This page is currently being updated to include examples of submission and configuration commands that can be used on CTBP resources.

It should be noted that this example assumes the use of only one GPU per task and requests an equal amount of memory and CPU resources based on the total resources of each node. The amount of CPU and RAM memory utilized can be increased or decreased based on the user's experience with their system.

Requesting access

To request access to the clusters please use the following form:

https://www.crc.rice.edu/app/rice_signup.php

Slurm configuration

To obtain information about the number of nodes, number of CPUS, memory and number of GPUs in each cluster use the following command:

sinfo -o "%N %c %m %f %G " -p your_partition

NOTS (commons)

This partition includes 16 volta GPU nodes, each equipped with 80 CPUs and 182GB of RAM. In addition, each node includes 2 NVIDIA GPUs.

#SBATCH --account=commons
#SBATCH --partition=commons
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks=1
#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=40
#SBATCH --mem=90G
#SBATCH --gres=gpu:1
 
ml gomkl/2021a OpenMM/7.7.0-CUDA-11.4.2

NOTS (ctbp-common)

This partition includes two ampere GPU nodes, each equipped with an AMD EPYC chip featuring 16 CPUs and 512GB of RAM. In addition, each node includes 8 NVIDIA A40 GPUs with 48GB of memory.

#SBATCH --account=ctbp-common
#SBATCH --partition=ctbp-common
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks=1
#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=2
#SBATCH --mem=64G
#SBATCH --gres=gpu:1
 
ml gomkl/2021a OpenMM/7.7.0-CUDA-11.4.2

NOTS (ctbp-onuchic)

This partition includes one GPU node, equipped with an AMD EPYC chip featuring 16 CPUs and 512GB of RAM. In addition, each node includes 8 NVIDIA A40 GPUs with 48GB of memory.

#SBATCH --account=ctbp-onuchic
#SBATCH --partition=ctbp-onuchic
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks=1
#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=2
#SBATCH --mem=64G
#SBATCH --gres=gpu:1
 
ml gomkl/2021a OpenMM/7.7.0-CUDA-11.4.2

ARIES

This partition includes 19 GPU nodes, each equipped with an AMD EPYC chip featuring 48 CPUs and 512GB of RAM. In addition, each node includes 8 AMD MI50 GPUs with 32 GB of memory each. To submit a job to this queue, it is necessary to launch 8 processes in parallel, each with a similar runtime to minimize waiting time. This ensures that all of the GPUs are used efficiently.

#SBATCH --account=commons
#SBATCH --partition=commons
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks=1
#SBATCH --export=ALL
#SBATCH --gres=gpu:8
 
module load foss/2020b OpenMM

*Alternative if running 8 jobs in parallel

#SBATCH --account=commons
#SBATCH --partition=commons
#SBATCH --ntasks=8
#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=6
#SBATCH --threads-per-core=1
#SBATCH --mem-per-cpu=3G
#SBATCH --gres=gpu:8
#SBATCH --time=24:00:00
#SBATCH --export=ALL
 
module load foss/2020b OpenMM

PODS

This partition includes 80 GPU nodes, each equipped with an AMD EPYC chip featuring 48 CPUs and 512GB of RAM. In addition, each node includes 8 AMD MI50 GPUs with 32 GB of memory each.

#SBATCH --account=commons
#SBATCH --partition=commons
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks=1
#SBATCH --export=ALL
#SBATCH --gres=gpu
 
module load foss/2020b OpenMM

Remote access to the clusters

To access the servers from outside of Rice it is recommended to connect to them through the gw.crc.rice.edu server. Here we will show how to create a passwordless ssh tunnel that will allow you to securely connect to a remote machine without having to enter a password everytime you connect.

Generate the keys

First generate a pair of public and private keys on your local machine. Open a terminal and enter the following command:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Save the key in the default key and  leave the passphrase empty. This will generate a pair of public and private keys, with the default file names id_rsa and id_rsa.pub. Don't share or expose your private key.

Copy the keys to the gateway server

Copy the public key to the remote machine (The gw.crc.rice.edu server). Enter the following command in your terminal, replacing user with the correct rice user id:

ssh-copy-id user@gw.crc.rice.edu

This will copy your public key, id_rsa.pub, to the remote machine and add it to the authorized_keys file on the remote machine.

Test the connection. Enter the following command in your terminal to connect to the remote machine:

ssh user@gw.crc.rice.edu

You should be able to connect to the remote machine without being prompted for a password. Exit to your local machine using Ctrl+D

Create a ssh config file

To make it easier to connect to the remote machine in the future, you can create or edit your ssh config file in  ~/.ssh/config. This file allows you to specify connection settings and aliases for different remote machines. To create an ssh config file, open the ~/.ssh/config file in a text editor and enter the following information, replacing user_id with your username on the remote machine:

Host crc
    User user_id
    HostName gw.crc.rice.edu
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Host aries
    User user_id
    HostName aries.rice.edu
    ProxyJump crc
    Port 22
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Host nots
    User user_id
    HostName nots.rice.edu
    ProxyJump crc
    Port 22
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Test the connection from you local machine to the remote machine using the alias. The gateway will be accessible without a password. You should be able to connect to the gateway enter the following command in your terminal:

ssh crc

Exit to your local machine with Ctrl+D

Copy the keys to the compute servers

To add the keys to the compute servers add the keys from your local machine to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys in the compute machine. For that in your local machine get the public key by executing the following command:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Connect from your local machine to the compute servers using the settings and alias specified in the ssh config file with the following command:

ssh nots

You will be prompted for a password. Once you have entered it, you can edit or create the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the compute server using a text editor like vi. Make sure to create the folder .ssh first if it doesn't exist:

mkdir .ssh
vi ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Add the contents of your local machine's ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub file to a new line in the authorized_keys file. Save the file exit the text editor (:wq) and then exit to your local machine with Ctrl+D.

To test the connection. Enter the following command in your terminal to connect to the remote machine:

ssh nots

You should now be able to connect to the compute server without being prompted for a password.

Repeat these steps for each additional compute server you want to connect to.

More Information