How-to: Use Matlab on the cluster

Owned by Karker, Nicholas
Last updated: Dec 26, 2023 by Whinnery, Daniel E
2 min read

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A site-wide license for Matlab is administered by the University at Albany. Matlab can be run on the cluster with the GUI via X11 forwarding.

 

Be sure to use Matlab on a full stomach. Neither Matlab nor SUNY at Albany are responsible for any side effects of prolonged usage.

Instructions

Interactive Matlab

Running Matlab interactively requires a connection via SSH with X-forwarding. In the below examples, an Interactive Matlab session running on the cluster is demonstrated here with a macOS.

For more information on connecting to the cluster via SSH, please see How-to: Connect via SSH (PuTTY, macOS terminal)

 

Connect to head-01.arcc.albany.edu with X-forwarding. Instruction on doing so, depending on your operating system can be found here.

 

Next, launch an interactive job using a command similar to the one below:

srun --pty --time=01:00:00 --cpus-per-task=2 --mem-per-cpu=2000 bash -i

GPU

If you need access to batch-gpu for your lab group, please submit a ticket to askIT@albany.edu requesting access.

Note: You can request access to the GPUs on --partition=batch-gpu by adding the following flag above:

--gres=gpu:1 # For one GPU

 

Now, we'll use the matlab module file to load matlab 2023a, via "module load matlab/2023a"

module load matlab/2023a

Finally, type "matlab" and the GUI will spawn:

 

Once your job is complete and you exit the MATLAB GUI, be sure to cancel your job:

squeue -u your_netid

             JOBID PARTITION     NAME     USER ST       TIME  NODES NODELIST(REASON)

           5385415     batch mrun your_netid  R 6-06:44:30      1 uagc20-11

 

scancel 5385415

 

Example SLURM Script for a non-interactive job:

#!/bin/bash

#SBATCH -p batch #batch partition

#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=2 # 2 cores

#SBATCH --mem-per-cpu=2000 # 2GB memory

#SBATCH --mail-type=ALL

#SBATCH --mail-user=%u@albany.edu #email address

#SBATCH -o /network/rit/home/%u/example-slurm-%j.out #log file

#SBATCH --time=1-0:1 # Estimating the job will take 1 day, 0 hours, 1 minute

  

# source matlab module

module load matlab/2023a

  

#Run the script

matlab -nodesktop -nosplash -batch [your_script].m

 

Need more help? Contact the ITS Service Desk.