Remote Listing Script

In here I will show you how to find out what your home directory looks like on the slave nodes on the cluster. In particular, I will show you a script that you can copy to your home directory on the master node and then use to find out which files are present on your home directory on each of the slave nodes.

What the script does

The script checks your home directory on each of the available nodes and lists the files contained there. As a side benefit, you will also see which nodes are unavailable.

You can decide to restrict the search to just a subset of the nodes (which you can specify). For example, you may decide that you only want to work with nodes in a particular range (in an attempt to stay away from other users).

How to install the script

  1. download the script file to your personal computer.
  2. use a program such as WinSCP (for PCs) or Fugu (for Macs) to copy the script file to your home folder on the master cluster node (master1.sjsu.edu).
  3. login to master1 using your login name and password.
  4. use the ls command to verify that your script file is in your home folder.
  5. add execute permission for the script file using the command
    chmod a+x rls-nodes

How to run the script

Simply enter the following command from your home directory on the master1 node:
rls-nodes

Here is an (edited) example of the output:

[avila@master avila]$ rls-nodes
node3: integrate
node4: integrate
node5: integrate
node6: integrate
node7: integrate
node8: *UNAVAILABLE*
node9: integrate
node11: integrate
...
node52: integrate
node53: *UNAVAILABLE*
node54: integrate
node55: integrate
node56: integrate
node57: integrate
node58: integrate

You should see those files that you have currently in your home directory on each of the nodes of the cluster. Unless you are running a parallel program on the cluster, there should be nothing in your home directory.

Remove files with the command (for example suppose you want to remove a file called integrate):
rcom-nodes rm /home/cs159xx/integrate
where cs159xx is your particular login name.