Getting Started

Welcome to CINECA HPC !!!

Here you will find in few simple steps the instructions to get your first access to CINECA HPC resources.

Let’s start !!!

1. Create your personal User account on UserDB portal.

  • Visit the How to become a User section for detailed information.

  • Please, consider that, once completed, the registration alone does not grant the access to the HPC resources.

2. Get associated to a valid Project Account.

  • Visit the Project Accounts section to find all the ways you can be granted a Project Account on our HPC resources.

  • If you are the Principal Investigator (PI) of a project, please write to superc@cineca.it to be associated.

  • If you are a collaborator, please ask to the PI of the Project Account to be associated.

  • Visit the PI and Collaborators section for more information.

3. Submit a request to get access to CINECA HPC resources

  • by clicking on Submit button in HPC Access page on UserDB (Submit a request to have a User Account)

  • Once enabled, we will provide you with a HPC username and a link to configure the 2FA (password + OTP token)

4. Configure your 2FA

  • click on the link arrived via email and configure your HPC password and OTP token as described here Access to the Systems

5. Select the Infrastracture

  • According to resources assigned to your Project Account, choose the HPC, or Cloud infrastructure.

HPC Infrastructure
6. Configure the smallstep client

The smallstep client is needed to get the temporary 2FA certificate to access the cluster (How to configure smallstep client)

7. Connect to the Cluster

Open a new shell/terminal and use the following commands to connect:

$ step ssh login <your email> --provisioner cineca-hpc
$ ssh <username>@login.<cluster>.cineca.it

Visit the page Access to the Systems to find instructions about other possible ways to connect

Important

You can login only to clusters where you have active budgets on it.

8. Managing Data Files

Get familiar with the FS areas and where they are located. On our HPC clusters there are several storage areas. The basic ones are: $HOME, $WORK and $SCRATCH, but sometimes there may be more. In section File Systems and Data Management you can find a description of all of them with their properties and limitations.

Explore the Enviroment

Check available software and/or compilers and pick-up the most convenient for your purpose. In the Environment and Customization section is described how to check, load and get info of the available software, enviroment and compilers.

9. Check your budget status

Verify the status of your Project account budgets and their name with saldo command. A descrption of the saldo command and additional flags that may be needen in some cases are described in Budget and Accounting.

10. Submit your jobs

Execute your simulation on compute nodes of our HPC cluster by submitting a job script to our SLURM scheduler. In Scheduler and Job Submission you can find how to properly create a job script and to submit it.

Cloud Infrastructure
6. Learn about OpenStack

Follow the link for more information: What is OpenStack?

7. Access the Horizon Dashboard

You can find the link to the dashboard and other useful information on the page specific to the cloud you have been assigned to: ADA or GAIA

Important

You can only login on clouds where you have active budgets on.

8. Setup your project

Create your network stack and your first virtual machine instance:

Note

Be sure to check our Tenants Administration tips