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Running Gaussian on the ORC Clusters

Gaussian16 is available on the ORC clusters. Due to licensing restrictions, only the ORC users in the Gaussian user group are able to use it.

Getting Added to the Gaussian User group

All users on the ORC clusters who want to use Gaussian16 need to sign a user agreement form as per the University Counsel office. Contact the ORC through orchelp@gmu.edu to get a copy of the Gaussian License T&C. You will also be sent the User Agreement to sign and will be added to the Gaussian User Group after the ORC gets back the signed form.

To check the installed versions:

module avail gaussian
This will list the currently installed Gaussian versions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  gaussian:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Versions:
        gaussian/09
        gaussian/16-c01
        gaussian/16-c02
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  For detailed information about a specific "gaussian" package (including how to load the modules) use the module's full name.
  Note that names that have a trailing (E) are extensions provided by other modules.
  For example:

     $ module spider gaussian/16-c02
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and add it to your environment with:

module load  gaussian/16-c02

Running Gaussian on CPUs with Slurm

To set up a gaussian run on the cluster, create a directory and add input file and slurm script to it:

mkdir g16-test-cpu

cd g16-test-cpu
The contents of your directory should appear as below:
./g16-test-cpu
├── [g16-test-cpu.com](g16_files/g16-test-cpu.com)
└── [g16-test-cpu.slurm](g16_files/g16-test-cpu.slurm)

0 directories, 2 files

Example input file g16-test-cpu.com

The example input file show below can be downloaded to your directory from the terminal with

wget http://wiki.orc.gmu.edu/mkdocs/g16_files/g16-test-cpu.com
%nproc=24
%mem=80gb
%chk=jneutral-opt.chk
#T b3lyp/6-31+G* integral=UltraFine opt(maxstep=10,maxcycles=200)

4-BMC-optimization

0 1
O          0.00000        0.00000        0.00000
C          0.00000        0.00000        3.50600
C          0.00000        0.97000        2.28000
C          1.45100       -0.52200        3.25200
C          1.30800        1.79400        2.51700
C          2.28200        0.79500        3.22500
C          1.35400       -0.96600        1.80900
C          0.38700       -0.00800        1.16800
C         -0.16600        0.70700        4.85600
C         -1.05600       -1.10900        3.39800
C         -1.24100        1.79300        1.99500
H          1.79700       -1.29000        3.96000
H          1.08000        2.66500        3.15200
H          1.71000        2.17800        1.56600
H          3.22200        0.66500        2.66700
H          2.53700        1.12700        4.24400
H          0.51000        1.56400        4.98600
H          0.02600       -0.00500        5.67600
H         -1.20100        1.07300        4.96800
H         -0.91900       -1.84200        4.21200
H         -1.00000       -1.65300        2.44100
H         -2.06900       -0.68600        3.49300
H         -1.09900        2.38900        1.07900
H         -1.45400        2.48200        2.82900
H         -2.11800        1.14600        1.83500
C          1.93800       -1.98700        1.12200
H          2.25200       -2.85000        1.72600
C          2.22300       -2.03300       -0.31600
C          1.45800       -1.31800       -1.27000
C          3.28700       -2.84400       -0.78300
C          1.77600       -1.38900       -2.63700
H          0.59000       -0.73900       -0.94700
C          3.60200       -2.90100       -2.14900
H          3.87200       -3.42400       -0.06100
C          2.85600       -2.17000       -3.10000
H          1.16500       -0.83800       -3.36000
H          4.43500       -3.52900       -2.48500
C          3.20900       -2.23400       -4.56900
H          3.26000       -3.27800       -4.91800
H          2.46300       -1.70300       -5.18000
H          4.19300       -1.77200       -4.75600

Example Slurm script g16-test-cpu.slurm

This example slurm script can be downloaded to your directory from the terminal with

wget http://wiki.orc.gmu.edu/mkdocs/g16_files/g16-test-cpu.slurm
#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH -p normal
#SBATCH -J g16-test-cpu
#SBATCH -o g16-test-cpu-%j-%N.out
#SBATCH -e g16-test-cpu-%j-%N.err
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=24
#SBATCH --mem-per-cpu=3500MB
#SBATCH --export=ALL
#SBATCH -t 00:30:00

set echo

umask 0027
echo $SLURM_SUBMIT_DIR
module load gaussian/16-c01
module list

# default scratch location is /scratch/$USER/gaussian. Users can change it using
# export GAUSS_SCRDIR=<NEW_SCRATCH_LOCATION>
which g16

g16 < g16-test-cpu.com > g16-test-cpu.log

Submitting the job

Once you have the files, submit the job to the cluster with:

sbatch g16-test-cpu.slurm
This will create additional files in your directory
./g16-test-cpu
├── g16-test-cpu-66631-hop049.err
├── g16-test-cpu-66631-hop049.out
├── g16-test-cpu.com
├── g16-test-cpu.log
├── g16-test-cpu.slurm
└── jneutral-opt.chk

To monitor the job and check on its status, you can use the slurm command

sacct -X --format=jobid,jobname,partition,state

       JobID    JobName  Partition      State
------------ ---------- ---------- ----------
66631        g16-test-+     normal  COMPLETED

Running Gaussian on a GPU with Slurm

The Gaussian module installed on Hopper can be run on one of the A100.80gb gpu nodes. For more information about the gpus available on the cluster and running gpu jobs, please refer to this page.

Setting the gpucpu options in the Gaussian input file

To set the gpucpu options in the Gaussian input file, you need to add the following line to the input file:

%gpucpu=cpu_list=gpu_list

where - cpu_list is a comma-separated list of CPU numbers that will be used to control the GPUs, and - gpu_list is a comma-separated list of GPU numbers that will be used for the calculation.

For example, if you want to use two GPUs and the CPU numbers are 0 and 1 and the GPU numbers are 0 and 1, you would add the following line to the Gaussian input file:

%gpucpu=0,1=0,1

To determine the control cpus for any gpus on the cluster, you need to be logged on to the gpu and run:

nvidia-smi topo -m

For the Hopper A100.80GB AMD nodes, this should produce output similar to:

        GPU0    GPU1    GPU2    GPU3    mlx5_0  mlx5_1  mlx5_2  mlx5_3  mlx5_4  CPU Affinity    NUMA Affinity
GPU0     X      NV4     NV4     NV4     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     24-31   3
GPU1    NV4      X      NV4     NV4     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     8-15    1
GPU2    NV4     NV4      X      NV4     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     56-63   7
GPU3    NV4     NV4     NV4      X      SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     40-47   5
mlx5_0  SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS      X      PIX     SYS     SYS     SYS
mlx5_1  SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     PIX      X      SYS     SYS     SYS
mlx5_2  SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS      X      SYS     SYS
mlx5_3  SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS      X      PIX
mlx5_4  SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     SYS     PIX      X

Legend:

  X    = Self
  SYS  = Connection traversing PCIe as well as the SMP interconnect between NUMA nodes (e.g., QPI/UPI)
  NODE = Connection traversing PCIe as well as the interconnect between PCIe Host Bridges within a NUMA node
  PHB  = Connection traversing PCIe as well as a PCIe Host Bridge (typically the CPU)
  PXB  = Connection traversing multiple PCIe bridges (without traversing the PCIe Host Bridge)
  PIX  = Connection traversing at most a single PCIe bridge
  NV#  = Connection traversing a bonded set of # NVLinks
This table should be consitent for all gpu nodes on Hopper. Your settings for a gpu run on a single node with all 4 gpus in the input file would therefore be:
%GPUCPU=0,1,2,3=24,8,56,40

Tips for setting the gpucpu options in the Gaussian input file:

  1. There are 4 GPUs on each gpu node, and Gaussian will only run on a single gpu node. Make sure that the number of GPUs that you specify on the %gpucpu line is less than or equal to the number of GPUs that are available on your system.
  2. Make sure that the CPU numbers that you specify on the %gpucpu line are available on your system.
  3. Make sure that the GPU numbers that you specify on the %gpucpu line are available on your system.

Depending on the size of the system being calculated, you can set your gpucpu option for a single gpu with:

%GPUCPU=0=24

or any of the other gpus, 1,2,3 as long as they are matched with the correct control cpu. Increase the number of gpus (to a maximum of 4) as needed.

Once you have set the gpucpu options in the Gaussian input file, you can run Gaussian as usual.

Example input file for gpu run g16-test-gpu.com

The example input file show below can be downloaded to your directory from the terminal with

wget http://wiki.orc.gmu.edu/mkdocs/g16_files/g16-test-gpu.com

Create a Slurm job submission script for a GPU run

The following is an example of a Slurm job submission script g16-test-gpu.slurm that can be used to run Gaussian on a GPU:

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --job-name g16-test-gpu
#SBATCH -p gpuq
#SBATCH -q gpu
#SBATCH --gres=gpu:A100.80gb:4
#SBATCH --mem=350GB 
#SBATCH --nodes=1 
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=64


#SBATCH -o PP_SPIN_1_%j.out    # output file name
#SBATCH -e PP_SPIN_1_%j.err    # err file name
#SBATCH --export=ALL
#SBATCH -t 00-1:00:00                  # set to 1hr; please choose carefully

set echo

umask 0027
echo $SLURM_SUBMIT_DIR
module load gnu10 openmpi
module load gaussian/16-c02          # load relevant modules
module list

# default scratch location is /scratch/$USER/gaussian. Users can change it using
# export GAUSS_SCRDIR=<NEW_SCRATCH_LOCATION>
which g16

g16 < PP_SPIN_1.com > PP_SPIN_1_gpu.log     # activate the virtual environment

This script will ask for 4 gpus and 64 cpus on one of the A100.80gb nodes. To download it, use:

wget http://wiki.orc.gmu.edu/mkdocs/g16_files/g16-test-gpu.slurm

Once you're ready, submit the Slurm job submission script to the Slurm scheduler with:

sbatch g16-test-gpu.slurm

Wait for the Slurm job to finish.

Check the output of the Slurm job to see if the Gaussian calculation was successful.

Using GaussView on the Open OnDemand Server

*** NOTE: *** ** Tutorials on using GaussView for different processes can be found on these Gaussian Pages **

To use GaussView on Hopper, you need to start an Open OnDemand (OOD)session. In your browser, go to ondemand.orc.gmu.edu. You will need to authenticate with your Mason credentials before you can access the dashboard.

  • Once you authenticate, you should be directed to the OOD dashboard.

  • You'll need to click on the "Interactive Apps icon to see the apps that are available.

  • Select the Hopper Desktop and set your configuration (number of hours upto 12 and number of cores upto 12). You'll see the launch option once the resources become available.

  • After launching the session, you'll get connected to a node on Hopper with a desktop environment from where you can now start the terminal (using the highlighted 'terminal emulator' icon)

  • From the launched shell session, load the gaussian module with

module load gaussian
and start GaussView with
gv

  • The GaussView window should now appear