Inferno SGI ALTIX 3700

Inferno is an SGI ALTIX 3700 Supercluster which provides Virginia Tech researchers with access to high performance computing on an SGI hardware platform. It contains sixteen 1.3 GHz Itanium processors each with 3MB of cache, 24GB of memory, 36GB of internal disk storage and 500GB of RAID disk storage.

Contents

• Obtaining an Account
• Support
• Usage Overview
• Installed Software
• Debuggers

Obtaining an Account

Inferno and Dante (http://www.computing.vt.edu/research_computing/dante.html) are two compute servers available to the research community at Virginia Tech. Faculty and graduate students may obtain accounts on the SGI ALTIX by completing the Web based User Account Application Form. As part of your application request, you will be asked for your name, PID, department, address, phone number, system resource requirements, and an abstract describing the research for which Inferno or Dante will be used. The inclusion of citations to related journal publications is encouraged.

Note: Submitted abstracts may be made available online at some future date via hypertext links from the VT SGI ALTIX Web page.

Accounts will typically be created within one workday of submission, but, occassionally, up to one week may be required to complete user verification and account processing.

Support

If you need assistance, contact 4Help by using the Help Request Form (http://www.computing.vt.edu/csc) or by calling (540) 231-HELP (4357).

Usage Overview

This document assumes that you are already familiar with using a UNIX operating system. For general information about using UNIX systems, see Introduction to VTAIX; for specific information regarding SGI ALTIX systems, see SGI Technical Publications.

Documentation of many commands is available via the  "info"  command as well as from the  "man" command. For example, to obtain a description of the Intel debugger, enter:

Logging On and Transferring Files

An SSH client is required to log on to Inferno. For information on obtaining an SSH client, see Telnet & SSH.

To use SSH to log on to Inferno from most Unix systems, at the Unix shell prompt, enter: 

To transfer files, it is recommended that you use a secure file copy program, such as the UNIX "scp" command, although you can use the ftp command from Inferno to move files and data to or from the system.

Disk Space Allocations

Each user account is initially allocated 5 GB of disk space with more space available upon request.

To view current disk availability, enter:

To view your current disk utilization, enter:

cd
       du -k

Disconnected Program Processing

A batch queuing system will be available on Inferno in the future, but is not yet installed. In the interim, you can use the  "nohup"  command to submit jobs for background processing and enable them to continue processing after logoff.

For additional information on using the nohup command and general information regarding the use of UNIX systems, see Background Jobs and Logout -- the "nohup" command.

Default File Permissions

When the file system of Inferno was initially installed, the "umask" was set such that new files are created with user writable and group readable permissions (-rw-r-----), i.e., umask 027. If you desire, you can use the  "chmod"  command to change the permissions of your existing files or the "umask" to change the default permissions which will be assigned to new files.

Installed Software

The following software is currently available on the SGI ALTIX for your use:

Application Programs

• ABAQUS is a software application used for advanced finite element analysis.
  
  To invoke ABAQUS to execute commands contained in the file  "abq_test.inp"  in the current directory, enter:
  
        abaqus job=abq_test
  
  
• Mathematica provides an environment and collection of tools for visualization, computation, and mathematical analysis.
  • To invoke Mathematica interactively, enter:
    
          math
    
    To exit from the Mathematica environment, enter the "Quit" command.
  
  
  
  • To invoke Mathematica to execute the Mathematica program file file_name.m, enter:
    
          math <file_name.m
    
    
• GASP (General Aerodynamic Simulation Program; version 4.2) has been ported to the SGI Altix platform and is available on Inferno. Version 4.2 features a new input format (xml) so that earlier, such as 4.1, input files can not be used. There is a gasp41to42 utility to convert input files but the conversion is not entirely robust and is not available for the Altix. If you have 4.1 files then you should run gasp41to42 on the (SGI or Linux) machine you have been using.
  
  In order to use GASP, you must be a member of the "gasp" group; if you indicated that you would be using GASP, you were automatically added to the group. If you need to be added, complete the Help Request Form and, in the "Problem" text box, request to be added to the GASP group on Inferno.
  
  On Inferno, GASP has been installed in this directory: /opt/local/repositories/i64/Aerosoft
  Before you begin using GASP, assign the above directory to the AEROSOFT.HOME environmental variable and then include this environmental variable as the first element of the directory search path. If you are using GASP on a regular basis, you may wish to add these commands to .profile, if you use Bourne and Korn Shell, or .login, if you use C Shell.
  For additional information, refer to Using GASP on Inferno.
  
  If you plan to use the GASP gui from a system running an X Windows System Server or if you are using a UNIX based desktop system that includes an X server, you may be able to use ssh to initiate your X Windows System session. Refer to Using GASP in a GUI Environment on Inferno on an X Windows System Server.
  
  

• Gaussian is an interconnected system of programs used for performing molecular orbital calculations. Gaussian 03 is now available for your use on Inferno.
  
  To execute your Gaussian program, enter g03 followed by the name of your Gaussian program file, followed by the name you wish to assign to the output file.
  
  
  Example: To use the sample water molecule file, test000.com copied to the current directory, you could use the following command:
  
             g03 <test000.com >test.out
  
  

Compilers

The SGI Intel 8.0 Fortran and C Compilers are now available on Inferno:

Intel Fortran

You can find Fortran complier documentation by referring to Intel Fortran Complier for Linux Systems User Guide.

To compile the Fortran program "test_prog.f" using the Intel Version 8 Fortran compiler, enter:

      ifort test_prog.f

Intel C++

You can find C++ complier documentation by referring to Welcome to the Intel C++ Complier.

To compile the C Language program "test_prog.c" using the Intel Version 8 C compiler, enter:

      icc test_prog.c

General Complier Information

For general information about using Fortran and C compilers on Unix systems, see Working with Unix Programming Tools.

For a description of options which can be used with these compilers, enter:

      ifort -help
       or
      icc -help

Subroutine Libraries

To link in this library, use:   -lscs   or   -lscs_mp when you compile your Fortran or C programs.

Debuggers

idb is the Intel debugger. It allows you to develop, execute, debug, and visualize data in programs.