DFG Priority Program 1573

GPU Cluster Milky Way

Status of the Cluster for SPP1573 members


The GPU Cluster Milky Way at the Forschungszentrum Jülich is up and running. Currently we can use 84 nodes, each node has 12 cores (10 for CPU jobs, two reserved for GPU jobs). More nodes will be linked soon to make the system complete (Milky Way and additionally Judge).

All researchers and students payed by the ISM-SPP 1573 as well as project PIs can apply for an account.

Apply for an Account

Anyone who wants an account could start with the following steps:

  1. Go to
    https://dispatch.fz-juelich.de:8812/nic_account_ident/back=/RESOURCES&xxlang=english
    and follow the instructions. Our project name is spp1573. During the process you need to send a public ssh key to the system, from the computer you want to use to access the system.
  2. After the web-based procedure you will receive a paper form. This has to be printed and signed by Rainer Spurzem at NAOC/China personally as an authorisation. Please send your signed and scanned form to spurzem@nao.cas.cn . In the mail, please include the name of the ISM-SPP project you are working in as well as the name of the PI(s).
  3. After signature by Rainer Spurzem he will fax the form to the dispatch in Jülich.
  4. Usually within 1-2 days, you will get an e-mail message that your account has been established with user-id sppnnn. Access is then from the computer ONLY where you created the ssh-key by

    ssh sppnnn@milkyway.fz-juelich.de .

    The password given at key creation will be requested. Your e-mail will also be added to our e-mail communication list spp-milkyway-computing@ari.uni-heidelberg.de and you may want to register and login for our message board on "Supercomputing/Milkyway Cluster" at http://silk0.bao.ac.cn/Joomla

  5. It is anytime possible to create a new ssh-key on another computer and upload a new one to Jülich. The instructions how to do this can be found here . (At the bottom of this webpage see the link to upload a new ssh-key)

Sorry for the admin procedure, but this is the price to pay for Jülich's excellent support in running and supervising the computer. Forschungszentrum Jülich and Rainer Spurzem (spurzem@nao.cas.cn) will provide monthly usage reports to make sure the resources are fairly distributed among SFB and SPP projects. The SPP steering committee may or may not impose a time allocation procedure if necessary. There is a limited annual number of node hours available for the SPP. Please contact Matthias Gritschneder and/or the SPP steering board for more details. Please also note that the computing time cannot be accumulated and used in the last months.

Additional Informations

An open discussion forum for all Milkyway Cluster users has been established at our Silk Road Project Server - please register to this server if you want to use it. The board is only visible after registration and login. Please note that the boards purpose is scientfific and technical exchange on our project work only, and that the board should not be misused and all contents posed should comply with the laws of the hosting country (in this case: P.R. China). If in doubt please contact webadmin-silkroad@nao.cas.cn (This alias is distributed to Rainer Spurzem, Peter Berczik, Luca Naso and Maxwell Tsai at Silk Road Project Beijing). We will provide in the coming days more practical help, job examples etc. Please watch our NEWS Webpage from time to time.

Tutorial Informations

Book recommendations




Logo of the German Research Foundation This priority program is funded by the German Research Foundation DFG.