2.1) HPC At The University Of Leeds

At the University of Leeds, the HPC facilities are currently comprised of two computer clusters, ARC1 and ARC2. More information can be found at the documentation site, https://hec.wiki.leeds.ac.uk. Access can also be provided to the regional HPC facility Polaris, and more information is available on the N8 website, http://n8hpc.org.uk.

They are very similar in architecture and software configuration. As specific examples are needed, this course will concentrate on ARC2.

It is recommended that you obtain an account on one of these facilities, or another HPC facility, and follow along with this course. If you are a member of the University of Leeds, it would be best to obtain an account on ARC2. The procedure is outlined at https://hec.wiki.leeds.ac.uk.

To take full advantage of HPC systems, it is necessary to understand the hardware and network topology. Obviously, these details depend on the specific HPC facility in question. In this introductory course, we will only cover the basic principles, which will be demonstrated by specific examples on ARC2.