Getting Started
To use the cluster, you will first need to obtain an account by submitting an
Account Application. Once you have received your username and password you will be able to log into the primary interactive node (mentioned in the email) using an SSH client. If your desktop machine runs Windows, recommended SSH clients are available from
Cygwin and
PuTTY. Note that your account is maintained separately from your UT NetID.
On your first login, you may be asked to set up your SSH keys. The keys are necessary to enable automated communication between the head node and the compute nodes of the cluster when you submit a batch job. It is recommended that you accept the defaults for these questions to set up your key with an empty pass phrase.
Once logged into 'newton' you will be presented with a bash shell to Scientific Linux 5.3. Primary interaction with the cluster is via the
Grid Engine batch queue system. The batch queue is tasked with distributing your compute jobs to the worker nodes of the cluster. The newton cluster supports both serial jobs (one instance of a program running on one CPU of the cluster) and parallel jobs (a program which runs over more than one CPU of the cluster). Parallel jobs can use the low latency Infiniband interconnect for inter-process message passing.
For further details please consult the
User Documentation.
