LONGLEAF FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS)

1. How to get an account on Longleaf or Sycamore

2. What are the details of the new filesystem locations?

3. What is the queue structure on Longleaf and Sycamore?

4. How do I transfer data between Research Computing clusters?

5. How do I transfer data onto a Research Computing cluster?

6. How do I access the OnDemand Web Portal for Longleaf?

1. How to get an account on Longleaf or Sycamore

Follow the steps outlined on Request a Cluster Account.

For more information on Longleaf, see: Longleaf Cluster.

For more information on Sycamore, see: Sycamore Cluster.

2. What are the details of the new filesystem locations?

See the Longleaf Directory Spaces page or the Sycamore Directory Spaces page.

3. What is the queue structure on Longleaf and Sycamore?

The queue systems are managed through SLURM partitions, which vary by research cluster:

• See Longleaf Partitions.
• See Sycamore Partitions and User Limits.

If you have jobs that require a queue (partition) you do not have access to, please contact us via research@unc.edu or via help ticket at https://help.unc.edu.

4. How do I transfer data between Research Computing clusters?

• To copy a big file or thousands of small files, use GLOBUS.
• To copy a medium sized file,do not connect to longleaf.unc.edu (or sycamore.unc.edu), instead connect to one of our data mover nodes to use the cp command. There are four data mover nodes: rc-dm1.its.unc.edu, rc-dm2.its.unc.edu, rc-dm3.its.unc.edu, and rc-dm4.its.unc.edu. Connecting to the general the host address: rc-dm.its.unc.edu will connect you to the least busy of the four. This will generally result in the best performance. You may connect using ssh or any data transfer command (some common ones include sftp, scp, and rsync) or ftp client app: Mac users can use Fetch. Windows users can use a variety of ftp clients such as WinSCP, CoreFTP, or the ftp client that comes with MobaXterm. SecureCRT also has built-in file transfer capabilities.
• To copy small sized files use the cp command from a login node on longleaf.unc.edu or sycamore.unc.edu.

5. How do I transfer data onto a Research Computing cluster?

For transfers from your desktop or home computer, or another computer external to Research Computing, to one of the Research Computing, there are several methods:

• Globus Online: Globus Connect File Transfer. To get started with Globus Online see the Getting Started page, see Getting Started With Globus Connect.  Click for video example.

• In addition to Globus Online there are a number of SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) tools available for medium or small file transfers on both Mac and Windows platforms.  Click for video example.
  (Big file transfers should be done with GLOBUS).

• SSH/SFTP Secure Shell is available for Windows platforms at UNC Software Distribution Shareware: http://software.sites.unc.edu/shareware/#s.

  • CyberDuck (https://cyberduck.io/) is available for both Mac and Windows platforms.
  • CoreFTP (http://coreftp.com/) is another possibility for Windows platforms.
  • FileZilla (https://filezilla-project.org/) is also an option for Mac, Windows, and Linux platforms.

  For the SFTP tools, although it is possible to connect directly to the cluster log in nodes, the cluster log in nodes are a shared resource and it is preferred you use on of our specialized data mover nodes. There are four data mover nodes: rc-dm1.its.unc.edu, rc-dm2.its.unc.edu, rc-dm3.its.unc.edu, and rc-dm4.its.unc.edu. Connecting with the host address: rc-dm.its.unc.edu will connect you to the least busy of the four. This will generally result in the best performance.