Computing

Getting an Account

You will need a valid SLAC UNIX account in order to use the LCLS computing system. The instructions for getting a SLAC UNIX account are here:

http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/lcls/users/logistics.html#compaccts

Your UNIX account must be enabled in the LCLS system in order to have access to data and elog. This happens automatically if your account is created with XU as its primary group. If your primary UNIX group is not XU, make a request of enabling your account in the LCLS system by sending an email to:

pcds-help@slac.stanford.edu

If you forgot your password or if your account has been disabled send an email to:

account-services@slac.stanford.edu

Getting Access to the System

You can get into the LCLS photon computing system in the NEH by ssh'ing to one of these nodes:

psexport.slac.stanford.edu
psimport.slac.stanford.edu

From these nodes you can move data files in and out of the system and you can connect to the bastion hosts:

pslogin
psdev

Note that, from within SLAC, you can directly connect to the bastion hosts without going through psimport/psexport.

The SLAC wireless visitor network is not considered part of SLAC so you'll need to go through psexport/psimport when using your laptop on-site.

From the bastion hosts you can then reach the analysis nodes (see below).

Each control room has a number of nodes for local login. These nodes have access to the Internet and are named psusr<id>.

The controls and DAQ nodes used for operating an instrument work in kiosk mode so you don't need a personal account to run an experiment from the control room. Remote access to these nodes is not allowed for normal users.

Running the Analysis

The analysis framework is documented in the Data Analysis page. This section describes the nodes which are available for running the analysis.

Instrument Dedicated Nodes

These nodes are reserved for the users who are currently running an experiment. Each instrument has three dedicated interactive compute systems:

The general specifications for these nodes are:

• psana<instr>01: 8 cores, Xeon E5520, 24GB, 500GB disk, 1Gb/s, dedicated Matlab license
• psana<instr>02: 8 cores, Xeon E5520, 24GB, 500GB disk, 1Gb/s
• psana<instr>03: 8 cores, Opteron 2384, 8GB, diskless, 10Gb/s

Interactive Farm

In order to get access to the interactive farm, ssh to the address psana. A load-balancing mechanism will connect you to the least loaded of the nodes in the farm.

This farm is currently made of six servers with the following general specifications:

• 8-cores, Opteron 2384, 8GB, diskless, 10Gb/s

Batch Farm

Login first to psdev or pslogin (from SLAC) or psimport or psexport (from anywhere). From there you can submit a job with the following command:

bsub -q lclsq -o <output file name> <job_script_command>

For example:

bsub -q lclsq -o ~/output/job.out my_program

This will submit a job (my_program) to the queue lclsq and write it's output to a file named ~/output/job.out.

You may check on the status of your jobs using the bjobs command.

For a more detailed description and more more LSF commands, please see

http://www.slac.stanford.edu/comp/unix/unix-hpc.html

The batch farm is made of sixty servers with the following general specifications:

• 8 cores, Xeon E5520, 24GB, 500GB disk, 1Gb/s

Data Storage

LCLS provides space for all your experiment's data at no cost for you. This includes the measurements as well as derived data from your analysis software.

Your data are available as XTC files or, on demand, as HDF5 files.

Short-term Storage

All your data is available on disk for one year after data taking. The path name is /reg/d/psdm. The data files are currently stored in a Lustre file system. Each experiment is allocated three directories: xtc, scratch and hdf5. The xtc directory contains the raw data from the DAQ system. Its contents are archived to tape. The scratch and hdf5 directories are not backed up. Please write the output of your analysis to the scratch area and not in your NFS space. Keep your analysis code under your NFS home or under your NFS group space (if you have one). Your NFS space is backep up.

Long-term Storage

After one year, your data files are removed from disk. The XTC files remain stored on tape for up to 10 years. LCLS may restore your data from tape back to disk for you to access. Restoring the data to disk more than once will require the approval of the LCLS management.

Data Export

There is a web interface to the experimental data accessible via

https://pswww.slac.stanford.edu/apps/explorer

The web interface also allows you to generate file lists that can be fed into bbcp to export your data from SLAC to your home institution. You can use psexport or psimport for copying your data.

See the Data Exportation page for more information.

Printing

The following printers are available in the NEH building from all the UNIX nodes: