Node types

Node types#

Research Computing has several node types available on our resources. Each node type is meant for certain tasks. These node types are relatively common for other HPC centers. We will discuss each node type and its intended use below.

Login nodes#

  • Four virtual machines

  • This is where you are when you log in

  • Do not use for: computation, compiling code, interactive jobs, or long running processes

  • Use for: editing scripts, moving files, scheduling jobs

Users should familiarize themselves with CURC User Policies regarding login nodes.

Compile nodes (Alpine only)#

  • Where you compile code, such as Fortran, C, C++

  • No heavy computation

  • Submit Jobs

  • Access these nodes by typing acompile from a login node

Compute nodes#

This is where jobs are executed after being passed to the scheduler.

  • Intended for heavy computation

  • When running an interactive job you will be performing tasks directly on the compute nodes

Data Transfer Nodes#

  • Data Transfer Nodes (DTNs) are nodes which support data transfer on CURC systems.

  • When transferring files using scp, sftp, or ssh, you can choose to host your transfers on a DTN.

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