Your first time using a supercomputer like Sol can be intimidating, but it does not have to be. This guide will get you started with the basics. If you run into problems or need additional help, we hold regular weekly office hours.

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1. Connect to the ASU Cisco AnyConnect VPN

2. Login with your ASURITE & password

3. Choose a connection method (terminal / web portal)

4. Transfer needed files

5. Run an interactive session or create an SBATCH script

6. Access mamba for Python environments, and other public software modules

Important Terms

• HPC: Short for “High Performance Computing” it refers to a group (or a cluster) of interconnected computers designed for parallelism across many computers at once. Publicly these are often called “supercomputers”.

• Node: A single machine in a supercomputer. This will be either a physical machine or a virtual machine. 

• Login Node: A node intended as a launching point to compute nodes. Login nodes have minimal resources and should not be used for any application that consumes a lot of CPU or memory. This is also known as a “head node”.

• Compute Node: Nodes intended for heavy computing. This is where all heavy processing should be done.

• Job: Work assigned to be done on a compute node. Any time a compute node is assigned a job is created.

• Memory (RAM): Short for “Random-Access Memory“. This is used for the amount of memory that each calculation or computation requires in order to execute and complete successfully. The term “memory“ is not used for disk space. This is another main component that defines a node.

• CPU: Short for “Central Processing Unit”, also called a core. This is one of the main components that defines a computing device, such as a node.

• GPU: Short for “Graphic Processing Unit”. This is a specialized piece of hardware that can enable and accelerate certain computational research.

• Scheduler: The application on our end that manages and assigns (allocates) compute resources for jobs. The scheduler used on the ASU Supercomputers is called Slurm.

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1. Creating an interactive session in the web portal using an interactive app, such as Jupyter, RStudio, or MATLAB. This will assign a compute node to your interactive session in an interactive app of your choice. This is a great option for users to become familiar with using the supercomputer as well as to develop, test, and debug code.
   

2. /wiki/spaces/RC/pages/1643839520 in the shell. This will assign a compute node and connect your command prompt to it. This is good when working by hand to establish the commands needed to run your work. When your session disconnects, the interactive session also closes. Any unsaved work will be lost.
   

3. /wiki/spaces/RC/pages/1643905055. This is a method of telling the scheduler you want an unattended (or non-interactive) job to run. When an a sbatch script is submitted, the job will run until it either completes, fails, or runs out of time. These sbatch scripts can be submitted through the shell or through the “Job Composer“ in the web portal.

Working with Python

Using Python on supercomputers is a little bit different than on workstations or local computers. We use mamba instead of conda or pip. Please follow our guide closely for the best practices with Python on the supercomputers: Working with Python

Working with software

The system-wide installed software applications that are open to all the users, are often presented in the form of software modules or containers on supercomputers. Please follow this guide for how to find and use software: Using Software Modules

Recommended Reading

The page linked above will cover additional details on the supercomputer environment which will assist in maximizing your results.

Helpful Tips

• If your job is failing, a

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• Job ID helps us significantly as we can pull detailed information about the job.

• If you are new to Linux, or need a refresher, Research Computing has created a guide at The Linux Shell on the Sol Supercomputer. For a great reference on building proficiency with command-line tools, we provide the following MIT link from CSAIL.

Additional Help