering – summary of work: Nektar++

Introduction
Nektar++ is a sophisticated computational fluid dynamics codebase developed for multiple operating systems with an involved set of build dependencies. Current development relies on a Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline based on a Buildbot farm with test environments provided by virtual machines using on-premises compute infrastructure as execution hosts. Code hosting is provided by a GitLab instance that benefits from a degree of Buildbot customisation to improve workflow integration. Whilst the current system suffices to meet the needs of the Nektar++ it requires considerable investment of time and effort to maintain, particularly around the virtual machine infrastructure, and does not embrace modern “infrastructure-as-code” principles. The two reports mark the completion of this project:

– the Nektar++ Phase I Report is the feasibility study/comparison of various CI systems, which may have already been distributed;
– the Nektar++ Final Report is the final summary, which points to more concrete things that were implemented within the code.