CÉCI HPC Training

The CÉCI presents, each year during Fall, a full-fledge offer in training sessions for researchers using, or willing to use, the CÉCI clusters. The training sessions are and organised in collaboration with the CISM, ELIC, BIUL, CP3, MODL, PTCI (UNamur), ACE (ULiège) and SISC (ULB). The whole offer goes from baby steps into the Linux world to parallel MPI programming and GPU computing. The sessions are readily cluster-oriented, so knowledge of a programming language or of a scientific computing software is assumed. Training session are delivered in English.

The next sessions will be in organised in October and November 2023. The slides of previous sessions are available on the CISM Indico event management system. The videos of previous sessions are also available on the CISM/CECI Youtube channel.

Topics

Topics cover range from the basics of Linux to parallel programming on clusters and GPUs. The full list of sessions organised this year is available on the Indico event management system.

Schedule

The precise schedule is available in the Indico event management system of the CISM. The little calendar tool allows exporting an iCal event for all sessions, or subscribing to the calendar.

Venue

The sessions are organised in Louvain-la-Neuve and Namur. The specific room is announced on the page of each session in the Indico event management system.

Pasteur room and MERC rooms LLN

The Pasteur room is located in the BST building (Bibliothèque des sciences et technologies), located on 'Place Louis Pasteur'. Enter the building through its main entrance. You will need to use your UCLouvain badge to enter the library. Participants from other universities will have to request access at the welcome desk. Then, take the stairs to floor number 2 ; you will then find the Paster room on the right.

The MERC rooms (MERC02, MERC12, etc.) are located in the Mercator building, also on 'Place Louis Pasteur'. Follow the signs to the correct room.

The Mercator B336 room is in the same building, on floor number 3. When you exit the elevator or the stairs got to the corridor in front of you ; the B336 room is the first one on the right.

Train

If you come by train, you will arrive in the center of the city. Climb the outside stairs and go left. Turn left, walk alongside the Police building. At the end of the road, cross the perpendicular road and follow in the path that crosses the large parking place. You will end up on the Louis Pasteur place.

If you prefer to follow your phone, here is an alternative route by Google Maps:

Parking

The most convenient parking space available for visitors is the parking Baudouin 1er. That place is free. Beware that most other parking places in the area are restricted, or not free. Exit the parking by the other entrance, the one that does not lead to the main boulevard and walk along the boulevard until you reach a tunnel that will allow you to cross the boulevard. Follow the path on your right, cross the road and go straight. You arrive at Place Sainte-Barbe. Pass by the right the Barbe building, and turn right Voie Minckeleers. At the end of the road, cross the perpendicular road and take the stairs between the two buildings in front of you. The BST building is the one on your left.

If you prefer to follow your phone, here is an alternative route by Google Maps:

FISHER room LLN

The Fisher room is in the De Serres building, place Croix du Sud, 1-2. When you are Place Croix du Sud, go between the two buildings depicted below

and reach the side entrance:

Go straight ; the Fisher room is the second one on the right.

Train

If you come by train, you will arrive in the center of the city. Climb the outside stairs and go through the station straight in front of you. Get out of the station from the opposite entrance. From there, turn left and follow the road until you reach a wooden place ('Place des Sciences'). Get around the place by the right, pass the Museum and aim at the parking slots you will see between the buildings. Cross the parking place to the Place Croix du Sud.

Parking

The most convenient parking space available for visitors is the parking Baudouin 1er. That place is free. Beware that most other parking places in the area are restricted, or not free. Exit the parking by the other entrance, the one that does not lead to the main boulevard and walk along the boulevard until you reach a tunnel that will allow you to cross the boulevard. Follow the path on your right, and cross the road on your left at the crosswalk and walk through to the Place Croix du Sud.

CYCL E349 LLN

The CYCL E349 room is located on floor number 3 in the E tower of the Cyclotron building (Chem. du Cyclotron 2, 1348 Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve). When you enter the building through the main door, go straight, pass the door in front of you, and take the stairs to floor number 3. There, turn left, then left, and the room is in front of you.

Train

Go past the "Salmigondis" or "Pythagore" building. After this octogonal building turn to the right. You will arrive on a parking lot. Then you take slightly to the left and aim at a gray chimney. Go through the pedestrian tunnel going under the Boulevard Baudouin Premier. You then arrive in front of the Cyclotron building.

Parking

055 - BN02 Namur

The room is named "Banque Nationale / 055 - BN02" and is located rue de Bruxelles 83, 5000 Namur. Entrance is located Rempart de la Vierge.

Train

When you get out of the station ('centre ville exit'), cross the street and go right, follow the road to the main intersection, with 'Rue de Bruxelles'. Cross the 'Rue de Bruxelles' to reach the 'Rempart de la Vierge' that will be right in front of you (street that runs along the park). Continue for a few meters, the entrance will be on your left.

Parking

Coming by car to Namur is strongly discouraged.

Shannon room

The Shannon meeting room is in the Maxwell building. The address is: Place du Levant 3 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve. When you enter the building, take the stairs (in front of the elevators, which you will see from the entrance) to floor number 1 and go through the door on your left. The Shannon room is on the left.

Train

From there, follow the signs ; turn left and follow the road until you reach a wooden place ('Place des Sciences'). Get around the place by the right, pass the Museum and aim for the Barbe building that stands just behind the Musem. Bypass the Barbe building (by either side, or even through it) and you will reach the Place Sainte-Barbe. From there, cross the place diagonally and go to the path that rises ; the Maxwell building will be in front of you.

Parking

The closest parking space available for visitors is the parking Baudouin 1er. That place is free. Beware that most other parking places in the area are restricted, or not free. Exit the parking by the other entrance, the one that does not lead to the the main boulevard and walk along the boulevard until you reach a tunnel that will allow you to cross the boulevard. Follow the path on your right, cross the road and go straight. You arrive at Place Sainte-Barbe. From there, cross the place diagonally and go to the path that rises ; the Maxwell building will be in front of you.

DAO room, CANDIX room LLN

Those rooms are located in the Vinci building, located on 'Place Sainte-Barbe'. Enter the building through its east-side gate entrance (located on Place Sainte Barbe, not through the main doors) and then turn right in the inner courtyard. Enter the building through the door in front of you and go towards the right corridor.

Train

If you come by train, you will arrive in the center of the city. Climb the outside stairs and go through the station straight in front of you. Get out of the station from the opposite entrance. From there, turn left and follow the road until you reach a wooden place ('Place des Sciences'). Get around the place by the right, pass the Museum and aim for the Barbe building that stands just behind the Musem. Bypass the Barbe building (by either side, or even through it) and you will reach the Place Sainte-Barbe.

Parking

L11 room, Namur

The room is named "Séminaire L11" and is located UNamur - Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, Rue Joseph Grafé 1, 5000 Namur (first floor).

Train

When you get out of the station ('centre ville exit'), cross the street and go right, follow the road to the main intersection, with 'Rue de Bruxelles'. Cross the 'Rue de Bruxelles' and go to left. The second road at the right is 'Rue Joseph Grafé'. Continue for a few meters, the entrance will be on your left.

Parking

Coming by car to Namur is strongly discouraged.

S08 room, Namur

The room is name "Séminaire S08" and is located UNamur - Faculté des Sciences, Rue Joseph Grafé 2, 5000 Namur (ground floor).

Train

When you get out of the station ('centre ville exit'), cross the street and go right, follow the road to the main intersection, with 'Rue de Bruxelles'. Cross the 'Rue de Bruxelles' and go to left. The second road at the right is 'Rue Joseph Grafé'. Continue for a few meters, the entrance will be on your right.

Parking

Coming by car to Namur is strongly discouraged.

Access to the computers

Participants are encouraged to request a CÉCI account prior to attending the training sessions. A set of generic accounts might be available for participants who are not eligible for a CÉCI account, on a session per session basis.

Certificate of participation

All participants who attend in the classroom will receive a certificate of participation.

The certificates of participation will be sent in early December.

Registration

Registration is free but mandatory. If you register but are unable to attend, you are requested to unregister as soon as possible .

Beware that sessions that are marked as mandatory must be attended ; all the material covered in those sessions is a requirement for all the subsequent sessions. For instance, after the session about SSH, we will assume all participants are able to connect to the cluster without assistance. Notions such as SSH agent and SSH proxy must be mastered by the participants. Please pay attention to the requirements of the sessions you register to.

You can direct all your questions to egs-cism@listes.uclouvain.be. Be sure to include '[Training]' in the subject of your email for faster processing.

Important note: Please create your CÉCI account before attending the session.

The first step is to create an account in the Indico event management system. To do so, please go to https://indico.cism.ucl.ac.be.

Click 'Login'

Click 'create one here'

Enter your email address (preferably your institutional email rather than a generic @gmail address and click on the link you receive by email to complete the registration procedure.

Important: Please create your account with the same login you have with your CÉCI account.

Once you are logged in, choose 'HPC traning sessions > 2023', or click on this link to see the list of training sessions. Make sure to unfold the view if the page says 'There are 11 events in the future. Show' to view the whole list of sessions.

Click on each session, review them, and decide the one which you want to attend. Please note that the first session 'Introduction to HPC' is mandatory, and the ' Introduction to Linux and the command line' and 'Connecting with SSH: Introduction and advanced topics' are mandatory unless you are very confident with those topics. They are prerequisite for the subsequent sessions, and no help will be available with respect to those topics afterwards.

Once you click 'Regsiter', you will see the following screen:

The upper part of the form will be pre-filled with your account data. The number of places left is indicated next to each option.

You will have the option to register to attend, either - on site, or remotely if the situation is not safe (red code) ; - on site only if the situation is the safest (green code) and remotely otherwise ; - remotely.

If the option you choose is not available, please try again later in the hope someone unregisters and leaves a place vacant.

Once you click on 'Register', you get an email with a summary of the data you entered, and a link to manage your registration to that event. Make sure to save the session in your calendar. You can do so easily by clicking on the calendar icon in the top part of the page.

You can have a summary of your registration by consulting your dashboard.

Unregistration

Should you finally decide not to attend the session, please do unregister by opening the session page and clicking on 'Modify registration'. Then click "Withdraw".