.. _chap-quick-start:

Quick Start
###########

This is a short tutorial intended for first-time users. We assume no familiarity with High-Performance Computing (HPC). The only requirement is basic familiarity with your computer to install the SSH client needed to connect to the cluster.

We start on :ref:`qs-getting-access` on how to request an account.
Once access is granted, we proceed to :ref:`qs-connect-ssh` to install and use an SSH client that allows you to get a terminal on the HPC cluster. 
A Terminal and its command line interface can be the first barrier for a user only familiar with Graphical User Interfaces (GUI), on :ref:`qs-command-line` we present the most basic commands that will help you to create and manipulate folders and files. 
The next step is to learn how to edit files. On :ref:`qs-text-editors` we show how to use ``nano`` a very simple but effective text editor. 
We will use it to create the first program in FORTRAN that we will use later to explain execution on a batch system.  
The next section, :ref:`qs-data-storage`, explains the several options for storing data on the cluster. This is very important for first-time users as they tend to rely only on the ``$HOME`` folder, which is very limited for most scientific purposes. 
At this point, we are ready to submit our first job. The section :ref:`qs-workload-manager` shows how to write a submission script and submit the job to the workload manager.
Finally, section :ref:`qs-file-transfer` explains how to move files between the HPC cluster and your computer.

At the end of this tutorial, you should have your account activated, connected to Thorny Flat or Dolly Sods, able to create files and folders, submit simple jobs to the Slurm workload manager and take the data back to your machine.

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   21.GettingAccess.rst
   22.Connect.rst
   23.CommandLine.rst
   24.TextEditors.rst
   25.DataStorage.rst
   26.Software.rst
   27.WorkloadManager.rst
   28.FileTransfer.rst
   29.WebInterface.rst