Getting started on blueice
last update: 2/27/2008

Table of contents

Note: Click on main headings to locate the existing information. Also see the blueice main page.

Purpose of this document
Credits and copyright

Overview of blueice

System architecture

Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT)

Software environment

System security and access method

File system

Disk space

Obtaining an account and your login

User environment - shells, paths, dotfiles

Job queues and charging

Allocation thresholds for projects influence job scheduling

File transfer methods

Troubleshooting program failures

Moving 32-bit applications from bluesky to newer IBM AIX systems

Introduction

Terminology

32-bit/64-bit user environment on NCAR systems

32-bit/64-bit advantages and disadvantages

32-bit to 64-bit migration

Migration tools

References

Programming models

SMP threads
Message passing
Hybrid

Compiling

Commands to invoke the IBM XL Fortran and C/C++ compilers
Compile and run a simple Fortran program
Compile and run a simple C program
Compile and run a more instructive Fortran program
Optimizing code
Using threaded programs with OpenMP
Using message passing programs
Using hybrid programs
Loading libraries

Running code

Running interactive jobs
Running batch jobs using LSF
Save-Restart jobs

Using the batchview command to show running and pending batch jobs
Using the spinfo command to show LSF queue time limits and more
LSF commands
    The bhosts command

    The bqueues command

    The bsub command

    Job submission - LSF usage is different from LoadLeveler

    Sample LSF job scripts

    The bhist command

    The bpeek command

    The bmod command

    The bswitch command

    The bstop and bresume commands

    The bkill command

Comparison of LoadLeveler and LSF queue commands

Frequently used options in job scripts

Using Simultaneous Multi-Threading

Multiple page size support

Processor binding to minimize on-chip contention

Choosing among performance enhancement techniques on the POWER5+

Program development tools

Building and maintaining large codes
TotalView debugger
Program timers
Memory analyzer
Performance analyzers

Libraries and related utilities

Performance libraries
Use IBM's fast math library MASS
Use IBM's ESSL and PESSL libraries to enhance math performance
NCAR collection of math and statistics libraries
Paths to NCAR local libraries
Data manipulation libraries
netCDF
NCL
MSS
Message passing libraries: 64-bit
Visualization
COS data conversion
IMSL and NAG libraries are not provided on blueice

Tips for using blueice more effectively

We have sprinkled tips throughout this document for optimizing your code by using IBM performance libraries, SMT, large pages etc, so we will not repeat those messages here. Rather, we provide a short list of recommendations that will hopefully make running your jobs easier:

Do not use bkill -r
Control resubmission of your batch job
Stopping a runaway batch job
Do not use Unix background & in batch scripts
Take advantage of Customer Support


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