Document Objectives

Document Objectives#

This module is intended to help users understand and navigate the computational environments available on DesignSafe, with particular emphasis on how interfaces, execution systems, middleware, and file storage interact.

Rather than teaching how to use a single application, this document focuses on the infrastructure concepts that enable scalable, reproducible, and efficient research computing. These concepts apply broadly across disciplines, tools, and analysis pipelines.

In this module, you will learn how to:#

  • Understand the computational resources provided through TACC, and how different execution environments support interactive, batch, and large-scale HPC workloads.

  • Distinguish between interface environments and execution environments, and understand how actions taken in one propagate to the other.

  • Use DesignSafe’s service and middleware layer to connect user interfaces to execution systems, and understand the role this layer plays in job execution and monitoring.

  • Work productively across multiple interfaces—including the Web Portal, JupyterHub, terminals, and APIs—and recognize when each is most appropriate.

  • Understand file storage systems and data lifecycles, including:

    • where input files originate,

    • how files are staged for execution,

    • how intermediate and temporary data should be managed, and

    • how results are persisted and archived.

  • Design computational practices that support scalability, reproducibility, and efficient data management, without being tied to a single workflow or application.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:#

  • Explain where and how computations run when launched from different DesignSafe interfaces.

  • Choose appropriate execution environments based on analysis size, runtime, and resource requirements.

  • Navigate DesignSafe’s storage systems confidently, applying best practices for staging inputs, managing scratch data, and preserving results.

  • Use interactive environments to prototype analyses while understanding how those prototypes translate to large-scale execution.

  • Read application-specific and workflow-focused documentation with a clear mental model of the environments they rely on.

Module Perspective#

This module is structured to support a conceptual progression, not a procedural recipe.

It begins by establishing how users interact with DesignSafe, then moves inward to explain where computation occurs and how data flows across systems. Throughout, the focus remains on why the platform is structured the way it is, and how that structure enables research to scale—from small, interactive experiments to large, production-level computational studies.

By grounding workflow decisions in a solid understanding of computational environments and file management, this document equips readers with the context needed to use DesignSafe effectively—today and as their research grows more complex.

Contents