With the commissioning of the Vayu at NCI and the decommissioning of the SX-6 at BOM, many CSIRO and CAWCR users' jobs will move to running on the NCI. Following are some tips and pointers for getting started on the NCI systems
Getting an Account
Joining an Existing Project
To see the owners and project codes of existing projects that you might be able to
connect to, go to NCI NF system time grants and find the CSIRO Partner Share. To be added to a
existing project please fill out the Application Form for a New User Account on a NCI NF system (Note: the link will open the form in a new window)
Creating a New Project
You can apply for a new project at NEW Partner project. (Note: the link will open the form in a new window)
Filling out the form will take a few steps. Here are some tips to make it easier:
The first page asks for a Partner - this will be CSIRO.
Leave the project code field blank if you are starting a new one. Enter the name of the lead chief investigator (probably you if this is a new project) and the number of researchers who will need an account. More researchers can be added to the project later.
When you press "LOAD new project form" you will get a partially-filled out form which you must then complete.
The first part of Section A should be fairly simple (your details)
The next part specifies is for if you are collaborating - and creating accounts - for researchers from other organisations. In most cases you would just select "CSIRO" and "100%"
The next two sections help the NCI in their reporting of how the facilities are being used. There is a list of FOR codes and a list of SEO codes on the NCI accounts page.
The proposal summary is a one or two line description of what you intend to acheive using the facilities, again to help us justify the spending of government money on HPC facilities.
As to resources, we don't expect you to know yet how many SUs (service units or CPU hours) you will need. 5000 or 10000 is probably a good starting number, and we can adjust them later as your actual usage becomes clearer. Hints like "lots of little runs", "lots of big runs", "massive input files" or "uses lots of memory" can be helpful though.
If you know in advance that you need a particular software package and are worried we don't have it, fill in the Software Request Form (Note: the link will open the form in a new window).
Finally save and then submit the form.
Using the NCI system
See the NCI National Facility Userguide for information about vayu and running jobs via the batch queuing system. Other NCI pages are also valuable
SSH and file transfer between cherax and vayu
The SSH page in the FAQ has some notes about using ssh for access and file transfer. Software for GridFTP (with sshftp) and bbcp is available on both cherax and vayu.
If you are controlling file transfers from CSIRO hosts, please access vayu via the name vu-dm.nci.org.au or gridftp-vayu.nci.org.au so the transfer does not interfere with interactive sessions on the vayu login nodes.
NCI would prefer transfers to be run from jobs in 'copyq' and ASC would prefer that transfers be run from jobs in the 'overload' queue on cherax. Please use one or the other where possible.
Getting Help
If you are having trouble using the vayu, first read the userguide and FAQ on the NCI pages.
For queries needing vayu system administrator support (such as requesting that software be installed), read the help pages at help pages and contact the NCI helpdesk directly at help@nf.nci.org.au.
And for any other queries - especially those related to using the NCI systems in conjunction with CSIRO ASC systems, contact the ASC helpdesk at hpchelp@csiro.au.