Getting Started with Cruncher

General Information
host name: cruncher.cc.binghamton.edu

New accounts and closure of accounts

SSH help

system status and support Official announcement source http://computing.binghamton.edu (as RSS feed?)

Scope of usage, user base on campus

Unix Help
See Common Unix commands

File System Structure
/data

You may need to copy (using the cp command) to use the examples listed in these directories.

(where are examples located --Rhansen 20:21, 8 February 2007 (EST))

groups

What happened to CRSP and COMPUSTAT!?
Visit the WRDS utility online instead (it's much easier to use, and a much fuller collection than we've had in the past (ex. Census data, Historical, not just recent (financial) datasets)

https://wrds.wharton.upenn.edu/

A license to use the web interface is required, and approval locally through the School of Management, but the process for new accounts is well-automated.

Editors
vi

emacs

pico (now upgraded to the better 'nano') - type pico at the command line or pico filename

and start editting. Don't forget to (Ctrl-W) Writeout to save your changes to th file you edit.

Running SAS
sas progname or sas progname.sas
 * 1) Create progname.sas using your choice of Unix editors (see Common Unix commands)
 * 2) Type:

To examine the results open up progname.lst using your choice of editors for example pico progname.lst

To examine whether there are errors that occured when sas was interpreting your sas statements, examine the LOG file pico progname.log

(to be added soon --Rhansen 19:36, 8 February 2007 (EST)) SAS Narrative document (an example of running a few simple SAS program examples on Unix)

Other SAS on Unix wiki pages
Common SAS with X option configurations

Running Matlab
To startup (without X) type  matlab -nodisplay at the command prompt

To leave matlab type quit

If X is enabled on your local machine Simply typing matlab at the command prompt is the usual way to start matlab. Otherwise, type matlab -h to see other options for startup.

Further information about the product can also be found at the vendor's site

Running ANSYS
Ansys is currently not installed on Cruncher though there are plans to do so.

Programming (compilers, libraries)
Fortran /opt/SUNWspro/bin/f90 fortranprogname.f will produce an a.out file (To then run the program, you may need to set the a.out file as executable) chmod u+x a.out

Then you may type ./a.out or ./a.out arg1 arg2 if the program require command line arguments as input, or type ./a.out <infilenm (if the program requires/processes an input data file on standard input

c++ gcc

PERL perl ?

Passwords
Changing my password passwd

Samba password sambapasswd (? - --Rhansen 19:51, 8 February 2007 (EST) )

or

smbpasswd

Miscellaneous commands
move2data filename - moves a copy of filename to a support repository (so that those staff on the support team can see your file directly without requiring root user intervention.

help (not yet available as a command, use man instead)

Policies
User area quota guidelines Requests should be considered at 5, 10 and 20Gb increments (not micromanaged).
 * for disk space allocation - guiding principle: 'equitable and efficient' methods for quota setting

A committee of active Cruncher users plans to meet each year, December during finals week to assess policy unless remaining space in user space (totl available = 500Gb) is critically low. The committee will consider purchasing more space (currently costing ~$5 per Gb) or reassessing quota policy if needed.

Backups for the entire user space done daily (incremental versus full as needed based on activity). Archiving once at the end of every semester (Spring, Summer, and Fall).
 * for archiving and backup commitments

Procedures
(for new accounts, account closure, quota increase, heavy computation time-slot reservation) - (to be determined, though web forms, or formalized procedures are planned as charges may be incurred for very large space requirements (necessary additions to the current configuration of the machine))

Web hosting and Email
Not available on Cruncher. (And currently there are no plans to make such functionality available. --Rhansen 19:41, 8 February 2007 (EST))

New functionality, future upgrades
Your suggestions?

Tips
Mapping a Windows Network drive to my Cruncher space

Setting up X-windows on Windows to work with Cruncher

Working remotely on Cruncher

Configuration tips when using SAS on Cruncher and X