Workstations and Thin Clients

Last updated Aug 8th 2025, FL.

Two models of client are available. The thin-client is a small desktop device, while the workstation is a larger tower PC. The workstation has a more powerful CPU than the thin-client. The workstation is recommended for users who need to run local analysis regularly, or those who are developing GPU code.


Workstation Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Tower G2	Thin Client Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra SFF G2
Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 265 vPro® Processor (E-cores up to 4.60 GHz P-cores up to 5.20 GHz) 32GB RAM NVIDIA RTX PRO™ 4000 Blackwell 24GB GDDR7 with ECC	Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 235 Processor (E-cores up to 4.40 GHz P-cores up to 5.00 GHz) 16GB RAM NVIDIA RTX™ A1000 8GB GDDR6

What are the advantages of using one of these systems?

Both systems run Redhat 6. This is the same environment running on the cluster. All software available on the BioHPC cluster can be used on the clients, which are ideal for developing and testing code and analysis workflows.
They have direct access to the cluster's file system over the campus 10GB network. You can access your home, project and other shared directories within the GUI interface. This makes transfering files to other BioHPC users fast and easy.

BioHPC users have roaming profiles. This means your documents and settings will are available on all BioHPC systems.
Workstations and thin clients come with Bash and preconfigured to test scripts before submitting them to the cluster.
Access to Windows applications is possible via a Virtual Machine which can easily installed easily.

Profile Settings

The following are basic settings that you'll want to make to your profile.

Enter the UTSW proxy address to allow Internet access outside of the UTSW network.
System>Preferences>Proxy Setting

Prevent folders from opening in seperate windows.
Edit > Preferences > Click on the “Behavior” tab and check “Always open in browser windows”

Create directory bookmarks to quickly access the project and work folders.
Bookmarks>Add Bookmark

Keyboard Shortcuts

You can change shortcuts under
System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts

Print screen – Prt Sc
Launch terminal – Disabled by default but you can change to Ctrl+T
Paste within terminal – Ctrl+Shift+V

System Utilities

Disk Usage Analyzer
Applications > System Tools > Disk Usage Analyzer
This utility shows the status of your storage quotas. It lets you visualize the amount of data in each directory. Remember to empty the trash if you need space.

System Monitor
Applications > System Tools > System Monitor
The Resources tab in this utility shows the load on the CPU and memory. This is useful for monitoring system resources when testing code on a workstation.

Modules

Modules are used to deploy multiple versions of different software tools.

See what modules are available

$ module avail

View loaded modules

$ module list

Load a module

$ module load <name>

Remove a module

$ module rm <name>

Applications

You can install binaries in your home2 directory.

You can not install RPM packages, but you can email biohpc -help@utsouthwestern.edu to request an installation.

Run Code Locally

Workstations and thin clients come with Bash and SBGrid preconfigured to test scripts before submitting them to the cluster. The example script below compares two data sets and outputs an image to display the results.

Run a script with Bash

$ bash test_single.sh

< M A T L A B (R) >
Copyright 1984-2013 The MathWorks, Inc.
R2013a (8.1.0.604) 64-bit (glnxa64)
February 15, 2013

To get started, type one of these: helpwin, helpdesk, or demo.
For product information, visit www.mathworks.com.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
This is the per site results for the 3 wells of the plate
for feature: Straightness of filament (for each filament)

real   0m4.845s
user   0m3.841s
sys   0m0.291s

Check the Output Folder

$ cd output/
$ ls
FeatureDots_1-persite.jpg

Run Code on the Cluster

Running code on the cluster from workstations is not supported anymore. Please use one of the login nodes to submit your job.

Remote GUI and GPU Sessions

If you need to visually interact with your data you can run a Graphical User Interface (GUI) or Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) session on the cluster. For example, you could open a remote GUI session to work with large images that require more memory than is available on your workstation. A remote GPU session executes on a node with an Nvidia GPU card. These nodes offer hardware rendering as opposed to the software rendering on non-GPU nodes.

To begin one of these sessions use the remoteGUI or remoteGPU command. Then, use cat remoteGUI.txt to display the port number for your session.

[rbateman@biohpcws083 ~]$ remoteGUI Submitted batch job 63672 [rbateman@biohpcws083 ~]$ cat remoteGUI.txt UTSW BioHPC remoteGUI ---------------------

Running as job 63672 Running on node(s) Nucleus015 All required binaries found. Set job memory limit to 95% of node RAM. Started VNC Server with PID 14558 Started SSH port forwarding with PID 14569 Compute Node Port: 5909 Login Node Port: 30159

======================================================================= To connect via VNC client: nucleus.biohpc.swmed.edu:30149 =======================================================================

GNOME exists - launching a GNOME session

To connect to the session, open TurboVNC (Applications>Accessories>TurboVNCViewer), and enter nucleus.biohpc.swmed.edu:port# and you password.

Virtual Machines

If you need to use a Virtual Machine on your workstation, please file a ticket for further assistance.

Limitations

Downtime

Downtime for system upgrades will be announced two weeks in advance. During downtime you will not be able to login to workstations or thin clients.

Incompatible Applications

OpenMPI, RDMA, GPU Direct will only work on the cluster. Connect to Nucleus via SSH to submit these jobs.