Latest revision as of 17:56, 19 August 2024

Welcome to UF Research Computing! This page is intended to help new clients getting started on HiPerGator use.

Note that new users are highly encouraged to take the New User Training course to familiarize themselves with using a supercomputer for research, save time, and avoid many beginner mistakes.

From Zero to HiPerGator

Initial Consult

If a face-to-face discussion about the group's needs is needed you can schedule an appointment to meet with one of the UF Research Computing Facilitators face-to-face or virtually, or submit a support request to start the conversation.

For the initial interview we recommend prospective users to be ready to answer questions such as:

Does the data fall under FERPA, HIPAA, or another restricted classification?
Explain in simple words what your research is about.
What file types will be processed initially?
- Input files, average size of individual files, total amount of data in Gb/Tb, etc.
What software or pipeline is needed to process the files?

Define success for you:

What is the expected output?
- Expected results, output file types and individual file size, amount of data produced after processing in Gb/Tb.
Do you have any estimations on compute needs?
Are you or will you be working with external collaborators?

HiPerGator Accounts

Sponsor Username and Group Creation

The group's sponsor has to be the first person to request a HiPerGator account indicating that they are a new sponsor. In the process we will create their sponsored group.

User Account Creation

Group members will be able to submit HiPerGator account requests indicating their PI as the sponsor. Once approved, their HPG Linux accounts will be created.

Joining a Group

Once their HPG username is created users must submit a request to be added to a sponsor's group. Once the sponsor or an assigned manager replies to the request with approval, the user is added to the requested group. Accounts can only be added to groups with active resource allocations (see below for details).

Request to be added to a group:

Include the following in the Summary line: "Add [username] to [groupname] group".
Include the reason in the request's description.
If possible, add your sponsor's email to the ticket's CC list.

Trial Allocation

We recommend that the group's sponsor request a free trial allocation for storage and computational resources to get the group started on HiPerGator. Group members can then use HiPerGator for the 3 month duration of the trial allocation to figure out what resources and applications they really need.

Purchasing Resources

After or while the group uses a trial allocation to determine the computational and storage resources it needs the group's sponsor can submit a purchase request for hardware (5-years) or services (3-months to longer) to invest into the resources to cover the group's HiPerGator use.

Some groups may have access to shared departmental allocations. In this case, instead of purchasing resources, group members can request to be added to the departmental group to gain access to the shared resources.

Some examples of departments with shared allocations include the Genetics Institute, Emerging Pathogens Institute, Statistics Department, Biostatistics Department, Center for Compressible Multiphase Turbulence (CCMT), Cognitive Aging and Memory Clinical Translational Research Program (CAMCTRP), Center for Molecular Magnetic Quantum Materials, Physics Department, and Plant Pathology Department. In addition, several research groups working on collaborative projects have shared allocations accessible to members of those projects.

At this point a group is established on HiPerGator and can continue their computational work. See below for more details on the basic use.

Using HiPerGator

To use HiPerGator or HiPerGator-AI you must have basic understanding the following concepts:

Use the various HPG Interfaces to connect to the system.
See HPG Computation for an overview of running analyses on HiPerGator.
Read HPG Scheduling for an overview of managing resources in jobs.
Learn how to manage data on the filesystems in Storage and how to transfer it in or out in HPG Data Management.

Click on the buttons below to explore.

Getting help

If you are having problems using the UFRC system, try our resources at Help or let our staff know by submitting a support request.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{|align=right
+[[Category:Essentials]]
-  |__TOC__
+Welcome to UF Research Computing! This page is intended to help new clients getting started on HiPerGator use.
-  |}
-==Getting an account==
-To get an account at the UF HPC Center, you need to put a request in at our request page. That page is [http://www.hpc.ufl.edu/index.php?body=authuser located here].
-==Logging In==
-To login to the cluster, you need an SSH client of some sort. If you are using a linux or unix based system, there is most likely one already available to you in a shell, and you can get to your account very quickly.
-If you are having problems connecting to your account, please let the HPC Staff know by submitting a [http://bugzilla.hpc.ufl.edu Bugzilla Request].
+Note that new users are highly encouraged to take the [[New_user_training|New User Training]] course to familiarize themselves with using a supercomputer for research, save time, and avoid many beginner mistakes.
-===Linux / Unix===
-So, here is how you would go about logging in via a linux or unix account:
-{|
-|
-<pre>
-test@puppy:~$ ssh test@submit.hpc.ufl.edu
-test@submit.hpc.ufl.edu's password:
-Last login: Fri Feb  9 00:03:38 2007 from wsip-70-168-187-166.ga.at.cox.net
-[test@submit ~]$
-</pre>
-|}
-The command <code>ssh test@submit.hpc.ufl.edu</code> is what you would type in at a command prompt on your system. After this, it asks you for a password, which you type in. After that, you are logged in and ready to work.
-===Windows===
-For Microsoft Windows, things are a bit trickier. Windows does not come with a built-in SSH client, and this makes things difficult. What you have to do is download a client from the Internet and install it, then use that client. We recommend the following:
-* For a shell client, [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty Putty]
-* For a file transfer client, [http://winscp.net/eng/index.php WinSCP]
-Both of the above clients have documentation at their websites, so I will not go into it here. Once you are logged in and have a prompt that resembles that in the Unix / Linux section above, you can continue with this tutorial.
-==Looking Around==
+=From Zero to HiPerGator=
-We expect the users of the HPC Center cluster to already have a working knowledge of the linux operating system, so we are not going to go into detail here on using the operating system. Below are some links to webpages that describe a lot of this, however:
+===Initial Consult===
-* [http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorial/Basic-Linux-Shell-commands/21596 Basic Linux Shell Commands]
+If a face-to-face discussion about the group's needs is needed you can [https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/UFITResearchComputingSupport@uflorida.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/ schedule an appointment] to [https://www.rc.ufl.edu/get-support/walk-in-support/ meet with one of the UF Research Computing Facilitators] face-to-face or virtually, or [https://support.rc.ufl.edu/ submit a support request to start the conversation].
-===File System===
-We have a structured file system that is important to know about. Please read about it here: [[HPC File System]]
-==Editing==
-Editing files on the cluster can be done through a couple of different methods...
-===In-System Editors===
-* vi - vi is the basic editor for a number of people. Using the editor is not necessarily intuitive, so we have provided a link to a tutorial.
-** [http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/Tutor/vi.html VI Tutorial]
-* emacs - emacs is a much heavier duty editor, but again has the problem of having commands that are non-intuitive. Again, we have provided a link to a tutorial for this editor.
-** [http://www2.lib.uchicago.edu/~keith//tcl-course/emacs-tutorial.html Emacs Tutorial]
-===External Editors===
-You can also use your favorite editor on your local machine and then transfer the files over to the HPC Cluster afterwards. One caveat to this is that with files created on Windows machines, very often extra characters get injected into text files which can cause major problems when it comes time to interpret the files. If this happens, there is a utility called <code>dos2unix</code> that you can use to remove the extra characters.
-==Running Jobs==
+For the initial interview we recommend prospective users to be ready to answer questions such as:
-===PBS Pro Scheduler===
-Check out [[Job Submission Queues]] for more information
-===Torque Scheduler===
+* Does the data fall under FERPA, HIPAA, or another restricted classification?
-The [http://www.clusterresources.com/pages/products/torque-resource-manager.php Torque Resource Manager] has been installed on the HPC cluster, and is slowly being switched over to from the PBS Pro scheduler as time goes on. The Maui scheduler is also running in this environment.
+* Explain in simple words what your research is about.
+* What file types will be processed initially?
+** Input files, average size of individual files, total amount of data in Gb/Tb, etc.
+* What software or pipeline is needed to process the files?
+Define success for you:
+* What is the expected output?
+** Expected results, output file types and individual file size, amount of data produced after processing in Gb/Tb.
+* Do you have any estimations on compute needs?
+* Are you or will you be working with external collaborators?
-The Torque scheduler is installed on <code>iogw2.hpc.ufl.edu</code>, and accepts the same commands as the PBS Pro scheduler with a couple of exceptions. Currently we are experimenting with these packages so that we can provide improved scheduling to HPC users. While we are still learning about Torque and Maui, our experiences so far have been good and we are guardedly optimistic that Torque and Maui will end up being the resource manager and scheduler for the HPC Center sometime in the not-too-distant future.
+===HiPerGator Accounts===
+====Sponsor Username and Group Creation====
+The group's sponsor has to be the first person to [https://www.rc.ufl.edu/access/account-request/ request a HiPerGator account] indicating that they are a new sponsor. In the process we will create their sponsored group.
-Please note the following.
+====User Account Creation====
+Group members will be able to [https://www.rc.ufl.edu/access/account-request/ submit HiPerGator account requests] indicating their PI as the sponsor. Once approved, their HPG Linux accounts will be created.
-* If your job is single-threaded (1 cpu) and does not have heavy I/O requirements, it does not need to run on an infiniband-enabled node.   In that case, you should include the "gige" property in your PBS resource specification as follows
+====Joining a Group====
-<pre>
+Once their HPG username is created users must [https://support.rc.ufl.edu submit a request] to be added to a sponsor's group. Once the sponsor or an assigned manager replies to the request with approval, the user is added to the requested group. Accounts can only be added to groups with active resource allocations (see below for details).
-#PBS  -l nodes=1:ppn=1:gige
-</pre>
-* If you need to run an mpi-based application that has not been rebuilt for OpenMPI 1.2.0+Torque, please send us a note and we'll be happy to rebuild  what you need - first come, first serve.
-* If you build your own MPI-based application executables, you should use the MPI compiler wrappers (mpif90, mpicc, mpiCC) in /opt/intel/ompi/1.2.0/bin.   These wrappers will automatically pull in the correct libraries.
-* We will continue to tune the maui scheduler to provide fair and efficient scheduling according to the policies established by the HPC Committee and within the capabilities of the maui scheduler.    Keep in mind that these policies include priority and quality-of-service commitments to those faculty who have invested in the resources within the HPC Center.
-====Altix====
+[https://support.rc.ufl.edu Request to be added to a group]:
-The Altix is known to the Torque batch system, but not to PBSPro. To submit jobs to the Altix via the batch system, you will have to log into the host ''iogw2.hpc.ufl.edu'' and submit your jobs from there.
+* Include the following in the Summary line: "Add [username] to [groupname] group".
-====Trivial Example Submission Script====
+* Include the reason in the request's description.
-{|
+* If possible, add your sponsor's email to the ticket's CC list.
-|
-<pre>
-#! /bin/sh
-#PBS -N testjob
-#PBS -o testjob.out
-#PBS -e testjob.err
-#PBS -M mxcheng@ufl.edu
-#PBS -l walltime=00:01:00
-#PBS -l nodes=1:ppn=1
-date
+===Trial Allocation===
-hostname
+We recommend that the group's sponsor [https://gravity.rc.ufl.edu/access/request-trial-allocation/ request a '''free''' trial allocation] for storage and computational resources to get the group started on HiPerGator. Group members can then use HiPerGator for the 3 month duration of the trial allocation to figure out what resources and applications they really need.
-</pre>
-||valign="top"
+===Purchasing Resources===
-To submit the above job from submit.hpc.ufl.edu, you would use the following command:
+After or while the group uses a trial allocation to determine the computational and storage resources it needs the group's sponsor can submit a purchase request for [https://gravity.rc.ufl.edu/access/purchase-request/hpg-hardware/ hardware (5-years)] or [https://gravity.rc.ufl.edu/access/purchase-request/hpg-service/ services (3-months to longer)] to invest into the resources to cover the group's HiPerGator use.
-<pre>
-$ qsub submit@iogw2 <your job script>
+Some groups may have access to shared departmental allocations. In this case, instead of purchasing resources, group members can [https://support.rc.ufl.edu/ request] to be added to the departmental group to gain access to the shared resources.
-</pre>
-|}
+Some examples of departments with shared allocations include the [http://ufgi.ufl.edu/ Genetics Institute], [http://epi.ufl.edu/ Emerging Pathogens Institute], [https://stat.ufl.edu/ Statistics Department], [http://biostat.ufl.edu/ Biostatistics Department], [https://www.eng.ufl.edu/ccmt/ Center for Compressible Multiphase Turbulence (CCMT)], [https://chp.phhp.ufl.edu/research/affiliated-centers/center-for-cognitive-aging-memory-cam/ Cognitive Aging and Memory Clinical Translational Research Program (CAMCTRP)], [https://efrc.ufl.edu/ Center for Molecular Magnetic Quantum Materials], [https://www.phys.ufl.edu/ Physics Department], and [https://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/ Plant Pathology Department]. In addition, several research groups working on collaborative projects have shared allocations accessible to members of those projects.
+'''At this point a group is established on HiPerGator and can continue their computational work. See below for more details on the basic use.'''
+=Using HiPerGator=
+To use HiPerGator or HiPerGator-AI you must have basic understanding the following concepts:
+* Use the various [[HPG Interfaces]] to connect to the system.
+* See [[HPG Computation]] for an overview of running analyses on HiPerGator.
+* Read [[HPG Scheduling]] for an overview of managing resources in jobs.
+* Learn how to manage data on the filesystems in [[Storage]] and how to transfer it in or out in [[HPG Data Management]].
+Click on the buttons below to explore.
+<div style = 'text-align: center;'>
+[[Image:Interface.png|frameless|upright=1| link=HPG Interfaces]]
+[[Image:Computation.png|frameless|upright=1|link=HPG Computation]]
+[[Image:Scheduling.png|frameless|upright=1|link=HPG Scheduling]]
+[[Image:Storage.png|frameless|upright=1|link=HPG Data Management]]
+</div>
+=Getting help=
+If you are having problems using the UFRC system, try our resources at [https://help.rc.ufl.edu/doc/Category:Help Help] or let our staff know by submitting a [http://support.rc.ufl.edu support request].

Difference between revisions of "Getting Started"