WI-HPC Major Changes

With the new WI-HPC Cluster, there are some minor and major configuration changes that will impact your ability to successfully run and submit jobs. Please keep the following items in mind as you work to transition to the new cluster.

Memory/CPU Restrictions

The new cluster is configured to constrain jobs to the allocated resources. The old cluster would nodes by requested CPUs but it was possible to over-utilized CPUs and also use all Memory Available on the node. Runaway jobs would potentially impact other peoples work by competing for CPU resources or utilizing all the memory - potentially crashing the node and causing all running jobs to fail.

The new cluster will allocate CPU and Memory based on user request through the Workload Scheduler. Default settings are 1 CPU and 1 GB RAM per CPU. Jobs will be constrained to requested CPUs and RAM levels. Not allocating enough CPU will cause the job to wait for free resources (the job will run slower). Not allocating enough Memory will cause and Out of Memory (OOM) error - and the job will be killed. With this configuration, one user will not be able to impact other users jobs on the same node.

New Home Directory

The new cluster has been setup as a NEW resource. This means a completely empty Home directory with new .bashrc and .bash_profile files. Users who want to add specific directories to their path will need to re-add it here or in their scripts. NOTE: Paths should be updated by loading modules - see Modules section below.

Loading Applications as Modules

The WI-HPC cluster as Applications installed in the /Applications directory and configured via Module files. A module file will assist you in loading an application, it's dependencies and set all appropriate PATH variables for you to leverage the application. IT will be updating/adding applications per request. You can still use lab/user applications, but we are looking to remove this from lab shares over time. Any frequently used application should requested to be installed as a Module.

To view available modules use the command

Module avail

To load a module use the command:

Module load ApplicationName