Course Wrap-Up and Next Steps

HPC1: Introduction to High Performance Computing

Welcome to Session 7

Course Wrap-Up and Next Steps

Congratulations on completing HPC1!

What You’ve Accomplished

Technical Skills ✅

• HPC Concepts: Clusters, nodes, cores, parallelization
• Linux Command Line: File navigation and management
• Storage Systems: Home, scratch, temporary storage
• Software Management: Module system mastery
• Job Scheduling: Slurm job script creation
• Best Practices: Troubleshooting and optimization

Key Concepts ✅

• Resource Planning: Right-sizing requests
• Data Management: Organizing research data
• Reproducibility: Version-controlled workflows
• Collaboration: Sharing environments
• Problem Solving: Debugging HPC issues
• Security: Protecting credentials and data

Essential Commands Recap

Category	Command	Purpose
Connection	ssh user@system	Connect to HPC system
Navigation	cd $HOME, cd $SCRATCH	Change directories
Files	ls, cp, mv, rm	List, copy, move, remove
Storage	quota -s, du -hs	Check disk usage
Modules	module load, module list	Manage software
Jobs	sbatch, squeue, scancel	Submit, monitor, cancel
Monitoring	sacct -j JOBID	Check job accounting

Your HPC Workflow

flowchart TD
    A[Connect to Aire] --> B[Navigate to project]
    B --> C[Load modules]
    C --> D[Prepare data in scratch]
    D --> E[Write job script]
    E --> F[Submit with sbatch]
    F --> G[Monitor with squeue]
    G --> H[Job completes]
    H --> I[Check with sacct]
    I --> J[Copy results to research storage]
    J --> K[Clean up scratch]

Immediate Next Steps

1. Practice: Run your own code on Aire
2. Explore: Browse available software modules
3. Organize: Set up project directory structure
4. Backup: Implement data backup strategy
5. Connect: Join HPC user communities

Project Planning Template

Before starting a new HPC project:

Planning Checklist

• Define objectives
• Estimate requirements
• Choose tools
• Plan workflow
• Consider scalability
• Think about sharing

Resource Planning

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --job-name=descriptive_name
#SBATCH --partition=appropriate
#SBATCH --time=realistic_estimate
#SBATCH --nodes=number_needed
#SBATCH --mem=memory_needed
#SBATCH --output=logs/%x_%j.out

module load required_modules
cd $SLURM_SUBMIT_DIR
# Run analysis

Getting Help Effectively

When You Need Help

1. Check documentation first - Aire docs are comprehensive
2. Search for similar issues - Many problems are common
3. Ask specific questions - Include error messages and job IDs
4. Be patient - HPC systems can be complex
5. Help others - Share solutions with the community

Core Principles to Remember

1. Start simple: Get basic workflows working first
2. Test thoroughly: Always validate results and methods
3. Document everything: Your future self will thank you
4. Be a good citizen: Share resources fairly and clean up
5. Keep learning: HPC technology continues to evolve

Stay Connected

• Training Courses: Upcoming HPC and research computing courses
• Aire Documentation: Comprehensive system documentation
• Research Computing Website: News, updates, and resources
• Help Desk: Submit queries and get support
• Research Computing Community: Connect with other researchers using HPC; we will share the invite to the Teams group

Course Feedback

We value your feedback to improve this course.

We’ll share a link to a feedback form in the chat.

Your input helps us make HPC training better for everyone!

Thank You!

Happy Computing! 🚀

Questions?

Research Computing Team
University of Leeds