Guide to Research Computing at the SSCC

This web book is your guide to the research computing resources of the Social Science Computing Cooperative at UW-Madison. It will help you identify the tools you need to do the kind of research computing you do, and show you how to use them.

The most important thing to know about this book is you don’t have to read all of it. The Computing Resources chapter will introduce the available computing resources and help you decide which ones you’ll use. It will then tell you what you should read in order to learn how to use those resources. The Program Information chapter has information about running the most popular programs at the SSCC, but you only need to read about the programs you use. The Linux Essentials covers some basic Linux topics, but you may not need them or may already know them. The Slurm chapter covers some basics that all Slurm users should know, but also situations that are only relevant to a small fraction of SSCC researchers. We’ve collected all this information in a single web book so it’s readily available and easy to find, but read it like an encyclopedia, not a novel.