ACES: Containers for Scientific Workflows (Charliecloud)
Overview
Instructor: Richard Lawrence
Time: Tuesday, October 29, 2024 — 10:00AM-12:30PM CT
Location: Online using Zoom
Prerequisites: Current ACCESS ID, basic Linux/Unix skills
This course introduces the use of Containers using the Charliecloud software suite. Exercises will be performed using the ACES cluster, a composable accelerator testbed at Texas A&M University. This workshop will provide participants with background and a hands-on experience to use basic Charliecloud containers for HPC applications. We will discuss what containers are, why they matter for HPC, and how they work. We'll give an overview of Charliecloud, the unprivileged container solution from Los Alamos National Laboratory's HPC Division. Participants will build toy containers and containerize real HPC applications, and then run them in parallel on a cluster. This will be a highly interactive workshop with lots of Q&A.
Registration will open up on this webpage the week before the class.
Course Materials
Presentation slides
The presentation slides are available as downloadable PDF files.
Learning Objectives and Agenda
In this class, participants will:
- Use the Charliecloud runtime effectively
- Retrieve and utilize container images from scientific sources
- Inspect and execute software within complex pre-built container images
- Modify existing container images to suit specific needs
- Apply container usage in various workflows, including command line, batch, and GUI environments
This session will address the following topics:
- Scientific Container Image Sources
- Working with Images
- Working with Containers
- Scientific Use Cases on ACES