Working with HPC Profiles

HPC (High-Performance Computing) profiles provide pre-configured knowledge about specific HPC systems, including their partitions, resource limits, and optimal settings. Torc uses this information to automatically match job requirements to appropriate partitions.

Overview

HPC profiles contain:

Partition definitions: Available queues with their resource limits (CPUs, memory, walltime, GPUs)
Detection rules: How to identify when you’re on a specific HPC system
Default settings: Account names and other system-specific defaults

Built-in profiles are available for systems like NREL’s Kestrel. You can also define custom profiles for private clusters.

Listing Available Profiles

View all known HPC profiles:

torc hpc list

Example output:

Known HPC profiles:

╭─────────┬──────────────┬────────────┬──────────╮
│ Name    │ Display Name │ Partitions │ Detected │
├─────────┼──────────────┼────────────┼──────────┤
│ kestrel │ NREL Kestrel │ 15         │ ✓        │
╰─────────┴──────────────┴────────────┴──────────╯

The “Detected” column shows if Torc recognizes you’re currently on that system.

Detecting the Current System

Torc can automatically detect which HPC system you’re on:

torc hpc detect

Detection works through environment variables. For example, NREL Kestrel is detected when NREL_CLUSTER=kestrel is set.

Viewing Profile Details

See detailed information about a specific profile:

torc hpc show kestrel

This displays:

Profile name and description
Detection method
Default account (if configured)
Number of partitions

Viewing Available Partitions

List all partitions for a profile:

torc hpc partitions kestrel

Example output:

Partitions for kestrel:

╭──────────┬─────────────┬───────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────╮
│ Name     │ CPUs/Node   │ Mem/Node  │ Max Walltime    │ GPUs            │
├──────────┼─────────────┼───────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ debug    │ 104         │ 240 GB    │ 1h              │ -               │
│ short    │ 104         │ 240 GB    │ 4h              │ -               │
│ standard │ 104         │ 240 GB    │ 48h             │ -               │
│ gpu-h100 │ 2           │ 240 GB    │ 48h             │ 4 (H100)        │
│ ...      │ ...         │ ...       │ ...             │ ...             │
╰──────────┴─────────────┴───────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────╯

Finding Matching Partitions

Find partitions that can satisfy specific resource requirements:

torc hpc match kestrel --cpus 32 --memory 64g --walltime 2h

Options:

--cpus <N>: Required CPU cores
--memory <SIZE>: Required memory (e.g., 64g, 512m)
--walltime <DURATION>: Required walltime (e.g., 2h, 4:00:00)
--gpus <N>: Required GPUs (optional)

This is useful for understanding which partitions your jobs will be assigned to.

Custom HPC Profiles

If your HPC system doesn’t have a built-in profile, you have two options:

Request Built-in Support (Recommended)

If your HPC is widely used, please open an issue requesting built-in support. Include:

Your HPC system name and organization

Partition names with resource limits (CPUs, memory, walltime, GPUs)

Detection method (environment variable or hostname pattern)

Built-in profiles benefit everyone using that system and are maintained by the Torc team.

If you need to use your HPC immediately or have a private cluster, you can define a custom profile in your configuration file. See the Custom HPC Profile Tutorial for a complete walkthrough.

Quick Example

Define custom profiles in your configuration file:

# ~/.config/torc/config.toml

[client.hpc.custom_profiles.mycluster]
display_name = "My Research Cluster"
description = "Internal research HPC system"
detect_env_var = "MY_CLUSTER=research"
default_account = "default_project"

[[client.hpc.custom_profiles.mycluster.partitions]]
name = "compute"
cpus_per_node = 64
memory_mb = 256000
max_walltime_secs = 172800
shared = false

[[client.hpc.custom_profiles.mycluster.partitions]]
name = "gpu"
cpus_per_node = 32
memory_mb = 128000
max_walltime_secs = 86400
gpus_per_node = 4
gpu_type = "A100"
shared = false

See Configuration Reference for full configuration options.

Using Profiles with Slurm Workflows

HPC profiles are used by Slurm-related commands to automatically generate scheduler configurations. See Working with Slurm for details on:

torc submit-slurm - Submit workflows with auto-generated schedulers
torc workflows create-slurm - Create workflows with auto-generated schedulers

Torc Documentation