This course is a part of SHARCNET's ongoing "Introduction to Advanced Research Computing" series of online courses for 2021-2022. Compute Canada account is required to enroll.To register for any of the courses:

• Follow this link: https://training.sharcnet.ca

• Click the Log in link at the top right-hand side

• Log in with your Compute Canada login and password

• Click Site Home in the left-hand side menu

• Click 2021-2022 Introduction to Advanced Research Computing (ARC)

• Browse the list of (currently available) courses and enroll in the ones you are interested in

• To enroll in a course click on the course name and then click on that course’s enroll button

Course Syllabus:

Singularity is a container solution similar to Docker for secure use on multi-user high performance and advanced computing (HPC and AC) systems. Singularity has evolved significantly since it was first introduced in 2015 supporting features such as overlay files, image encryption, exposing GPGPU devices to the container software, etc. Features aside,  using containers is valuable for many: the installed software remains exactly the same and can be used a number of clusters and personal computers running Linux by everyone in a research team.

This course will cover commonly used aspects of Singularity, e.g., building an image from DockerHub, how to build a custom image of your own, how to use an overlay file to have read-write access to an image, and how to build and make use of Conda software installations inside an Singularity image.

NOTE: On Compute Canada's clusters, we recommend that Conda is installed and used completely within a Singularity container and we recommend not using Conda directly in your account, e.g., see this link. If you have a need or are using Conda, enrolling in this course will enable you to learn how you can use Conda inside of Singularity.