Training, access, and effective use of the HPC cluster require competency in several key areas.
1. Assessment and overview of needed computational resources
- Overview
- Use of the HPC cluster is dependent upon a careful analysis of the demands of the project requiring computational resources and how they can be matched with the available HPC cluster computation capabilities. This includes consideration of processor requirements, memory requirements, storage requirements, software requirements, GPU requirements, etc., of the project.
- Training
- General resources
- Contact
2. The command line, the shell, and the terminal
- Overview
- Use of the HPC cluster happens without a graphical interface and occurs via a command-line interface, a shell that interprets commands, and a terminal that serves as their container.
- Training
- An excellent training resource is the Software Carpentry’s The Unix Shell and Extra Unix Shell Material lessons. These lessons are provided aperiodically via Middlebury’s own certified Carpentries instructors. One can register interest and request notification of upcoming workshops. Although designed for class-based collaborative instruction, the course materials are available and allow for self-guided exploration. A quick command reference overview and cheat sheet is also available. Mac functionality is usually provided by the included Terminal application. Windows functionality is usually provided by either the included Command Prompt or PowerShell applications, or by a variety of add-on solutions. Several resources are available for prospective HPC users to hone skills and increase familiarity.
- General resources
- Midd-specific resource
- Linux at Midd Workshop (workshop slides)
- Mac resource
- Mac Terminal (Apple) (OS-provided)
- Windows resources
- Windows Command Prompt (Microsoft) (OS-provided)
- Windows PowerShell (Microsoft) (OS-provided)
- GitBash (add-on solution)
- MobaXterm (add-on solution)
- Putty (add-on solution)
- Cygwin (add-on solution)
- Testing sandbox
- Contact
3. Batch processing and shell scripting
- Overview
- Use of the HPC cluster happens through group or batch processing that remove the need for required and continual user interaction, allow scheduling according to available resources, and allow for saving, documenting, and reusing code.
- Training
- An excellent training resource is the episode on Shell Scripts with the Software Carpentry’s The Unix Shell lesson (see above for detail). Several resources are available for prospective HPC users to hone skills and increase familiarity.
- General resource
- Specific resource
- Linux at Midd Workshop (workshop slides)
- Windows resources
- Windows Command Prompt (Microsoft) (OS-provided)
- Windows PowerShell (Microsoft) (OS-provided)
- GitBash (add-on solution)
- MobaXterm (add-on solution)
- Putty (add-on solution)
- Cygwin (add-on solution)
- Testing sandbox
- Contact
4. Remote machine access
- Overview
- Use of the HPC cluster happens without physical local computer console access and occurs via remote connection.
- Training
- An excellent training resource is the episode on Working Remotely with the Software Carpentry’s Extra Unix Shell Material lesson (see above for detail). Several resources are available for prospective HPC users to hone skills and increase familiarity.
- General resources
- Specific resources
- Testing sandbox
- Contact
5. Cluster use and workload scheduler
- Overview
- Use of the HPC cluster is dependent upon familiarity with several cluster-specific aspects of its use, including logging in, editing files, and submitting jobs.
- Documentation
- Contact