Running CESM1.2.1 on SNOW at UAlbany

September 23, 2024

Note: this is outdated, as the Department has switched to using a different server. I will update the instructions soon.

This is based on Brian Rose’s tutorial for ATM 623, as well as Yuan-Jen Lin’s notes.

Environment setup

Log into the head node:

ssh <NetID>@headnode7.arcc.albany.edu

Add the following line to the .cshrc file in your home directory (if this file does not exist, create it). You will only need to do this once:

setenv CCSMROOT /network/rit/home/br546577/roselab_rit/cesm/cesm1_2_1

The environment variable $CCSMROOT now points to CESM source code.

Create a directory that will hold the case directories and cd into it.

Case setup

Running the following line (with a descriptive name replacing <casename>) will create the case directory for a CESM run with

• the E_1850_CAM5_CN compset (slab ocean, pre-industrial conditions, CAM5 physics, carbon-nitrogen biogeochemistry) and
• the f19_g16 resolution (2º finite volume for the atmosphere, 1º displaced-pole grid for the ocean and sea ice).

/network/rit/lab/roselab_rit/cesm/cesm1_2_1/scripts/create_newcase -mach snow -compset E_1850_CAM5_CN -res f19_g16 -case <casename>

For other configurations, see the lists of supported compsets and grids

Now cd into <casename>. To change the number of nodes that the job will run on, change NTASKS for each component in env_mach_pes.xml such that \(\mathrm{NTASKS}=32\times\mathrm{NODES}\). For example, if you want to run on 4 nodes, use:

./xmlchange NTASKS_ATM=128
./xmlchange NTASKS_LND=128
./xmlchange NTASKS_ICE=128
./xmlchange NTASKS_OCN=128
./xmlchange NTASKS_CPL=128
./xmlchange NTASKS_GLC=128
./xmlchange NTASKS_ROF=128
./xmlchange NTASKS_WAV=128

The default is 64 (2 nodes). Then run

./cesm_setup

More details on case setup can be found in chapter 2 of the CESM1.2 User’s Guide.

Runtime options

The settings that control how the model runs are found in the file env_run.xml. You can either edit the file directly or use ./xmlchange. Use ./xmlquery to see the current setting.

One common thing to change is the simulation length. For example:

./xmlchange STOP_OPTION=nyears
./xmlchange STOP_N=2
./xmlchange RESUBMIT=9

This runs the model for \(\mathrm{STOP\_N}(1+\mathrm{RESUBMIT})=20\) years in STOP_N-year chunks. If the cluster is busy, this allows others to run their jobs between our resubmissions. SNOW has a 12-hour time limit, so make sure each job does not go over that. See the benchmarking at the end of this document. If you use another compset, you may want to do some benchmarking yourself.

The output files are monthly by default, so running the model for less than a month won’t write any output. To change the output frequency, see this section of the User’s Guide.

Optionally change CO\(_2\) and other stuff in user_nl_cam or the other user_nl files. For example, add the following line to user_nl_cam for a 2xCO2 (from pre-industrial) experiment:

co2vmr = 569.4e-6

You may want to uncomment and edit the email notification lines in <casename>.run to be notified when the job ends.

Slab ocean model

If you are running the SOM (as in compset E), copy the forcing file into /data/rose_scr/cesm_inputdata/ocn/docn7/SOM, and back in the case directory run

./xmlchange DOCN_SOM_FILENAME=<forcingfilename>.nc

There are many SOM forcing files already there, so for example, if you want a piControl run, you can use

./xmlchange DOCN_SOM_FILENAME=pop_frc.b.e11.B1850C5CN.f19_g16.130429.nc

Additional required changes

In <casename>.run, change the value of --mem from MaxMemPerNode to some value (the max seems to be 128G).

If you did not change NTASKS (because you wanted to use 2 nodes), you may notice in <casename>.run that --nodes=1. Change it to 2 and remove the -O option that should be under the two --mail lines. As far as I know, that enables hyper-threading, allowing one node (core) to be treated as two. I don’t recommend this (see below) unless you do some benchmarking and find that it works better for you.

For now, you also need to add the following line to env_mach_specific for the Intel compiler to work:

source /network/rit/lab/snowclus/modules/latest.csh

Building the model

Users outside the Rose group

First you need to decide where to keep the executable files. If you look in env_build.xml, you will find the following line:

<entry id="EXEROOT"   value="/data/rose_scr/$CCSMUSER/cesmruns/$CASE/bld"  />

This variable EXEROOT determines where the model will be built. By default it will look for a directory within /data/rose_scr/. This will only work if you have write access to /data/rose_scr/, which is probably only true if you are part of the Rose research group. If not, you will need to set this to somewhere within your own group’s scratch space.

For example, if you are part of the Zhou group, you could do this:

./xmlchange EXEROOT=/data/zhou_scr/$CCSMUSER/cesmruns/$CASE/bld

At the same time you should also set the run directory RUNDIR (where the output files will be written). Usually this would be another subdirectory alongside the build:

./xmlchange RUNDIR=/data/zhou_scr/$CCSMUSER/cesmruns/$CASE/run

All users

Change the short-term archive directory (in env_run.xml) to somewhere you know you have write permissions with

./xmlchange DOUT_S_ROOT=<directory>

This is where you will access the output. By default, the directory is

/network/rit/lab/roselab_rit/cesm_archive/<casename>

but, for example, I did not have write permissions there and had to change it to somewhere I did:

/network/rit/lab/roselab_rit/rford/cesm_archive/<casename>

Then build the model with the following line:

srun -p snow ./<casename>.build

This will take some time: about 20 and 30 minutes for the E and B compsets I ran. If the build time is very quick (i.e. a few seconds), then the run configuration is probably messed up, and the job will not be able to be submitted.

Submit the job

Finally, submit the job with

./<casename>.submit

You can check the queue, see node info, or cancel the job with

squeue
sinfo
scancel <JOBID>

Benchmarking

Compset	Grid	NTASKS	Nodes	Sim length	Run time (h:mm)
E_1850_CAM5_CN	f19_g16	64	2	1 year	5:13
E_1850_CAM5_CN	f19_g16	128	4	1 year	3:24
E_1850_CAM5_CN	f19_g16	256	8	1 year	2:10
B_1850	f19_g16	64	1 (HT)	1 month	7:46 (!)
B_1850	f19_g16	64	2	1 month	0:14
B_1850	f19_g16	128	4	1 month	0:11

Run times vary for each resubmission, though not by much. The times in this table are generally the maximum. I’m pretty sure run time is proportional to simulation length, so to compare runs of different length, multiply accordingly.