Overview
A high performance computing (HPC) cluster is an essential tool for computational tasks that are too intensive for a personal computer, for example analysing large datasets. This course will introduce ISCA, the Exeter’s HPC cluster, and teach participants how to design a HPC workflow, interrogate the Slurm scheduling system, and run simple applications on cluster. At the end of this interactive course, participants will be able to translate what they have learnt to improve the efficiency of their computational research. This course is aimed at those who plan to use ISCA to perform their computational research or who wish to learn what ISCA could enable them to do.
Course objectives
This course will covering the following:
- what an high performance computing (HPC) cluster is and what type of tasks it is suited to.
- what computing resources are necessary to run a large workload.
- how to log on to the cluster and navigate around the file system.
- how to submit and manage job tasks in the scheduler’s queue.
- the array jobs syntax, a tool to efficiently parallel repetitive tasks.
Pre-requisite knowledge
- An account on ISCA
- Some experience with the command line (e.g. attended an Introduction to Unix Course).
Workshop format
This a hybrid workshop run over 2 sessions. The schedule can be found here.
Upcoming course dates
| Session name | Dates | Time | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions 1 & 2 | 7th & 14th May 2024 | 10AM-1PM | Training Room 4, Old Library, Streatham |
Set-up instructions for attendees
If you have registered for this course you can find the instructions for setting up your computer here.
Start course
If you are unable to attend any of the dates above the notes for this course are available here and are freely available to work through in your own time. Please note that you will need to have completed the set up instructions above.
Follow up courses
On completion of these course you will be invited to join a network of other participants. This is a supportive forum for you to ask follow up question and receive tailed invites to follow on courses.
Feedback
Please remember to complete a feedback survey. Our workshops are under continual review and your experiences, suggestions and criticism are invaluable for shaping the direction of this initiative. This is especially important if you complete the materials in your own time as it enables us to measure impact. If you have ideas on other courses you would like to see then please contact Eilis Hannon: E.J.hannon@exeter.ac.uk.
Join us
If you are interested in becoming part of our community of workshop helpers, leaders and developers please contact Eilis Hannon: E.J.Hannon@exeter.ac.uk.
Acknowledgements
These materials were adapted from the Carpentries. Specifically we have developed the [HPC Carpentry Intro to HPC Shell lessons(https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-shell) adding our own custom content to reflect the HPC systems at Exeter. The materials were developed by a team of researchers at the University who are enthusiastic about sharing their skills with the wider research community. Its provision is dependent on the time of these individuals. If you have benefitted in any way from this course and want to support its long term sustainability then please take the time to complete our feedback survey, recommend it to your colleagues, and enthuse about it to your senior leadership team.
This workshop is brought to you by:
- The University of Exeter Research Software Engineering Group
- The Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
- The University of Exeter Researcher Development Programme
- The University of Exeter Doctoral College