Running Jobs on Midway¶
By adding the new Midway2 extension, you have a choice between Midway1 (formerly known as Midway) and Midway2 to run you jobs on. Midway2 has newer processors and should run your code faster and therefore running a job on Midway2 will use more SUs than running the same job on Midway1. Please see Service Units and Allocations for more details.
To keep it consistent with your past practices, logging into midway.rcc.uchicago.edu will connect you to one of two Midway1 login nodes (midway-login1.rcc.uchicago.edu or midway-login2.rcc.uchicago.edu). You also have the option to connect to midway1.rcc.uchicago.edu and it will also connect you to one of Midway1 login nodes.
If you want to connect to Midway2, you need to use midway2.rcc.uchicago.edu as the target server address and it will connect you to one of two Midway2 login nodes (midway2-login1.rcc.uchicago.edu or midway2-login2.rcc.uchicago.edu).
No matter where you are connected to, login nodes are not intended to be used for computationally intensive work. Instead, login nodes should be used for compiling your code, managing files, submitting jobs, etc. If you will be running a computationally intensive program, you must do this work on a compute node by either obtaining an interactive session or submitting a job through the scheduler. However, you are free to run very short, non-computationally intensive jobs on the login nodes as is often necessary when you are developing and debugging your code. If you are unsure if your job will be computationally intensive (large memory or CPU usage, long running time, etc), get an interactive session on a compute node and work there.
Note
Running computationally intensive jobs on Midway1 or Midway2 login nodes prevents other users from efficiently using the cluster. RCC System Administrators may be forced to terminate your processes without warning if you are found to be running disruptive processes on the login nodes.
For more information on how to interact with Midway through the Slurm resource manager, consult the page Using Midway – especially Interactive Jobs and Batch Jobs.
General Examples¶
Below are a number of example submission scripts that you can adapt to run your jobs on Midway (either Midway1 or Midway2). For information on how to run specific software packages on Midway, consult the Software section.
Note
Although it is possible to submit jobs to Midway2 from Midway1 login nodes, you have to compile your code on Midway2 login nodes to successfully run your job on Midway2. Furthermore, availble software modules and the default versions on Midway1 are different than those on Midway2. Thus, it is recommended to login to one of Midway2 login nodes to see the list of available modules on Midway2, compile your code if required, and then submit your jobs to Midway2 from there.