Accessing Milton

Last updated on 2023-05-16 | Edit this page

Overview

Questions

  • How do I log in to Milton?
  • Where can I store my data?

Objectives

  • Connect to Milton.
  • Identify where to save your data

Milton Cluster

Milton is a linux-based cluster, that is made up of two login nodes and many computer nodes in addition to the file systems.

What is a nodes made up of?

  • Physical cores
  • Memory
  • Local storage
  • Maybe GPU(s)
Node diagram
Node diagram

Connect to Milton

The first step in using a cluster is to establish a connection from your laptop to the cluster. You need a Windows Command Prompt or macOS Terminal, to connect to a login node and access the command line interface (CLI).

Exercise 1: Can you login to Milton?

If not in WEHI, make sure you are on the VPN. While on a WEHI device, open your terminal and login to vc7-shared.

More details are available here.

You will be asked for your password.

Watch out: the characters you type after the password prompt are not displayed on the screen. Normal output will resume once you press Enter.

You will notice that the prompt changed when you logged into the remote system using the terminal.

Login to vc7-shared
Login to vc7-shared

Milton File Systems

Milton File Systems
Milton File Systems
Managed Versus UnManaged File Systems
Managed Versus UnManaged File Systems

How data should be moved between file systems according to project requirements?



Case 1: Data from external collaborators and needs long term retention
Case 1: Data from external collaborators and needs long term retention



Case 2: Data from publicly available source, or with delete on-completion constraint
Case 2: Data from publicly available source, or with delete on-completion constraint

Looking Around Your Home

We will now revise some linux commands to look around the login node.

Exercise 2:Check the name of the current node

Get node name where you are logged into

BASH 

$ hostname

OUTPUT 

vc7-shared.hpc.wehi.edu.au

So, we’re definitely on the remote machine.

Exercise 3: Find out which directory we are in.

Run pwd (print the working directory.)

BASH 

pwd

OUTPUT 

/home/users/allstaff/<username>

Instead of <username>, your username will appear. This is your HOME directory ($HOME)

Exercise 4: List all files and folders in your Home directory

BASH 

ls

will print a list of files/directories in the directory.

Exercise 5: Copy Exercise examples to your vast scratch or home directory

copy exercise examples from /stornext/System/data/apps/sample-scripts/Workshop-IntroToHPC-Slurm to current directory,

BASH 

cd <dir>
cp -r  /stornext/System/data/apps/sample-scripts/Workshop-IntroToHPC-Slurm .
ls

Exercise 6: Disconnect your session

BASH 

exit

or

BASH 

logout

For more on Linux commands, visit our guide or watch the recording of the workshops here

Key Points

  • HPC systems typically provide login nodes and a set of compute nodes.
  • Files saved on one node are available on all nodes.
  • Milton has multiple different file systems that have different policies and characteristics.
  • Throughout a research project, research data may move between file systems according to backup and retention requirements, and to improve performance.