Frequently Asked Questions

What type of data can I upload ARCH systems?

Data subject to restrictions - including but not limited to, HIPAA, PHI, or CUI is not permitted on DSAI. If your research involves an IRB and the data is de-identified, please reach out to help@arch.jhu.edu for further guidance, prior to storing or processing any data.

How do I connect to a cluster?

Use your JHED ID and run:

ssh -XY <your_jhed>@login.rockfish.jhu.edu (for Rockfish)
ssh -XY <your_jhed>@dsailogin.arch.jhu.edu (for DSAI)
What default resources do I receive?

On Rockfish, each user/group receives:

  • 50GB /home/ directory

  • 10TB group allocation on /data/

  • 1TB group allocation on /scratch4/

  • /scratch16/ access available upon request

How do I request an allocation?

PIs must submit a short proposal through the Coldfront Portal. Allocations are available for standard, GPU, and large-memory usage. Startup allocations are also available for benchmarking. For Rockfish, visit the Allocations page for Rockfish. For DSAI, visit the Allocations page for DSAI.

How can I request a piece of software or feature become available?

For requests related to software installations or new features, please use the following form:

How do I find my group or personal utilization?
sbalance -a <group>
test-sbalance -u $USER
How do I request interactive jobs?

Use the interact utility to request interactive sessions.

interact -usage
How do I select the correct Slurm account?

If you have access to multiple accounts, specify one using:

#SBATCH -A johndoe1
How do I attach to a compute node where my job is running?

First, find the job and node using sqme, then attach:

srun --jobid=<job_id> -w <node> --pty /bin/bash
How do I check job efficiency?

Use seff, reportseff, or jobstats after your job completes:

seff <job_id>
reportseff <job_id>
jobstats <job_id>

Note

Jobstats is only available for GPU jobs.

How do I transfer large datasets?

Use Globus to transfer data. For large numbers of small files, compress them into tarballs first:

For more information on using Globus, visit the

tar -czf mydata.tgz mydata/
How do I use FileZilla?

  • Host: rfdtn1.rockfish.jhu.edu

  • Port: 22

  • Protocol: SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol

  • Login Type: Interactive

  • Limit simultaneous transfers to 1 in Transfer Settings

Your Rockfish username should be used for login (e.g., jdoe1234).