client: a type of software program that accesses services being provided by a server
cluster: a set of tightly connected computers that work together as one. Each computer, or “node,” is set to perform the same task, controlled and scheduled by software.
HPC: acronym for “high-performance computing,” the use of a network of nodes and parallel processing techniques for solving complex computational problems
Linux: a computer operating system derived from UNIX; Bluemoon and DeepGreen use Linux; Linux and UNIX commands are generally the same
MPI: acronym for “message passing interface,” a standardized means of exchanging messages between multiple computers running a parallel program across distributed memory.
node: in high-performance computing, each individual computer in a cluster is a node
resource manager software: acts as an arbitrator when multiple people are using a cluster simultaneously, so that jobs do not contend for processors and memory (as they do in normal timesharing systems)
server: a computer, a device, or a program that is dedicated to managing network resources
SSH: acronym for “Secure Shell”; also a shorthand way of referring to a computer program that implements SSH
Slurm: acronym for “Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management”; a free and open-source job scheduler used by many of the world’s supercomputers and computer clusters
syntax: the spelling and grammar of a programming language. Computers understand what you type only if you type it in the exact form that the computer expects. The expected form is called the syntax.
UNIX: the “mother” of computer operating systems, created by AT&T Bell Labs in the 1960s; UNIX and Linux commands are generally the same