High Performance and Research Computing Services
BaylorITS Research Technology's High Performance Computing and Research Computing Services group provides an advanced computing infrastructure that supports research through high-performance computing (HPC) resources, HPC programming support, and HPC technology solution design.
HPC Programming Support
We provide programming support and mentoring for researchers utilizing the university’s centralized HPC resources. Support includes assisting clients with debugging, optimizing, and parallelizing their applications.
HPC Cluster Client Support
We install and update HPC software and assist researchers with utilizing HPC cluster resources.
HPC Cluster Operation
Baylor University provides a centralized, High-Performance Computing (HPC) Cluster, named Kodiak, for all Baylor researchers and their associated collaborators. Kodiak’s computing resources, including condominium systems, consist of 100 compute nodes, seven GPU nodes, one large-memory system, and 2.5PB of multi-tiered storage.
System Name: | Kodiak |
Host Name: | kodiak.baylor.edu |
IP Address: | 129.62.18.104 |
Model: | Cray CS400-AC |
Operating System: | CentOS |
Hardware: | 100 Compute Nodes 84 x Cray Regular Compute Nodes Dual 18-core Intel Xeon Gold 6140 processors 256GB DDR4-2133 RAM 240GB SSD 1 x Cray Large Memory Compute Node Dual 18-core Intel E5-2695 V4 processors 768GB DDR4-2133 RAM 1.8TB SSD 2 x Cray GPU Nodes Dual 18-core Intel Xeon E5-2695 V4 processors Dual NVIDIA P100 16GB GPUs 256GB DDR4-2133 RAM 240GB SSD 3 x Cray GPU Nodes Dual 18-core Intel Xeon Gold 6140 processors Dual NVIDIA V100 32GB GPUs 256GB DDR4-2666 RAM 240GB SSD 1 x Dell GPU Node Dual 32-core AMD Epyc 7452 processors Dual NVIDIA A100 40GB GPUs 512GB DDR4-3200 RAM 440GB SSD |
Storage: | 2.5PB multi-tiered Tier 0: 2 x Dell PowerEdge R7525 servers, 200TB NVMe Excelero NVMesh Tier 1: 2 x Dell PowerEdge R740 servers, 2 x Dell ME4084 storage arrays, 2.5PB HDD |
Cluster File System: | PixStor |
Cluster Interconnect: | Mellanox HDR 200Gb/s (100Gb/s split to compute) |
You will need an account to use Kodiak. Kodiak accounts are available to Baylor faculty, graduate and undergraduate students. To request an account, contact research_technology@baylor.edu. Accounts are also available to external researchers who are collaborating with Baylor faculty.
Research Technology Hub
The Research Technology Hub for Kodiak High Performance Computing is your virtual assistant to help you quickly find answers to your Kodiak questions. The Hub leverages Box AI to power searches and AI-driven queries against all of our Kodiak documentation. Simply click the button below to access the Research Technology Hub in Box (Baylor login required). Then, click the colorful Box AI button in the upper-right corner of the Box interface and enter your prompt in the dialogue box that appears. Note: If you enter a search query into the Box search bar that appears without clicking the Box AI button, Box will only return basic search results from the documentation in the Hub.
You can ask simple, informational questions:
- How do I get an account to use Kodiak?
- How do I log in to Kodiak?
- What file systems are available on Kodiak?
- How do I compile a program on Kodiak?
- How do I submit a job to run my program?
- How can I check the status of my jobs?
- Can I run multiple jobs at once?
- What should I do if I want to stop my job?
- How do I load specific software modules?
- Is there support for interactive sessions?
- Where can I find help with commands?
Or write an AI-style prompt:
- Write a python query on Kodiak.
- Describe the research purpose for Kodiak.
- Write a basic query that can be used on Kodiak to lookup data in a dataset.
- What are the most basic commands that can be used on Kodiak?
Access the Research Technology Hub for Kodiak
HPC Cluster Condominium Model
Researchers may purchase HPC computing “nodes” to be integrated into the centralized HPC cluster. When purchasing a node, the purchaser receives priority over jobs of HPC cluster users who are not members of the respective research group. HPRCS personnel will assist researchers with specifying and purchasing HPC nodes. BaylorITS Research Technology operates and maintains the condominium nodes on behalf of the purchaser, eliminating the need for researchers to spend excess time conducting administrative duties.
National Science Foundation: Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support program
NSF ACCESS
NSF ACCESS is a powerful collection of integrated digital resources and services—such as supercomputers, visualization and storage systems, collections of data, software, networks, and expert support—that scientists, engineers, social scientists and humanities researchers may utilize. ACCESS integrates these resources and services and makes them easier for more people to use. If you need advanced computing resources that exceed what can be provided to you at Baylor and are doing research that is NOT subject to a Protected, Restricted, or Government-Classified data classification, then NSF ACCESS may be beneficial to you.
Meet the High Performance Computing Support Team