Last update: 01/27/2006

Read this first

This introductory document is intended to be read through in sequence. It is organized in a purposeful sequence, and it is deliberately brief so you can quickly understand only what you need to begin productive work on the system. Everything in this document is critical, basic information you need to know. But you probably don't need to know everything in this document to run any specific job.

Please read through this whole document at least once. It will go quickly, and it will make more sense than if you try to read the pieces in some other sequence. If you follow the suggested sequence, the time you spend reading this will be recovered many times over by the time you save later trying to figure out what's happening to your jobs.

If you are new to computing at NCAR, you can greatly increase your ability to work productively here by reading Overview of computing at NCAR.

User documentation provided by vendors

IBM provides man pages in multiple formats for the operating system commands on lightning.

These vendor documents are available online:

Performance of the IBM eserver 325 for Scientific and Technical Applications

PGI Server documentation

AMD64 Architecture Tech Docs

Software Optimization Guide for AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Opteron Processors

CISL documentation and consulting

All CISL documentation for lightning is available from Lightning user guide and Lightning main page.

To send questions and report problems, or to provide feedback in general, please contact Consulting Services at 303-497-1278 between 08:00 and 17:00 MDT Monday - Friday (08:00 to 15:30 on Wednesdays).

Credits and copyright

Author: Juli Rew (CISL)
Editor: Brian Bevirt
Technical reviewers:

© Copyright 2004-2006, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). All Rights Reserved.

Published by: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Trademarks: All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Reference to a company or product name does not imply approval or recommendation of that company or product to the exclusion of others.

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If you have questions about this document, please contact CISL Customer Support. You can also reach us by telephone 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 303-497-1278. Additional contact methods: consult1@ucar.edu and during business hours in NCAR Mesa Lab Suite 39.

Address of this page: http://www.cisl.ucar.edu/docs/lightning/first.jsp