Getting Started with Lonestar5 and Stampede2

NB: For complete up-to-date information, always see: TACC's Lonestar5 User Guide (https://portal.tacc.utexas.edu/user-guides/lonestar5) and TACC's Stampede User Guide (https://portal.tacc.utexas.edu/user-guides/stampede)

Logging In

You can login to TACC using a standard ssh client.  For linux and Mac users, start a new local terminal window on your local machine.  For Windows 10, you can also start a terminal window and use the built-in SSH client.  For earlier versions of Windows, you will need to use a third party SSH application such as  putty.

Before logging onto TACC servers, TACC multi-factor authentication must be set up. 

To connect from Linux, Mac, or Windows 10, use a command such as (in this example, we use stampede):

You will then need to provide your TACC password and a TACC Two-Factor token to successfully log in to stampede or lonestar.

For putty users, it is similar:

• Double-click the Putty icon
• In the PuTTY Configuration window:
  • Make sure the Connection type is set to SSH.
  • Enter the appropriate Host Name (ls5.tacc.utexas.edu, stampede.tacc.utexas.edu, etc).
  • Click Open button.
  • Answer Yes to the SSH security question if needed (only needed the first time you connect to a new host).
• In the PuTTY terminal which opens:
  
  • Enter your TACC user name after the "login as:" prompt, then Enter.
  • Enter the password associated with your TACC account.
  • Get your TACC 2-factor authentication code and enter it when prompted for it.

Modules

Modules are programs or sets of programs that have been set up to run on TACC. They make managing your computational environment easy. All you have to do is load the modules that you need and a lot of the advanced wizardry needed to set up the linux environment has already been done for you.

To see all modules available in the current context, type:

To load a module, type a command such as:

Why not load all the modules by default? Well, for one thing it would slow things down every time you log in.  In addition,  some modules may conflict or not work together.

Since module avail only shows modules in the current context (i.e. based on your currently loaded modules), to see all possible modules use:

If you know the name or description of the module you want, you can do a "freetext" search for it:

This will returnall modules with that text anywhere in their title or description.

You can also use regular expressions, such as:

module -r spider '.*python.*'

If you can't find a program that you need, you can request that it be installed through TACC consulting.

Logging Off

When you are done, and want to leave the TACC system, simply type "exit" in the terminal window.