HPC User Guide

This guide will provide you the basic information needed for accessing and running jobs on HPC clusters at University of Hong Kong. Details of hardware configuration and installed software of the HPC clusters is available at https://hpc.hku.hk/hpc/system.

Quick Start for New HPC users

1. Request an HPC account
2. PC accessing HKU campus network (WiFi: HKU; Off-campus: HKUVPN)
3. Connect to HPC cluster via SSH (Secure Shell)
   • Windows: Download an ssh client (e.g. PuTTY, MobaXterm )
   • Linux: Open a terminal and type ssh -l <username> <hpc_hostname>
   • Mac OS X: Open a terminal and type ssh -l <username> <hpc_hostname> 
4. Log in with provided initial password or HKU Portal PIN (if you have changed your HKU Portal PIN)
5. Check whether the software you used is available at HPC Software. Click the software package name for information on how to run the software in HPC.
6. Edit and compile your programs
7. Edit SLURM submission script. Submit and monitor batch jobs
8. Transfer Data to/from the HPC cluster
   • Command Line: Open terminal of a Mac or Linux machine and use utilities such as scp, sftp and rsync.
   • Graphical client to scp/sftp:
     • For Windows users, you can download free secure-copy clients such as WinSCP, FileZilla or MobaXterm .
     • For Mac OS X users, you can download GUI clients such as FileZilla, Fugu or Cyberduck.

User Guides for Individual HPC cluster

• HPC2021