Pathfinder
Pathfinder, a new ITSD-managed HPC cluster, is now available and replaces both the Baseline cluster and CADES Open condos. It includes an updated operating system, increased storage capacity, and a newly deployed software stack aligned with the Baseline environment. Users migrating from Baseline should recompile their applications on Pathfinder before running jobs
Users who need accounts on Pathfinder should email cades-help@ornl.gov
To connect to Pathfinder, ssh to:
ssh <username>@pflogin.ornl.gov
Operating System
Pathfinder is currently running Rocky Linux version 9.7
NFS Home Area
Upon login users land in their personal home area, which is hosted on a Network File system (NFS). User Home areas are designed to be the place where users keep actively used application codes, scripts, and starting data for applications. It is read-only from the compute nodes, meaning that the compute nodes cannot write data directly to the NFS home areas. This is because there is a fast parallel filesystem that is specifically optimized for parallel data I/O.
NFS Project Area
The /project directory is a shared project space designed for collaboration among users within the same project. Each project is assigned its own directory under /project, and all users who are members of that project can access and share files within that space.
Project directories are intended for storing shared data, scripts, and intermediate results that need to be accessed by multiple users. Permissions are managed at the project level to ensure that only authorized users can read from and write to their respective project directories.
Users from different projects cannot access each other’s project directories.
Scratch Area
The /scratch directory is a high-performance file system designed for running large scale parallel production jobs. Users have access to their scratch space under /scratch/hpcl-XXXX. To achieve optimal parallel performance, jobs should use the scratch area rather than the home or the nfs project directories.
The /scratch file system is intended for temporary data only and should not be used for long-term storage. Files that are not accessed for 90 days are subject to purging. Users are responsible for copying important data to permanent storage locations before it is removed.
Nodes Types
On Pathfinder, users will interact with two primary node types: login and compute nodes. Despite similar hardware, each serves a distinct role, and users should ensure they are using the appropriate node type for their workload.
| Node Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Login | Users are placed on a login node upon connecting to Pathfinder. This environment is intended for code development, compilation, data management, and job submission. Do not run parallel or threaded jobs on login nodes, as they are shared resources and not for compute-intensive tasks. |
| Compute | Most Pathfinder nodes are compute nodes, and these are the only nodeswhere jobs should be executed. Users should access compute resourcesusing commands such as srun. |