Best Practices and Troubleshooting

Estimated time: 15 minutes

Overview

Questions

• How do I avoid breaking my analysis when modules are updated?
• How do I clean up and avoid filling my disk quota?
• How should I test before submitting large jobs?
• How should I ask for help from the HPC team?

Objectives

• Manage disk usage efficiently
• Test scripts locally before submitting large jobs
• Know when and how to contact the HPC support team
• Follow a checklist for setting up new projects

Monitor and Manage Disk Usage

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Callout

Prevent Quota Issues

Conda environments can consume substantial disk space. Regular maintenance prevents quota problems and keeps your cluster account healthy. On Sagehen HPC, /rhome and /bigdata share a 1 TB lab quota.

Check your usage

Note: Bare quota is unreliable on BeeGFS; use Pomona’s quota_check.sh wrapper which handles BeeGFS quota correctly.

BASH

$ quota_check.sh
$ du -sh --apparent-size ~/.conda/envs/*
2.1G    /rhome/<myusername>/.conda/envs/deeplearning_2024
1.3G    /rhome/<myusername>/.conda/envs/genomics_2024
500M    /rhome/<myusername>/.conda/envs/myproject

Clean up unused environments

BASH

$ conda env remove -n old_project

Clean conda cache

BASH

$ conda clean --all

This removes unused packages and cached install files, potentially freeing 500 MB to 2 GB.

Check for large hidden directories

BASH

$ du -sh ~/* | sort -rh | head -10

Test Before Submitting Large Jobs

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Interactive testing

Before running a 24-hour job, test locally:

BASH

$ module load r
$ Rscript analysis.R < small_test_data.csv > output.txt

Test with a small job first

BASH

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --job-name=test
#SBATCH --time=00:05:00
#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=1
#SBATCH --mem=2G

module load r
Rscript analysis.R < small_test_data.csv > output.txt

Submit and check:

BASH

$ sbatch test_job.sh
$ squeue -u $USER
$ tail slurm-12345.out

Once you know it works, submit the full job.

Getting Help

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Common issues

1. Module not found:
   • Check spelling: module avail name (or module spider name)
   • Contact its-hpc@pomona.edu
2. Code worked locally but fails on cluster:
   • Environment mismatch: verify modules in job script
   • Data path issues: use absolute paths, not relative
   • Resource limits: check memory and time requirements
3. Out of disk quota:
   • Remove old conda environments: conda env remove -n oldenv
   • Clean conda cache: conda clean --all
   • Archive old data to external storage

Contacting support

Email its-hpc@pomona.edu with: - Job ID (from squeue or log files) - Full error message - What you’ve already tried - Your account name

Checklist: Setting Up a New Project

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• Create project directory with version control (git)
• Create conda environment with specific Python version
• Install required packages and export environment.yml
• Create template job script with module load commands
• Test locally with small data
• Test on cluster with small job (short time limit)
• Document in README what software is needed
• Add environment files to git repository
• Run full analysis
• Commit final results

Complete Project Setup Example

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BASH

# Create project
$ mkdir genomics_analysis_2024
$ cd genomics_analysis_2024
$ git init

# Create conda environment
$ conda create -n genomics python=3.10
$ conda activate genomics
(genomics) $ conda install numpy pandas biopython samtools -c conda-forge
(genomics) $ pip install pysam biotools
(genomics) $ conda env export > environment.yml
(genomics) $ git add environment.yml

# Create job script
$ cat > job_script.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --job-name=genomics
#SBATCH --time=04:00:00
#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=8
#SBATCH --mem=32G

module purge
module load miniconda3/py313_26.3.2-2

conda activate genomics
python analyze_genomes.py
EOF

$ chmod +x job_script.sh
$ sbatch job_script.sh
$ git add analyze_genomes.py job_script.sh
$ git commit -m "Initial genomics analysis setup"

Challenge

Challenge 1: Check and Manage Disk Usage

1. Check your total disk quota: quota_check.sh
2. See what’s using space: du -sh --apparent-size ~/.conda/envs/*
3. List all your conda environments: conda env list
4. If you have test environments, remove one: conda env remove -n test_env
5. Clean up conda cache: conda clean --all

BASH

$ quota_check.sh
$ du -sh --apparent-size ~/.conda/envs/*
$ conda env list
$ conda clean --all

Show me the solution

Expected output from quota_check.sh shows your current usage and limit. du -sh --apparent-size shows sizes like:

1.2G    /rhome/<myusername>/.conda/envs/bigproject
500M    /rhome/<myusername>/.conda/envs/test_env

After cleanup, total usage drops and you stay under quota. This regular maintenance prevents quota issues.

Key Points

• Monitor disk usage regularly and clean up old conda environments
• Test scripts locally and with small jobs before submitting large ones
• Contact its-hpc@pomona.edu with job ID, error message, and what you’ve tried
• Follow the new project checklist for reproducible research setups
• Use module purge at the start of job scripts for a clean environment
• Start with module purge, then load specific module versions explicitly