Introduction to Flash

1. Introduction to Flash Jeremy Johnson & Frank Witmer Computing and Research Services 8 Jul 2014

2. Outline • Flash specifications • What’s New/Changed • How to log on • File movement and policies • Server etiquette • Multi-threaded analysis in Stata & R

3. Flash Specifications • Processor: • Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2667 v2 (25M Cache, 3.30 GHz) • Max Turbo Frequency 4GHz • 1 Physical CPU – 8 Cores – 16 Threads • Memory: • 96GB RAM • 4 x 16GB 1866MHz DDR3 ECCRAM • Disks • 1.8TB RAID10 Storage • 4 x 900GB 2.5” 10K RPM SAS Drive • Video Card • NVIDIA Quadro K2000 • CUDA Parallel-Processing Cores 384 • Frame Buffer Memory 2 GB GDDR5

4. What’s New/Changed • Usernames and passwords • Flash will use identikeys • External research colleagues now only need one username/password for both VPN and Flash • Contact Jeremy and Steve to set up a new Person of Interest (POI) • User profile size limits • Minimize use of My Documents, Desktop, etc. • 2GB HARD limit • Work from F:\ instead • 10GB initiallimit • If you need more space contact Jeremy • Flash is not a file/backup server, so please try and keep storage space down to what is needed and remove what you no longer are using as a courtesy to others • No more mapped drives • Wilbur had a few mapped drives, this is no longer possible • Use the departmental “P” and personal “U” drives • If you don’t already have access to these, contact Jeremy

5. What’s New/Changed • Many new options for connecting • New Remote Desktop App • iOS (iPad, iPhone), Android (tablets, phones), Win 8, Mac 10.7+ • RemoteApp • Allows you to open Flash applications directly as if installed on your local device • Network bandwidth minimized since you’re not bringing over full desktop session • Website • IE works best and opens apps directly • Other browsers work, but will download a .RDP file you have to run for every app you open • Mac users need to move to new Remote Desktop App if using 10.7 or above • Download from App Store

6. What’s New/Changed • Auto logoff after 14 days on Remote Desktop • Timer resets when you log in • Auto logoff after 5 days on RemoteApp • Timer resets when you open a RemoteApp • Auto delete User profile of inactive accounts after 90 Days (Back your stuff up!) • Includes F:\Private\username • Does not include F:\Shared • Does not deny access to Flash, only removes your files • Next time you log in, new (empty) folders will be recreated automatically

7. Connecting • Remote Desktop • http://ibs.colorado.edu/crs/helpdocs/mainremote • RemoteApp • http://ibs.colorado.edu/crs/helpdocs/remoteapp • Website • https://flash.colorado.edu • CU IdentiKey • contact ibssupport@colorado.edu to activate yours for Flash

8. File System • As with Wilbur, the file system is not backed up • No files will be migrated from Wilbur, so you will need to copy any that you need manually • If you need to transfer more than 10GB contact Jeremy • C:\Users\”identikey”\Documents • user read/write permission, but not meant for use • space limited • F:\Private\”identikey” • user read/write permission • F:\Shared • user read/write permission, user can add permissions for others • F:\Shared\Public • read/write permission for all • anyone can delete, so best to use for short-term sharing of files with other users

9. Transferring Files To/From Flash • Copy & paste files • Windows clipboard is shared • Your local computer shows up in the Windows Explorer • Must be set up to do so through the Remote Desktop application • P: and U: drives • Automatically mounted, if you don’t see contact Jeremy

10. Software • You may install Stata and R packages to a personal folder • R will ask to use a personal library automatically • Stata requires a few extra steps: https://kb.iu.edu/d/azwf • System wide installs should not be needed • (These had to be done by Jeremy and required all users to finish and quit the application) • You are not able to install new software • Installation requests may be made to ibssupport@colorado.edu • New software requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis

11. Server Etiquette • Close all unnecessary applications • especially Stata, since IBS is limited to 10 concurrent users • Log off when not using the server • Click the Start Button then logoff • just closing the Remote Desktop window leaves you logged in • Monitor your (& other’s) usage using the Task Manager • right-click the toolbar at the bottom and select Task Manager then “more details” on the bottomleft

12. Multi-Threaded Analysis in Stata • Stata defaults to using all 16 processors • if 8 processors are enough, just request 8 (there are often diminishing returns to using more processors) • `set processors 8` • Check the list of multi-threaded commands supported by Stata • http://www.stata.com/statamp/statamp.pdf • For advanced users, can use the ‘parallel’ module • Can also use batch mode for do-files • for a file names bigjob.do, type • stata –b do bigjob • http://www.stata.com/manuals13/gsub.pdf • Please automatically ‘exit’ do-files to close Stata • See F:\Shared\FlashIntro\stataExample.do

13. Multi-Threaded Analysis in R • No ‘easy’ multi-threaded commands • Use libraries that support parallel processing • e.g. parallel, snow/snowfall, multicore • See example in F:\Shared\FlashIntro\parallelExample.R • Additional info on parallel computing packages • http://cran.r-project.org/web/views/HighPerformanceComputing.html