Kellogg Linux Cluster
System Description
The Kellogg Linux Cluster (KLC) is a group of Linux servers, or "nodes," that multiple users can connect to simultaneously.
You connect to KLC by making a secure shell (ssh) connection to a particular node. See our KLC User Guide for more details.
The amount of memory and CPU cores currently available on each of them are summarized in the table below.
Why use KLC?
The KLC servers offer greater amounts of memory, storage, and CPU than most workstations. KLC also offers the same, vast library of scientific computing software that Northwestern Quest uses. As a shared system, KLC makes it easy for you to share your code and data with other Kellogg researchers.
As a Linux-based system, KLC also makes it straightforward to script your data management and analysis tasks, which can both save you effort and help with reproducibility.
Who can use KLC?
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.
File Storage
All KLC users have a home directory, which is accessible only to them. Kellogg faculty and PhD students are entitled to a project directory, which can be shared with other KLC users. Project directories can store up to 2 TB of data at no charge to you, and additional storage quota can be purchased for $39 per TB per year. Please ask Kellogg Research Support if you want to configure a project directory.
Your files on KLC are also available on KLC Reserve and Quest, and this connectivity allows you to easily scale your computation up to thousands of cores on Quest, if necessary.
Job Priority
Although you can submit as many jobs as you like, each user is allowed to run processes on up to 24 CPU cores concurrently across all the KLC nodes at normal priority. If you go beyond this limit, the system will give your jobs lower 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 24 CPU cores at a time, you should submit those jobs either to KLC Reserve or Northwestern Quest. Please ask Kellogg Research Support to advise you on your options.