Accessing Software

A large number of software/applications are already installed on our systems and we use a "modules" system to enable users to load different applications and different versions of those applications into their environment.

Modules

The module command is used to access the modules system, and load/unload applications from your environment. When you first log into the system, you will only have the tools/prod module load which provides you access to our "production" modules.

[user@login ~]$ module list

Currently Loaded Modules:
  1) tools/prod

You can see a list of what applications are installed by running the module avail command (as there are many applications installed, this may take some time):

[user@login ~]$ module avail
----------------------------------------- /sw-eb/modules/all ------------------------------------
   ABINIT/9.6.2-foss-2022a
   ABINIT/9.6.2-intel-2022a
   ABINIT/9.10.3-intel-2022a
   ABINIT/10.2.5-intel-2023a                         (D)
   AFNI/24.0.02-foss-2023a
   ANTs/2.3.5-foss-2021a
   ATK/2.36.0-GCCcore-10.3.0
   ATK/2.38.0-GCCcore-11.3.0
   ATK/2.38.0-GCCcore-12.2.0
   ATK/2.38.0-GCCcore-12.3.0
   ATK/2.38.0-GCCcore-13.2.0                         (D)
   AUGUSTUS/3.5.0-foss-2023a
   Abseil/20230125.2-GCCcore-12.2.0
   Abseil/20230125.3-GCCcore-12.3.0
   Abseil/20240116.1-GCCcore-13.2.0
   Abseil/20240722.0-GCCcore-13.3.0                  (D)
   Advisor/2023.2.0
   AlphaFold/2.3.1-foss-2022a-CUDA-11.8.0
   AlphaPulldown/2.0.0b4-foss-2022a-CUDA-11.8.0
   Archive-Zip/1.68-GCCcore-13.2.0
   Archive-Zip/1.68-GCCcore-13.3.0                   (D)
   Armadillo/11.4.3-foss-2022b
   Armadillo/12.6.2-foss-2023a
   Armadillo/12.8.0-foss-2023b
   Armadillo/14.0.3-foss-2024a                       (D)
   Arrow/6.0.0-foss-2021b
--More--

A program can then be loaded into your environment by running the module load command:

[user@login ~]$ module load GROMACS

Please see the Loading Applications page for more advice on using the module system.

Application Guides

We have Application Guides for some of the most commonly used applications on the HPC facility. For example, those users who are using Python should review our Python guide before using it on the system.

What to do if an application you need isn't installed

If there is an application you need that isn't currently installed on the system and you are unable to build it yourself, then you may need to raise a software installation request with us.

Before raising such a request (which you can do so from our Getting Support page), please be mindful that if the application is old, incompatible with modern supported operating systems or particularly complex to install, we may not be able to install it!