April 13, 2015
XSEDE New User Tutorials and User
Support:
Lessons Learned
Marcela Madrid
XSEDE New User Tutorials and User Support:
Lessons Learned
Teaching New User Tutorials remotely every few months
and at XSEDE conferences. Supporting MD and Chemistry
software.
What are the lessons learned:
Feedback received.
What are the roadblocks to begin using HPC.
What can we do better.
Tutorial presented at the XSEDE conference:
Consists of four parts:
Writing and Submitting a Successful Allocation (Ken Hackworth)
Information Security Training for XSEDE Researchers (Jim Marsteller)
Using XSEDE Resources (Marcela Madrid)
Using Globus Online (Steve Tuecke)
After attending the tutorial…
XSEDE participants know how to:
• Submit an allocation for XSEDE resources.
• How to protect resources and your own work and choose a secure
password.
• Login in to XSEDE resources, transfer files, submit jobs.
Allocations
Ken usually describes the Allocation process, show Portal
screenshots, review criteria.
Questions:
Q: Underestimated service units: can I ask for a supplement?
A: Depends on the amount of the supplement.
Q: Imaging processing for a private company.
A: Everything needs to be public.
Some of the Q solved by the new interface. Ex. How come I cannot ask for new
users to be added to my allocation when I submit my proposal?
Using XSEDE Resources
How do I get started using XSEDE resources?
• Where to find the Available Resources-Extended Collaborative Support, NIP, Campus Champions.
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The XSEDE Portal
Getting Started User Guide
Login into the Resources: Single Sign On
File Transfers
Running: file systems, batch jobs
Why has my job not run?
Managing Your Software Environment
Batch schedulers. Improving your job turnaround
Packing jobs
• Getting Help
• Exercise: Actually running on a supercomputer
XSEDE Exercise
• Exercise: Actually running on a supercomputer
• Provided generic training accounts (train01-train30) on two
different supercomputers.
• Exercise consisted in writing a job script to run Amber (we
provide the example).
• Submit and monitor the status of the submitted job.
• Find and look at the output files.
Biggest Hurdle during the Exercises at XSEDE14:
Starting to see people who are not proficient in UNIX and even who have
never used UNIX before.
Logging in to the hub for PC users: was a problem for people who
needed to download putty. Need to allow extra time for that.
Need to tell workshop participants in advance if they need to download
putty.
Link on the Portal says that the GSI-SSH applet is no longer the
recommended way to access XSEDE systems. (Temporary).
Experience at XSEDE14
• Most participants wanted more hands-on exercises.
But a few could not even log in.
• Raises the question of a “one size fits all” training.
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Possible Solutions:
Courses being offered in UNIX for HPC should be a great help.
Science Gateways?
Need to plan for more TAs to accommodate diverse needs.
Need to let participants know in advance that they will need
putty installed or set aside a time to do it together.
Ideas for future improvement of XSEDE
New User Tutorials
• Training Accounts attached to Portal ID (to a real allocation).
No gap between what they do on-line and what they see in
the portal.
• Will need to allocate extra time for this. Could extend the
tutorial to full day rather than half a day. Teach in the morning
Allocations and Security. Participants can submit a starter
grant directly during the workshop. In the afternoon Getting
Started and Globus On-line. Can have Globus online exercise.
New User Training Webinar
taught every few months.
During the New User Training Webinar we teach basically the
same as at the conference but without the exercises. Tom
Maiden answers questions via chat.
Other questions received during Web
Training and XSEDE:
• How to choose resources?
• What software is available at different sites?
• If I have a question on Blacklight, do I send the
ticket to Blacklight or XSEDE?
• Packing: can I run many serial codes?
• Can I run R on XSEDE?
New User Training Webinar
We could let users watch the videos and
assign exercises. Then hold “office hours” so people can contact
us with their problems.
Minorities
• Professors in minority institutions have huge
teaching loads and have limited time for research.
They do not have grad students to help with the
research.
• Possible remedies: When talking to them, mention
that XSEDE not only provides resources for research,
but also education. Can use for classes, can help
with curriculum. Put them in touch with the
Education group.
Experience from Software Support: Frequent
Problems:
• Cannot find output files. Confused about directories.
Cannot/will not create subdirectories. Overwrite output files.
(Relates to Unix inexperience).
• “It used to work” but have not saved previous output files.
• Need to have example of how to run each software: The
whole script for a job to submit and input files. (Rather than
many links to different pages from which the user has to put
together his/her own job script). Difficult for new users.
Module help.
Improvements/Suggestions
• A good Improvement: Getting Started Guide prominent at the
front of the Portal and XSEDE web pages. User Guide is now a
more attractive, easier, interface.
• Also very useful prominent role of Campus Champion and
Domain Champions. To get started using XSEDE a researcher
needs to:
Apply for an XSEDE allocation
Request to be added to an existing one. Or
Contact your local campus champion.
• Need info on what Gateways are and how to use. Start from the
very basic of what is a gateway and how do we use it.
• Software: Need job script with example input files for each
supported software, or include the job script in the module
help.
• FAQ