Course Recap: Introduction to PDC Systems

On the 27th of September 2024, PDC hosted an “Introduction to PDC Systems” course. This was run as an online session and was designed for beginners in high-performance computing (HPC) and for experienced users interested in exploring the Dardel system, including its new GPU partition. Led by PDC experts, this course offered a comprehensive look at Dardel’s infrastructure, covering essential topics such as setting up an account, scheduling jobs with Slurm, data storage, and software environments.

The course attracted around 25 attendees who actively participated, posing questions on a variety of topics. Highlights included sessions on efficient login practices, the use of ThinLinc, and managing Python environments with Jupyter notebooks and Conda. Additionally, the final segment introduced Singularity, focusing on containerised workflows, which are an increasingly relevant topic for researchers working in diverse computational environments.

Participants left with enhanced confidence in using Dardel, better prepared to leverage HPC for their research.