Computational Cluster Programs

Software Installed on ATS-Hosted Clusters

The following software has been installed by ATS staff on ATS-hosted clusters for use by all users who have access to the individual clusters:

The ATS-Hosted Clusters are High Performance Compute clusters and, as such, have been designed primarily for batch computing. Therefore, they do not have a lot of interactive applications, more suitable to desktop environments, installed on them. It is assumed that all users will have access to desktop or laptop computers for such purposes. An exception is made in the case of licensed commercial software, especially those software applications that are useful for research and that have hefty license fees. Interactive licensed applications are made available as a means of providing these applications to campus users.

When run interactively on most ATS-hosted clusters, interactive applications must be run on nodes specifically designated for interactive use. This policy applies to software that you may install in your home directory as well as software installed in common areas.

Additionally ATS will be happy to install any open source software on our hosted clusters if ATS determines that it does not pose any threat to system security and there is no technical problem in installing it. We follow the following guidelines for deciding the location of the installation:

  • In case the license does not allow the software to be installed in a common place, we will help users to install it in their home directories.
  • In case the software is required by more than a single user but those users have a common sponsor (meaning they belong to the same primary group), we will encourage and help users to install the software within their home directories. We can help users configure permissions so that they can share the package within the same group. We can install the software in a common area if the disk requirements or some other valid reason is given along with the request.
  • In case the software is required by at least two users who do not have a common sponsor (meaning they do not belong to the same primary group), we will install it in a common area.

ATS reserves the right to install or not to install any software based on the discretion of our consultants. The overall goal is to preserve the performance, stability and maintainability of the cluster for all users.