Translations:Singularity/115/en

If you decide to create an image on a cluster, be aware of the fact that you will never have sudo access and so the caveats of the previous section apply. Images can be created on any Alliance cluster or on a visualization computer, e.g., gra-vdi.computecanada.ca. Our image creation advice differs depending on which machine you use:

• beluga.computecanada.ca: Connect using SSH. Use a login node to create the image.
• cedar.computecanada.ca: Connect using SSH Create the image in an interactive job. Do not use a login node.
• graham.computecanada.ca: Connect using SSH Use a login node to create the image.
• gra-vdi.computecanada.ca: Connect using VNC. Use a terminal window to create the image.
• niagara.computecanada.ca: Connect using SSH Use a login node to create the image.
  • IMPORTANT: Do not bind to /localscratch on Niagara as it does not exist!

Among these options, gra-vdi.computecanada.ca is the best choice for creating images. The others have issues such as:

• beluga, graham, and niagara:
  • fix the maximum amount of RAM that can be used on login nodes, and,
  • there is no Internet access on compute nodes.
• cedar:
  • login nodes cannot be used and,
  • compute node jobs require specifying the amount of RAM needed but this is very difficult to know what is required in advance, thus if an error occurs, exit the interactive job and try again requesting more memory.