Computer Science has two generally available “clusters”: faculty and iLab. The sections below will describe each. Each cluster has its own home directories. So, if you have access to both iLab and faculty. All clusters share a common file system, /common/users. Your home directory is /common/users/NETID.
Faculty
Faculty offices, plus some servers. There are two Faculty Machines, Constance.cs, and Porthos.cs. However, we recommend logging in to faculty.cs.rutgers.edu. That will give you either constance.cs or porthos.cs, randomly. If one is down, it will give you the one that is up.
These are not very powerful systems. They’re intended primarily to keep records in an environment with no students. Serious computing is normally done on the research cluster.
Student
Our student system is called the iLab/rLab cluster, consisting of a set of large servers (some with A4000/A5000/A6000 GPUs) and desktops in iLabs (2nd floor Hill Center 248, 252, 254) and grad student offices. Most students access these systems remotely using WebLogin, SSH clients such as the SSH command on macOS and Linux, or the Bitvise Client on Windows. (See Video tutorial or SSH HowTo), and Windows Remote Desktop. Please use the alias ilab.cs.rutgers.edu, which will give you one of the four large servers. You can also look at the iLab status page to find a desktop system that isn’t heavily used.
More information about Student systems and instructions on using them
Instructional Laboratory (iLab) Systems: Announcements and information about rooms
Details iLab System Specs
- 50+ of the iLab desktop systems and 31 machines with a mix of Nvidia GTX1060 or RT4060 Ada GPUs.
- 4 iLab servers each have a mix of Nvidia A4000 or A4500 GPUs with 512GB-1TB of memory.
- 7 rLab servers with a mix of Nvidia A100, RTX A4000, A4500, A6000 GPUs with 1-2TB of memory.
- 1 iLabU server each has 8 Nvidia RTX A4000 GPUs with 256GB of memory.
Private Research Systems
Many faculty research groups own machines that are generally available for CS researchers in their group. The list is growing fast. The head of each research group normally controls access to these systems.
High-performance systems: OARC
OARC is a University group that provides high-performance computing. Computer science, in general, doesn’t have a conventional HPC cluster. We concentrate on GPUs and more specialized hardware. For large-scale HPC, OARC is the best source. They have a large cluster, Amarel. It is intended as a “condo” cluster. I.e., grants buy nodes and are guaranteed at least as much capacity as they purchased. The University matches the cost. However, some capacity is available for those who haven’t bought into the system, particularly for coursework and student use.
For more information, see the OARC website.
Some of the OARC nodes have GPUs, typically Nvidia GPUs.
Virtual machines
LCSR can provide virtual machines for researchers and for use by classes.
Researchers commonly use VMs for web servers and other support services. We normally place those VMs on the same servers as the LCSR infrastructure.
We talk with the instructor to determine the configuration and software needed for course use, then create one small VM per user. We can also create a limited number of VMs for grad students. These VMs are placed on one of two large (1 TB each) VM servers purchased specifically for instruction.
Account Cleanup
Your CS Linux account is normally deactivated when you no longer have a role in Computer Science or are no longer taking any CS classes. Normally, account deactivation is done about 4 months or a semester after. You can reactivate your account by registering for a qualified CS class again. For a graduate CS Major, we normally send a warning to your official university address, NetID@rutgers.edu, to warn you about account deactivation.
For help with our systems or immediate assistance, visit the LCSR Operator at CoRE 235 or call 848-445-2443. Otherwise, see CS HelpDesk. Don’t forget to include your NetID along with descriptions of your problem.
