Computational Cluster Programs

Hoffman2 Cluster

Announcements and News
Hoffman2 Cluster Consulting: atshpc@ucla.edu

Hoffman2 Cluster Components

Picture of the Hoffman2 Cluster In accordance with the IDRE Cluster Hosting Program, the Hoffman2 Cluster consists of the the following parts:

Campus General Purpose Cluster

This part of the Hoffman2 Cluster is set aside as a free resource for computation for general campus users. ATS closely monitors the usage of these general-purpose nodes and increases the number of nodes as usage dictates and budget allows.

Base Shared Cluster

These nodes have been contributed by ATS/IDRE to the Hoffman2 Cluster. Their presense enables research groups that contribute nodes to the Hoffman2 Cluster to access a pool of nodes that is larger than just the number of nodes that they contributed.

Research Group Virtual Clusters

Individual research groups can fund, purchase and contribute nodes to the Hoffman2 Cluster. Once funded, these nodes become part of the Hoffman2 Cluster and are no longer individually physically linked to the research group that contributed them. However the resources represented by the purchased nodes do belong to the research group. Since the sharing of the contributed node's unused cycles is the price the group pays to join the shared Hoffman2 Cluster, the number of nodes that the research group has contributed is not always available to the research group. However, the nodes will always be made available to the group within 24 hours.

Application Cluster

The Application Cluster runs commercial and non-commercial applications, both serial and parallel. It is available to all users of the Hoffman2 Cluster.

By prior special arangement with IDRE, the entire cluster can be used for a large compute run.

Accessing the Hoffman2 Cluster

Accessing the Hoffman2 Cluster from the UCLA Grid Portal

The UCLA Grid Portal provides a convenient Web interface to the Hoffman2 Cluster and other clusters at UCLA. The UCLA Grid Portal provides a common way of working with all these clusters and enables secure, unified, access to them. There are two ways you can access the Hoffman2 Cluster via the grid portal:

As a Pool-Only User

If you require access to specific applications to be used in batch mode, apply at the UCLA Grid Portal to be a pool user. This will give you access to applications which have been contributed to the UCLA Grid from a number of clusters on the UCLA campus, including Hoffman2.

Apply for a Hoffman2 login id

Members of research groups providing nodes to the Hoffman2 Cluster, those running their own research codes, and those requiring access to interactive applications should apply for a login id on the Hoffman2 Cluster. When your login id is assigned to you, you will also be given access to the Hoffman2 Cluster from the UCLA Grid Portal.

Accessing the Hoffman2 Cluster from Head Node

If you are an expert Linux user and want to use the Hoffman2 cluster from its head node or if you require access to the head node for any reason apply for a login id on the Hoffman2 Cluster.

Computing on the Hoffman2 Cluster

Getting Help

For help, please contact the High Performance Computing consultants at atshpc@ucla.edu. The consultants will respond to email during normal business hours.

The Hoffman2 Cluster is named for Paul Hoffman (1947-2003).