EE Instructional Computing Resources

 

EE Instructional Computing Resources provide computational support for Stanford's Department of Electrical Engineering's classes. Its primary use is for coursework by any Stanford student taking an EE class. 

For any support issues with the current environment, email action@ee.stanford.edu(link sends e-mail).

GETTING STARTED

From January 2022 onward (This is the preferred method to use the resources)

  • If needed, new users must request AFS space via a helpsu ticket here.
  • Initiate an ssh session with the command below.
    • ssh <yoursunetid>@login.farmshare.stanford.edu
    • <yoursunetid> is your actual SUNet ID, not an alias
  • Create a desktop instance on https://ondemand.farmshare.stanford.edu by selecting Interactive Apps pull down menu and FarmShare Desktop.
  • Currently, the email to alert option doesn’t work yet.
  • This short video showing how this works is recommended.
  • The desktop environment resets in 30 days.
  • To load software modules, issue this command without the quotes "/farmshare/home/classes/ee/admin/software/bin/centos.sh"
  • You can ssh from your farmshare desktop to caddy cluster if required by your class with the command below.
    • ssh -XY caddy.best.stanford.edu
  • Frequently Asked Questions for OnDemand.
  • Enjoy your computing environment :).
     

There are multiple remote server nodes to login to, using the names caddy01.stanford.edu to caddy18.stanford.edu. A status page for these nodes is available. Please select an underutilized node to run any large exercise or project, consulting that status page. You can connect to the lowest utilized system by going to caddy.best.stanford.edu. However, please note the number of the node for reconnecting a long running session.

Provision your home directory on FarmShare before connecting with OnDemand and/or X2Go interfaces

 

Two ways to connect to the caddy cluster:

OnDemand interface

  • Please view a 5 minute video tutorial showing how to access and setup OnDemand here.
  • Access the cluster via a web browser at this web page https://ondemand.farmshare.stanford.edu.
  • Note: You’ll need to run a job under “Job Composer” to activate your OnDemand account.  You’ll need to build your desktop environment which will remain active for 90 days or until the end of the quarter when it will be reset.
  • If your desktop displays the error "no vnc", close the browser window. Delete the interactive desktop. Go to the cluster pull down menu and select "caddy shack shell access". Use your SUNETID password and delete your "ondemand" directory with the "rm -rf ./ondemand" command. You'll need to be in your home directory which can be accessed by using the "cd" command before running the "rm -rf ./ondemand" command.

X2Go interface

  • These systems are available to connect to from on-campus or via Stanford's VPN service. You can connect via SSH utilties/terminal or for a graphical environment, use X2Go. Good instructions for using SSH for FarmShare apply here as well, as long as you use caddy01 to caddy18 as host names.
  • For X2Go, please see this instructional site on downloading the clients. XQuartz (https://www.xquartz.org/) is needed and must be install for the Mac client. We recommend selecting "Mate" as the desktop environment to use, and only "Mate" and "XFCE" are supported on our servers when selecting among the options in X2Go. A good example (step by step) of setting up X2Go is found here. The server name would be one of caddy01.stanford.edu, caddy02.stanford.edu, up to caddy18.stanford.edu while the VPN is active.
  • If you have a newer farmshare account you may in fact have a .tcshrc.alias file that will be automatically loaded by your .tcshrc file present in your home directory. This file will conflict with the module commands above. Either rename the file or comment out its loading in the .tcshrc to resolve the issue.

SOFTWARE / MODULE SYSTEM

The Caddy system cluster is based on CentOS7 (RHEL 7 equivalent) servers to maintain use of supported CAD software infrastructure. The entire research-driven /cad software tree is available to use, as well as software stored in FarmShare's AFS environment. Commercial software available on these systems is licensed for course work only.

To use any of the cad software, please use the Module Environment System. Please consult the CadWiki for full details. Commands to use would be:

  • module avail
  • module load
  • module help

 For Matlab, please load it via the caddy-specific module, including the "base" module dependency:

  • module load base/1.0
  • module load matlab/caddy

SUPPORT

End users of the systems should contact action@ee.stanford.edu(link sends e-mail) for any issues that come up.  

Course instructors should work with us prior to each quarter to prepare any needed course software or make corrections. The support contact for instructors and TAs is ta-itsupport@ee.stanford.edu(link sends e-mail).