QuickStart - Interact

Case: when you log on to the HPC, you begin on the login node. The login and manage nodes are NOT a place to develop or test jobs. Taxing the login or manage nodes will affect everyone’s use of the cluster.  It will also likely get your job killed and get a reminder from the system administrators.

The interact script will reserve a processor on node for your sole use.  You can develop or test your job code before you are ready to submit them to the scheduler.

$ interact

• If used with no options, the script will reserve one batch node for one hour.
• Use $ interact -h to learn the options available.
• The maximum time is eight hours ($ interact -t 8)
• USe $ exit to end your interact session.

NOTE: You should not submit a qsub job from within an interact session.

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While an interact session is an easy sandbox to set up, it may not provide for all the resources your testing requires.  There are other ways to get a whole playground, if you need it.

qsub -I will create a more private reservation by asking a node with 24 cores for 2 hours.

$ qsub -I -q batch -l nodes=1:ppn=24,walltime=2:00:00

This will reserve the high memory node instead of a node from the default batch queue.

$ qsub -I -q himem -l nodes=1:ppn=1,walltime=1:00:00

If you are not sure how to get resources for your testing, email hpc@kennesaw.edu