Training

OSC offers online and in-person training for new and advanced users on a variety of high performance supercomputing topics.

New! Online Training Courses

OSC has partnered with The Ohio State University to offer online training courses that clients can complete at their own pace at any time on the ScarletCanvas platform, Ohio State's public learning management system.

The first two available courses are:

“Introduction to OSC High Performance Computing Resources.” Designed primarily for new clients, the course reviews HPC concepts, hardware and software available for client use, storage and file systems, batch processing, how to start a new project and request resources, and how to use our web portal OnDemand.

"Batch System at OSC.” This course introduces the Slurm batch system used for submitting, running and managing jobs on OSC clusters. Topics include an overview of batch concepts and terminology, the batch execution environment, and example Slurm batch scripts.

Visit the OSC course module on ScarletCanvas to enroll in and complete the courses. The courses are open to all current and potential OSC clients or anyone with an interest in high performance computing, regardless of affiliation with Ohio State.

Additional training courses will be added in the future.

Webinars

Our staff regularly offer webinars on specific topics such as introduction to supercomputing at OSC, python environments, the batch system, and simple linear regression with R.

Visit the OSC events page to view a schedule and register for the training sessions, which typically run 90 minutes to two hours.

Workshops

Multi-day virtual workshops cover supercomputing topics, such as RNA-seq data analysis, in greater depth for clients. Visit the OSC events page to learn about any necessary prerequisites, method of instruction delivery and more.    

On-Site Training

OSC staff can visit your campus to provide on-site training for your faculty, staff and students. Sessions can focus on new or advanced users on subjects such as network use, job control, operating systems, compiling systems, hardware specifications, parallel environments, performance analysis tools, debuggers and more. Please contact OSC Help to request a campus visit.

Supercomputer: 
Service: 

Computing Services to Accelerate Research and Innovation

Description

This two hour workshop will provide an introduction to OSC resources and how to access them. Topics include:

  • High performance computing concepts.
  • Hardware and software available at OSC.
  • Getting allocations and accounts.
  • How to connect and log in.
  • How to move data on and off the systems.
  • Introduction to batch processing.
  • Storage and file systems.

Optional hands-on participation: 

Participants who bring a laptop computer will be able to connect to the supercomputers during the workshop.  OSU wireless is available in the seminar room.  OSC workshop accounts will be provided.

Who Should Attend

New OSC users, or researchers interested in learning about OSC resources.

Prerequisites

There are no prequisites.

Method of Delivery

Slide presentation and open discussion. A recent copy of the materials can be found below.

Additional Information

Contact oschelp@osc.edu with questions.

If you would like to host this workshop at your location, please let us know

Documentation Attachment: 
Service: 

Conquering the OSC Batch Environment

Conquering the OSC Batch Environment
or
“Why Must I Get in Line? I Want to Run Now!”

Every year since its inception, OSC has found batch processing to be among the top-ranked help topics. Simply put: “How do I get my program to run on the supercomputer?” This hands-on, half-day session not only will answer this question for OSC machines, but also explain how a user can find out useful information about the batch environment infrastructure. Users will be able to submit and run batch jobs with different purposes. Topics include:

  • The basics: Batch environment, batch file format, job submission, job status, return files
  • Optional resources: Nodes, cores, memory, accelerators, processing time, software, etc.
  • Our virtual waiting room: The PBS batch system, also known as “The Queue”
       (We will demonstrate how the system can be used interactively (yes, it is possible!)
  • How to manage jobs: The command line and our new OSC OnDemand Web Portal
  • How to use batch jobs to perform parallel processing
  • Useful environment variables related specifically to the batch system

Who Should Attend: New OSC users, or researchers interested in learning about OSC resources. 

Prerequisites:  Basic knowledge of UNIX is expected.

Hands-on participation: Participants who bring a laptop computer will be able to connect to the supercomputers during the workshop. OSC workshop accounts will be provided.

Method of Delivery: Slide presentation and lab exercises. Copies of the materials will be available online before the workshop.

Additional Information: Contact oschelp@osc.edu(link sends e-mail) with questions.

Introduction to Linux / UNIX

Description

This brief course is designed to introduce users without UNIX or Linux experience to the core concepts and tools necessary to be productive on a UNIX or UNIX-like operating system. Includes hands-on exercises.

Topics

  • Basic structure of Linux
  • Getting out of trouble (control keys)
  • Linux command structure
  • Getting help (man pages)
  • Logging in and out
  • Organization of files and directories into a tree hierarchy
  • Basic file and directory related commands
  • Absolute and relative paths, wildcards
  • File/directory permissions and how to change them
  • Screen editors (emacs, vi, nano)
  • Linux shell (primarily bash)
  • I/O redirection and UNIX / Linux piping
  • Searching files (grep, find)

Who Should Attend

OSC users with little or no experience using the command line of a UNIX or UNIX-like operating system.

Prerequisites

There are no prequisites.

Method of Delivery

Slide presentation and hands-on exercises. A recent copy of the materials can be found below.

Additional Information

Contact oschelp@osc.edu with questions.

Documentation Attachment: 
Service: