This fall, students will use the OnDemand portal to access Hellbender, the university's high-performance computing environment.
The creation of computational-based simulations just became simpler for the university community with the integration of a newly adopted web portal called OnDemand. Now users can upload, download and access high-performance computing (HPC) software from any device.
“It's an intuitive user interface for HPC resources,” said Buddy Scharfenberg, Research Support Solutions system administrator. “With this tool, users don't have to spend time researching how to use HPC environments like Hellbender or the Mill.”
Before OnDemand, researchers had to log into the HPC environment at a computer terminal, input commands, toggle between the desktop and Hellbender and hope their web connection wasn’t disrupted.
Mechanical and aerospace engineering students can now access computational simulation software through OnDemand. Above, a screenshot from a simulation illustrates the spreading of 300,000 sand grains.
“All of this can be very complicated and abstract for users,” Scharfenberg said. “If running interactively and their connection to the HPC is disrupted, everything fails, and they have to start all over again.”
Now, Mizzou researchers can have an interactive session that stays persistent, regardless of their device and location. In addition, Hellbender will be leveraged for academic classes. This fall, about 500 students in computer science, business, economics and other disciplines will be able to simplify their computational needs by using OnDemand to access Hellbender for coursework.
In the past, students typically had to set up and learn how to use a Linux environment before completing their assignments.
“Investigators and students alike can spend more time on scientific research and learning, and they don’t have to spend a large amount of time figuring out how to use HPC computing resources,” Scharfenberg said.
The Division of IT Research Support Solutions team, which manages the university’s HPC resources and supports its users, is part of the MizzouForward strategy to invest in and enhance MU's research and education missions.
Users can gain access to OnDemand after they receive a Hellbender account. Get started by completing this form.