New User Warnings
If you have never used a high-performance computing cluster, or are not familiar with SeaWulf, YOU WILL WANT to read and follow the instructions in the FAQ below (start with the Getting Started Guide!). It is a common practice for new users to ignore this FAQ and simply try to run jobs without understanding what they are doing. Such carelessness can and WILL easily impact the many users who are currently running critical jobs on the cluster. If your actions compromise the health of SeaWulf, your account will be LOCKED so please make sure you thoroughly read the guides below before you embark on running jobs.
Do NOT use the login nodes for computationally intensive work of any kind. This includes compiling software. If everyone runs CPU- or RAM-intensive processes on either login node, it will crash and prevent all other SeaWulf users from being able to login to the cluster. If you need to test or compile your code, please request an interactive job instead of testing it on the login nodes!
Do NOT use your home directory (/gpfs/home/NETID) to store large files as you may quickly exceed the directory’s storage limit (20 GB). It is best to place large or temporary files in your scratch directory (/gpfs/scratch/NETID), though please keep in mind that files and directories in scratch are automatically removed after 30 days. If your research group needs a persistent directory with a larger storage limit, consider requesting a shared project space.
Never submit a large number of jobs (greater than 5) without first running a small test case to make sure your code works as expected. Start slow and then ramp up with jobs once you are familiar with how things work.
SeaWulf is managed by a small number of System Administrators and students. If you encounter an issue or have problems running your job, please make sure you read through the FAQ items below before submitting a ticket to HPC Support.