Introduction
This user's guide for the Altamira supercomputer is intended to provide the minimum amount of information needed by a new user of this system. As such, it assumes that the user is familiar with basic notions on scientific computing, in particular the basic commands of the Unix operating system, and also with basic techniques for the execution of applications in a supercomputer, like MPI or OpenMP.
The information in this guide includes basic technical documentation about the Altamira supercomputer, the software environment, and also on available applications.
Please read it carefully and if any doubt arises don't hesitate to contact our support group.
System Overview
Altamira includes 158 main compute nodes, 4 additional GPU compute nodes and two login server.
Main compute nodes have two Intel Sandybridge E5-2670 processors, each one with 8 cores operating at 2.6 GHz and a cache of 20MB, 64 GB of RAM memory (i.e. 4 GB/core) and 500 GB local disk.
Operating System (OS)
Main compute and login nodes run Centos 7.4
Network
The internal network in Altamira includes:
- Infiniband Network (FDR): High bandwidth network used by parallel applications communications and data transfer.
- Gigabit Network: Ethernet network used by the management services.
Storage
All the nodes are connected to a global storage system based on GPFS (Global Parallel File System) providing a total of, more or less, 2 PB.
File Systems
Bach system
Running Jobs
As is defined above SLURM is the utility used at Altamira for batch processing support, so all jobs must be run through it. This part provides information for getting started with job execution at Altamira.
NOTE: In order to keep the login nodes in a proper load, a 10 minutes limitation in the CPU time is set for processes running interactively in these nodes. Any execution taking more than this limit should be carried out through the queue system.
Manage Jobs
A job is the execution unit for the SLURM. A job is defined by a text file containing a set of directives describing the job, and the commands to execute.
These are the basic directives to submit jobs:
Getting Help
IFCA provides to users consulting assistance. User support consultants are available during normal business hours, Monday to Friday, 09 a.m. to 17 p.m. (CEST time).
User questions and support are handled at:
Spanish Supercompiting Network (RES) at <res_support@ifca.unican.es>
UC groups or Servicio Santander de Supercomputación users at <ssc@unican.es>
If you need assistance, please supply us with the nature of the problem, the date and time that the problem occurred, and the location of any other relevant information, such as output or log files.
