Getting Started at TACC

TACC has some of the largest high performance computing resources in the world, and since TACC is part of UT Austin, UT researchers can quickly and easily start tapping into these resources.

For this class, you will need:

1. A TACC account (i.e. username and password)
2. A SSH client
3. A way to edit remote text files

Creating a TACC Account

Getting an account is a 3 step process:

1. Fill out the Account Request form here on the TACC user portal
2. Click on the email link you receive once accepted
3. Login to the portal for the first time

TACC Account Request

Requesting an account is straightforward.  TACC essentially needs to know who you are and what username/password you would like.  The only question that may be confusing is "PI Eligibility." In general, faculty and university researchers who already a PhD are PI eligible.  More information is here: https://portal.tacc.utexas.edu/allocations-overview

Email Confirmation

After you fill out the Account Request form, you will receive an email with the title "TACC Account Request Confirmation."  Within that email is a confirmation link.  You must click on this link to confirm your email address.

Logging in the First Time

Every TACC account is reviewed by TACC staff to prevent spam, duplicate accounts, and unauthorized access.  Once your account has been reviewed, you will receive another email with the title" TACC Account Request Update."  Once you receive this email, you must login to the TACC Portal to finish the account creation.  If you do not, you cannot be added to an allocation, nor can you use any computing resources at TACC.  

What Next?

Allocations

For this class, we will add you to an allocation that gives you access to Lonestar for the duration of this course with enough SUs to complete your homework.  For your own research, the next step would be to create an allocation.  Allocations are the way TACC awards computing time to researchers.  More information is here: https://portal.tacc.utexas.edu/allocations-overview

SSH Client

To login to Lonestar and start using the system, you must have a secure shell (SSH) client your own computer.  Mac OS X and Linux come with a SSH client included in the operating system, but Windows users must download a 3rd party client.

Text Editing

When working on high performance computing systems like Lonestar, you will inevitably need a good way to edit text files.  Powerful text editors like Emacs and VIM are on Lonestar, but new users may initially have trouble remembering all the shortcut keys that make them so useful.  For new users, nano is a more user friendly option for a remote text editor, but most will find it advantageous to use a client-side text editor that can edit remote files. Notepad++ (for Windows) and TextWrangler (for Mac) are two free, powerful text editors that meet these needs.  More information on setting them up is here (coming soon).