NowWhat User Guide
Technical documentation for the NowWhat HPC platform.
Welcome to the technical guide for NowWhat, an HPC platform hosted by Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Padua.
Choose How to Access NowWhat
You can work on NowWhat in two ways:
| Access method | Best for | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| NowWhatHub in a web browser | JupyterLab, notebooks, RStudio, VS Code, remote desktops, and terminals | NowWhatHub User Guide |
| SSH and direct SLURM commands | Batch jobs, automation, file management, and advanced cluster workflows | Getting Started |
Both methods run computational work through SLURM and use the same persistent filesystems.
Core Operating Rules
- Use the login node only for editing, file management, and job submission.
- Run every CPU-intensive, memory-intensive, GPU, or long-running workload through SLURM.
- Never assume that direct access to compute nodes is permitted outside a running allocation.
- Keep your files organized and place large shared datasets in the appropriate storage area.
- Start with small test jobs before scaling to full production runs.
Contact the Guardians of NowWhat
Write to nowwhat@stat.unipd.it if you encounter:
- account or password problems
- inaccessible nodes or network issues
- missing software or broken modules
- unclear storage requirements
- repeated job failures that are not explained by your logs
The answer to life, the universe, and everything may be 42!