HPC 101 Series

This is a 4-week course for first-time HPC users. Classes will run on Zoom 2pm-4pm Canberra time. See the following dates:

1. July 28 (Tuesday) | Session 0: UNIX Foundations, Text Editors & Git 

2. August 3 (Monday) | Session 1: HPC Architecture & Remote Connections 

3. August 11 (Tuesday) | Session 2: Schedulers, Modules & Environment Variables 

4. August 18 (Tuesday) | Session 3: Secure File Transfer & Parallelism Fundamentals

The workshop series introduces High-Performance Computing (HPC) concepts, tools, and practices. Participants will explore key topics, including HPC architecture and GPU utilisation, while gaining hands-on experience with common command-line tools for task management and job execution on HPC clusters. Real-life examples will be provided to illustrate the practical applications of HPC in various domains.

The course is structured into multiple sessions, beginning with a preparatory "Session 0" to ensure participants are equipped with the necessary tools and skills for the remainder of the course.

Who should attend

This workshop is suitable for:

• New and future NCI users

• Researchers working with computationally intensive workflows

• Technical staff supporting scientific computing

Prerequisites

1. Basic experience with Python (Programming with Python).

2. Basic experience with bash or similar Unix shells is ideal. (Software Carpentry - The Unix Shell ) However the essentials will be covered in Session 0.

3. User experience on Gadi is ideal. (Seminar on Getting Started with Gadi)

Learning Outcomes

Participants will learn:

• UNIX tools and version control: Learn to use UNIX command-line tools to manage and work with remote HPC systems.

• HPC system architecture: Understand the key components of HPC systems and their roles in scientific research.

• Job schedulers: Learn to submit and manage jobs on Gadi

• Environment management: Use environment modules and variables to handle software dependencies and control how programs run on HPC systems.

• Parallel Programming: Learn to choose from the common strategies and tools to change a serial program to parallel program