Cluster Software

Apart from the base OS software (gcc, python and perl) by default all software is installed into a shared folder called /opt/exp_soft. This is visible to all worker nodes. Some software can be called directly by referencing the path, for example /opt/exp_soft/MySoft/bin/MySoft. Other software requires multiple path and environmental variables to be set correctly. To assist in this we run the module package on all servers. To see a list of all modules type:

module avail

and to activate a module type:

module load module name

Python users should be extra cautious as there is a default version of python available on all worker nodes. It is recommended that the anaconda version of python be used instead, for example:

module load python/anaconda-python-2.7

The module statement should be placed in your shell script, or executed once an interactive job has started. This is because all environment variables are purged when a job starts on a worker node.

Alternately you can place the module commands in your .bashrc file. Those making use of parallel programming techniques such as mpirun are encouraged to do this so that multiple worker nodes have a consistent environment.