Introduction to Kebnekaise

NOTE If you need a refresher on using Linux (the operating system used on Kebnekaise and most other HPC centres), then we recommend the 3-hour course on "Introduction to Linux" that is given the day before this course. More information and registration here: https://www.hpc2n.umu.se/events/courses/2025/spring/linux-intro

We begin with an introduction to HPC and HPC2N, before going on to a walk-through of the Kebnekaise system, including the newest hardware.

After that, we go through the module system and take a look at how to submit jobs. During the hands-on you will get the opportunity to try loading modules, compile a program, and submit a job to the Kebnekaise cluster. We will look at how to use both the different types of CPUs, and the different types of GPUs.

Eligibility: since Kebnekaise is no longer a NAISS cluster, this course in only available to local users. This is defined as users who are current or future members of projects with a PI affiliated with HPC2N's partner sites (UmU, SLU, LTU, MIUN, IRF). Participation is free.

Remote/online participation: The course will be completely online and we will use Zoom. More information about connecting and such will be sent to the participants shortly before the course.

Preliminary Schedule

09:00 Welcome, introduction to the course

09:10 Introduction to HPC2N, Kebnekaise and High Performance Computing

09:35 Projects and accounts

09:50 Logging in (including code-along)

10:10 COFFEE BREAK (on your own)

10:25 The File System (including code-along)

10:45 The Module System (including code-along)

11:10 Compiling, linking (including code-along)

11:25 The Batch System (SLURM)

12:00 LUNCH BREAK (on your own)

13:00 Simple Batch scipts, examples: Demo and hands-on exercises 

13:45 Application examples - part 1

• Software packages - various examples, hands-ons

14:45 COFFEE BREAK (on your own)

15:00 Application examples - part 2

• Software packages - various examples, hands-ons

16:30 Summary + Q/A

17:00 END OF COURSE

NOTE that the lectures (but not the exercises) will be recorded and uploaded to HPC2N's YouTube channel.

Materials:

• Download from HPC2N's GitHub: https://github.com/hpc2n/intro-course
• Presentations and code-alongs: https://hpc2n.github.io/intro-course/

Recorded lectures: TBA

Please make sure you have an account at SUPR as well as at HPC2N if you want to participate in the hands-on part of the training. There will be a course project that can be used to run the examples in during the hands-on. If you don't have an account at SUPR and/or HPC2N, you will be contacted with further instructions for how to create those. You are strongly encouraged to sign up to SUPR as soon as possible after registering for the course, as the process can be somewhat slow (if you do not have SWAMID you need to sign their User Agreement on a paper form and send it with a copy of your passport to SUPR).

Course project: As part of the HPC2N hands-on, you will be given temporary access to a course project, which will be used for running the hands-on examples. There are some policies regarding this, that we ask that you follow:

• You may be given access to the project before the course; please do not use the allocation for running your own codes in. Usage of the project before the course means the priority of jobs submitted to it goes down, diminishing the opportunity for you and your fellow participants to run the examples during the course. You can read more detailed information about the job policies at HPC2N here.
• The course project will be open 1-2 weeks after the course, giving the participants the opportunity to test run examples and shorter codes related to the course. During this time, we ask that you only use it for running course related jobs. Use your own discretion, but it could be: (modified) examples from the hands-on, short personal codes that have been modified to test things learned at the course, etc.
• Anyone found to be misusing the course project, using up large amounts of the allocation for their own production runs, will be removed from the course project.
• You will likely also be given access to a storage area connected to the compute project. Any data you store there should be course-related and if you wish to save it you should copy it to somewhere else soon after the course as it will be deleted about a month later.

The course uses computing resources provided by HPC2N/UmU university.

Prerequisites: nothing particular 

Time and date: 22 January 2025, 09:00 - 17:00

Location: ONLINE. Zoom link will be sent to participants a few days before the course.

Deadline for registration: 16 January 2025. (23:59)

Please register by filling in the below form. Fields marked with a * are mandatory. REGISTRATION CLOSED!