Mind-meld: Local Experiments Server

Contact Information:

Status:
Currently Supported

The Sun Fire X4600 server provides computing capabilities specifically configured to aid in CACR experiments and collaborations. Permission to run on this system is at the discretion of CACR management

System Guide:

1. How to Get An Account

2. How to Access the Machine

Connect to the front end, mind-meld.cacr.caltech.edu:

ssh -l username mind-meld.cacr.caltech.edu

Please edit, compile, build and run your jobs on mind-meld; currently there is no scheduler deployed.

NOTE: password entry into the Sun Fire X4600 is not allowed, but rather access is permitted via ssh public keys. If you do not have a public key, please see our SSH public key generation instructions.

3. System Configuration Information / Technical Summary

The mind-meld Sun Fire X4600 provides computing capabilities to meet the needs of special purpose CACR projects. The configuration, integrated by Sun Microsystems and CACR’s technical support team, consists of 8 AMD Opteron 8220 dual core processors, 2.8GHz, with 32 GB main memory.

Technical Summary:

4. Available File Systems and Descriptions/Intended Usage

5. Compiling/Preparing to Run

Available Compilers:

/usr/local/bin/pkgs  lists available packages on mind-meld. Packages are items on the software stack which are commonly used, and necessarily need to have environment variables and pathes updated in order to be used properly. Available packages are:

In order to set your environment to use a particular package, do use pkgname. For example, to use the PGI compilers do

which will update your PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, MANPATH and set the PGI enviroment variable to the appropriate installation base directory. To drop a package from your environment, do drop pkgname. For example, to drop the PGI compilers from your environment do drop pgi

6. Supported Debuggers and Debugging Tips

7. Getting Help/Communicationg with Other Users/Staff

Send mail to cacr-mind-meld-cellcenter-support at cacr.caltech.edu. CACR technical support is available during standard business hours (M-F, 8am to 5pm); after hours responses are as time permits.

8. Expectations About System Down Times/News

Scheduled system downtime is Monday from 0700 to 1200. CACR Operations will not always take the full PM for systems work. If you would like to schedule benchmarking or test runs with dedicated access to the entire system, asking cacr-support for a portion of PM time is fine and encouraged.

News about operational changes (e.g. system software upgrades, file system policy changes, dedicated runs) will be posted using news. New news items since last ssh’ing to the head node will be displayed automatically.

Using news:

9. Miscellaneous System Software

Coming Soon.

All users are expected to adhere to the CACR Computing Policies.