If you are new to using supercomputers and/or ALCF systems, this is the starting place for you. This guide will teach you the following:
- how to login to ALCF systems
- how to setup a usable environment on a login node
- how to query the job scheduler
- how to submit an interactive job to execute examples on a worker node
- how to submit a job script to the scheduler
We have versions of these steps laid out for each of our systems so please pick the system you wish to begin with and start there:
These guides presume the reader knows:
- how to use GitHub and git repositories.
- how to use SSH on their computer in order to remotely login to another machine. If you are not familiar with SSH please search for "how to use ssh on linux or windows or mac".
- how to navigate a linux terminal and shell environment. Your default login shell (BASH, ZSH, etc.) can be selected via ALCF Accounts Page.
- how to compile software in a linux environment using
gcc/g++/clang++.
Argonne hosts DOE supercomputers for use by research scientists in need of large computational resources. Supercomputers are composed of many computing nodes (1 node = 1 physical computer) that are connected by a high-speed communications network so that groups of nodes can share information quickly, effectively operating together as a larger computer.
If you look inside your Desktop or Laptop you'll find these parts:
A computing node of a supercomputer is very similar, each has simliar parts, but it is designed as a single unit that can be inserted and removed from large closet-sized racks with many others:
In large supercomputers multiple computer processors (CPUs) and/or graphics processors (GPUs) are combined into a single node. It has a CPU on which the local operating system runs. It has local memory for running software. It may have GPUs for doing intensive calculations. Each node has a high-speed network connection that allows it to communicate with other nodes and to a large shared filesystem.
Large computer systems typically have worker nodes and login nodes. login nodes are the nodes on which every user arrives when they login to the system. login nodes should not be used for computation, but for compiling code, writing/editing code, and launching jobs on the system. A job is the application that will be launched on the worker nodes of the supercomputer.
These supercomputers occupy a lot of space in the ACLF data center. Here is our staff at the time (2019) in front of Mira, an IBM supercomputer, that debuted as the third fastest supercomputer in the world in 2012.
