The Kellogg Linux Cluster (KLC) is a group of 12 high-memory Linux servers, or "nodes," each of which has 1.5 TB of RAM. The first generation nodes (klc01-klc06) each have 28 CPU cores while the later generation nodes (klc0201-klc0203, klc0301-klc0303) have 52 cores each.
Storage on KLC is shared among the 12 servers. It includes a private 80 GB home directory for each user and 600 TB of network storage for code and data that you need to share with others.
You can connect to KLC by making a ssh connection the load balancer, klc.northwestern.edu. Or, you can connect a particular nodes directly by using its address:
The KLC servers are far more powerful than even top-of-the-line personal workstations. The high amounts of memory, storage, and CPU available there allow you to tackle much bigger computational problems and work with much larger data files than you otherwise would. In addition, because KLC is a shared system, it is well suited for enabling work that is both highly collaborative and easily reproducible.
KLC offers advantages for those who are familiar with Kellogg's high-performance Windows servers. KLC offers the same, vast library of scientific computing software that Northwestern Quest uses. As a Linux-based system, KLC also offers straightforward ways for you to schedule jobs to run at certain times and to script sequences of tasks, both of which can save you effort and help with reproducibility.
KLC is intended for Kellogg researchers and their collaborators. Current tenure-line faculty and PhD students automatically have access. Please contact Kellogg Research Support to request access for others.
Although you can submit as many jobs as you like, each user is allowed to run processes on up to 16 CPU cores concurrently across all the KLC nodes at normal priority. When one goes beyond this limit, all their processes incur a reduction in priority. This is how we protect users from having their work slow down because somebody else is using too much of the system.
If your work needs more than 16 CPU cores at a time, please ask Kellogg Research Support to advise you on your options.
KLC is actually a special part of NUIT's Quest High Performance Computing facility. Your files on KLC are also available on Quest, and this connectivity allows you to easily scale your computation up to thousands of cores on Quest, if necessary.