Beta is the Linux-based high-performance computing (HPC) test cluster available to all researchers at the University of Michigan. Beta will provide a testing environment for the transition to a new job scheduler, Slurm. Slurm will be used on the Great Lakes cluster; the Armis HIPAA-aligned cluster; and a new resource called “Lighthouse” which will succeed the Flux Operating Environment in early 2019.
Currently, Flux and Armis use the Torque (PBS) resource manager and the Moab scheduling system; when completed, the Great Lakes cluster and Lighthouse will use the Slurm scheduler and resource manager, which will enhance the performance and reliability of the new resources. Armis will transition from Torque to Slurm in early 2019.
The Beta test cluster is available to all Flux users, who can login via ssh at ‘beta.arc-ts.umich.edu’. Beta has its own /home directory, so users will need to create or transfer any files they need, via scp/sftp or Globus.
Slurm commands will be needed to submit jobs. For a comparison of Slurm and Torque commands, see our Torque to Slurm migration page.
Beta consists of 20 compute nodes and eight K20x GPUs on one node for testing GPU workloads. Each of the standard nodes have 16 AVX cores (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 0 @ 2.60GHz) and 62GB of RAM, interconnected with 40Gb/s InfiniBand networking.
Beta is intended only for non-commercial, academic research and instruction. It is specifically suited to testing scripts and is also not intended for production-level research. No PHI or sensitive data may be stored or processed.
Getting Access
All HPC users with Flux accounts should have access. If you complete an HPC User form to get an account. To log in, ssh to beta.arc-ts.umich.edu.
For technical support, email arcts-support@umich.edu.
