In these tutorials you will learn the basic skills needed to access resources associated with the OSRN Cluster. These resources can include GPU and CPU cycles, storage and even software. For novice users, we recommend that you step through all the tutorials, especially tutorials on launching pods, requesting a storage volume, and using Docker.

What is OSRN?

OSRN is a distributed, hyper-converged cluster where storage, compute and networking are tightly integrated into a single unified system. What distinguishes OSRN from other such systems is that OSRN is distributed across dozens of locations. Individual OSRN nodes are comprised of high-performance GPU servers combined with high-speed data transfer-and-storage nodes, and additional storage nodes that serve as data reservoirs…all stitched together with very fast networks. Unlike standalone GPU resources, jobs sent to OSRN can run anywhere in this vast cluster, giving the user flexibility to run single tasks or up to many tasks across multiple nodes and locations while Kubernetes manages the workload.

Why use OSRN?

OSRN has a huge variety of both standard GPUs (for example: NVIDIA RTX2080-Ti, RTX3090, RTX4090 and A10) and high-precision, high-memory GPUs (for example: NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core). It also has the ability to download large datasets very quickly and store them near any computation you might launch. Since OSRN is a hyper-converged cluster which supports a high-degree of virtualization, the user does not need to worry about where their data reside or where their jobs will run. Furthermore, because software runs in containers, it is scaleable, repeatable and customizable without the hassle of system configuration dependencies. Software containers provide portability, efficiency, scaleability, consistency, speed, and security. OSRN makes managing the data, software and hardware required for training of machine learning easier.

But how much does it cost?

Perhaps most importantly, for individuals associated with institutions that participate in the InCommon identity and access management service, and who are conducting sponsored research in artificial intelligence or machine learning, OSRN is FREE to use (subject to policy restrictions and fair use).

Steps to Successful OSRN Use

There are several key steps which you must go through to get access to OSRN. They are:

1. Establish an account

2. Configure your local system to interact with OSRN

3. Be promoted to User or Admin

4. Read and understand the policies

5. For beginners, complete the Tutorials

What if I don’t think I have time to learn a bunch of new skills?

In addition to being able to launch jobs using Kubernetes on the cluster, OSRN provides a simpler interface called a Jupyterlab Notebook. This is for people who just want a easy way to interact with the cluster without any local installations or configurations. JupyterLab is a web-based interactive development environment for notebooks, code, and data. Its flexible interface allows users to configure and arrange workflows in data science, scientific computing, and machine learning. There are many places where you can try JupyterLab online, but since our Jupyterlab is backed up by the OSRN cluster, your Notebook and its code can run on as many as eight GPUs working as a single computational engine. Python is the main language used on JupyterLab. While Python is an essential skill for machine learning, it’s also easy to learn. If you want to try OSRN, but without learning Unix, you can start by learning Python.

And by the way, no need to install Python locally, just reach out to the community on OSRN Support to request access to the Jupyterlab running on OSRN. It will run in your browser without any local software installations.

Getting Help

OSRN is a community-based cluster, managed by a small group of NSF-funded administrators. Every effort has been made to provide a world-class computational platform, but OSRN is also largely self-service and community supported. Users are expected to learn-by-doing, and generally rely on community-based resources for troubleshooting. A diverse and active user community can be found by joining the OSRN Support channel. Having a OSRN account is not required for access to OSRN Support, but having access to OSRN Support is required for joining OSRN. Find out more about this by joining the chat channel today.

Now, let’s get started…