Containers with Singularity

The Jackson Laboratory

Online

Dec 3, 2021

9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Instructors: Shane Sanders, Kurt Showmaker, Aaron McDivitt, Richard Yanicky

Helpers:

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General Information

Singularity is a container platform. It allows you to create and run containers that package up pieces of software in a way that is portable and reproducible. You can build a container using Singularity on your laptop, and then run it on many of the largest HPC clusters in the world, local university or company clusters, a single server, in the cloud, or on a workstation down the hall. Your container is a single file, and you don’t have to worry about how to install all the software you need on each different operating system. Singularity is key to research reproducibility.

Who: The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers. For IT security reasons this course is only open to JAX employees.

Where: This training will take place online. The instructors will provide you with the information you will need to connect to this meeting.

When: Dec 3, 2021. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must have access to a computer with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.). They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).

Accessibility: We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all. Please notify the instructors in advance of the workshop if you require any accommodations or if there is anything we can do to make this workshop more accessible to you.

Contact: Please email susan.mcclatchy@jax.org or shane.sanders@jax.org for more information.

Roles: To learn more about the roles at the workshop (who will be doing what), refer to our Workshop FAQ.


Surveys

Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.

Pre-workshop Survey

Post-workshop Survey


Schedule


Setup

To participate in a workshop, you will need access to the software described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

Set up your workspace

Like other workshops, you will be learning by "coding along" with the Instructors. To do this, you will need to have both the window for the tool you will be learning about (a terminal, RStudio, your web browser, etc..) and the window for the Webex video conference client open. In order to see both at once, we recommend using one of the following set up options:

This blog post includes detailed information on how to set up your screen to follow along during the workshop.

The Bash Shell

Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do simple tasks more quickly.

  1. Download and install MobaXterm.
  2. If your "HOME" environment variable is not set (or you don't know what this is):
    1. Open command prompt (Open Start Menu then type cmd and press [Enter])
    2. Type the following line into the command prompt window exactly as shown:

      setx HOME "%USERPROFILE%"

    3. Press [Enter], you should see SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.
    4. Quit command prompt by typing exit then pressing [Enter]

The default shell in some versions of macOS is Bash, and Bash is available in all versions, so no need to install anything. You access Bash from the Terminal (found in /Applications/Utilities). See the Git installation video tutorial for an example on how to open the Terminal. You may want to keep Terminal in your dock for this workshop.

To see if your default shell is Bash type echo $SHELL in Terminal and press the enter/return key. If the message printed does not end with '/bash' then your default is something else and you can run Bash by typing bash.

The default shell is usually Bash and there is usually no need to install anything.

To see if your default shell is Bash type echo $SHELL in a terminal and press the enter/return key. If the message printed does not end with '/bash' then your default is something else and you can run Bash by typing bash.