Unveiling User Behavior on Summit Login Nodes as a User

TL;DR

This study analyzes two years of Summit supercomputer login node usage from a user perspective, revealing patterns of misuse and insights into complex computation workflows affecting large-scale applications.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of user behavior on Summit login nodes, highlighting misuse patterns and workflow characteristics from an ordinary user perspective.

Findings

Identification of misuse patterns such as policy gaming and I/O impairment

Insights into execution patterns of complex workflows

Evidence of login nodes being used as sole computing resources

Abstract

We observe and analyze usage of the login nodes of the leadership class Summit supercomputer from the perspective of an ordinary user -- not a system administrator -- by periodically sampling user activities (job queues, running processes, etc.) for two full years (2020-2021). Our findings unveil key usage patterns that evidence misuse of the system, including gaming the policies, impairing I/O performance, and using login nodes as a sole computing resource. Our analysis highlights observed patterns for the execution of complex computations (workflows), which are key for processing large-scale applications.