Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs

About The VHPC

This section contains some general information about the VHPC and its resources.

What software is installed on the cluster?

Visit our Software Index for a regularly updated list of software available on the VHPC.

How to get software installed?

VHPC users can request software using the VHPC Software Request Form

Are there GPU nodes available?

Yes, the cluster currently has 12 nodes, each of which have four A100 NVIDIA cards. A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is hardware specifically designed to perform graphics related tasks efficiently, and some software can use GPUs for general purpose computing.

What queues are available?

The KSU VHPC cluster has one primary queue:

Queue	Description
defq	This queue has twelve nodes with GPU capabilities.

How many jobs can I submit?

There is no limit to the number of jobs you can submit at any time to the VHPC. However, there is a limit to the number of processors (or cores) that your jobs can use at any time. The current core limits per user are:

defq Queue

Account Type	CPU Limit	GPU Limit
KSU Employee	144	12
KSU Students	144	12
USG Visitors	96	8
Other Visitors	2	1

What is walltime?

Walltime is the amount of time a job can actively be running in a queue before the scheduler automatically ends it.

Queue	Limit
defq	720:00:00

Who do I ask if I have a technical questions about using the cluster?

Please open a service request through the ServiceDesk:

Method	Students	Faculty/Staff
Web	ServiceNow	ServiceNow
E-Mail	studenthelpdesk@kennesaw.edu	service@kennesaw.edu
Phone	470-578-3555	470-578-6999

Using The VHPC

This section contains pointers on how to start using the VHPC and links for getting more information and training.

How do I get access to the VHPC facilities at KSU?

Please visit our Getting Access page for links to get started.

How do I get training to use the cluster?

Please contact Tom Boyle (x6180 or tboyle@kennesaw.edu) to discuss the needs of you and your collaborators and schedule a training session.

How do I connect to the cluster?

Once you have a connection through the VPN, you will need to use an SSH program. Apple Mac users can use the Terminal.app or iTerm2, while Microsoft Windows users can use Putty or Windows PowerShell.

ssh NetID@vhpc.kennesaw.edu

For those wanting to utilize an X Windows session:

Command Line SSH (Windows or Mac)GUI SSH Clients

If you are using the command line ssh command, you need to add a -Y to the ssh command like:

ssh -Y NetID@vhpc.kennesaw.edu

In the configuration settings for your connection to the VHPC, look for "X Windows Forwarding" or "X11 Forwarding" options.

NEW! Starting August 8^th, 2022

Due to changes in security policies, Kennesaw State University requires two-factor authentication for all servers, including the VHPC login servers. For more information about connecting using Duo two-factor authentication, please visit Duo Two-Factor Authentication.

Common Issues / Tasks

This section contains questions and answers about some of the more common issues we've heard about from users.

Why does my SSH session time out when I try to connect to the VHPC cluster?

This usually means that you are not connected through the VPN properly. Make sure that the GlobalProtect shows as connected and that the vpn-groups.kennesaw.edu portal is selected.

Warning

You may have a portal to vpn.kennesaw.edu already configured in GlobalProtect. This will not work for accessing the VHPC, you MUST use vpn-groups.kennesaw.edu.

How do I get a module to load automatically when I log into the cluster?

The module command on the VHPC has a feature called Module Collections. You can manually add all of the modules you need to your environment once, and then use the module save to save the current collection of modules as your default collection. Then, whenever you log in, those modules should be loaded.

You can also create named collections, by doing something like module save colname to save the currect set of modules as colname. Then you can use module restore colname to load that collection. The command module restore without a colname will load your default collection, so it's probably best to keep your default collection as simple as possible.

How do I move files to and from the cluster?

Macintosh Machines:: Launch Cyberduck and ‘Open Connection’ with the SFTP protocol (Video help). Use the connection information in the table below to create your connection.
Windows Machines:: Launch Bitvise SFTP session (Video help). Use the connection information in the table below to create your connection.

	VHPC
Server	vhpc.kennesaw.edu
Port	22
Username	your_netid
Password	your_netid_password
Authentication Method	Keyboard Interactive

Note: If asked to accept a private key, click 'Yes' to trust host.

How do I uncompress files on the cluster?

Different file formats can be 'unzipped' using the following utilities:

gunzip will extract the contents of .gz files.
bunzip2 will extract the contents of .bz2 files.
unzip will extract the contents of .zip files.
tar will extract the contents of .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tgz, and .tbz files.

How do I create or edit a text file?

If connected, use nano within a terminal session or move files to and from your workstation and use an editor locally.

How do I see my running and queued jobs?

The squeue command will display your running and queued jobs from the command line.

Command	Purpose
`squeue`	This command shows the status of your slurm jobs, including status (queued, running, and completed) and current walltime if it's running.
`showq`	This command displays information about your active, eligible, blocked and completed jobs.

I get this error when running sbatch: sbatch: error: Batch script contains DOS line breaks (\r\n) and sbatch: error: instead of expected UNIX line breaks (\n).

Windows (and DOS) end each line of a test file with two characters: a carriage return and a line feed. Linux (and UNIX) machines typically end each line with a line feed character. Depending on how you transferred the files, sometimes the program will translate the line endings, and sometimes it won't. There are a couple of ways to fix the problem, but the simplest is to run the dos2unix command on any file that you need to convert:

[barney@vhpcprdssh02 ~]$ dos2unix scriptfile

This will convert scriptfile to a UNIX/Linux formatted file.

When I try and use the SSH escape sequence ~+Shift+C it responds with 'commandline disabled'

Newer versions of OpenSSH have disabled the escape sequence by default. You'll know if this is the case for your machine if you type in the escape sequence and instead of the ssh> prompt you get a message that says commandline disabled.

To fix this issue, you need to add the -o EnableEscapeCommandline=yes option to ssh command you use to connect to the HPC. Something like:

[barney@mylaptop ~]$ ssh -o EnableEscapeCommandline=yes NetID@hpc.kennesaw.edu

If you want to make the change permanent (so you don't have to remember to type the extra option every time) you can set the same option in the ssh config file on your computer. (It should be ${HOME}/.ssh/config on Mac and Linux systems, and $HOME\.ssh\config in Windows) Just edit that file with your favorite editor and add a line that looks like this:

EnableEscapeCommandline yes