STATA

STATA comprises a complete software package, offering statistical tools for data analysis, data management and graphics. On the local HPC System we offer a multiprocessor variant of STATA/MP 13 for up to 12 cores.

Logging in to the HPC System

Advice on how to login to the HPC System from either within or outside the University can be found here.

Loading the STATA module

On the HPC system, the STATA/MP 13 software package is available as a software module. In order to load the respective module just type

 module load stata

Using STATA in batch mode

!!! Fill in simple non HPC Unix Workstation EXAMPLE!!!

On the HPC system you submit your job to the scheduler (here we use Sun grid engine (SGE) as scheduler) which assigns it to a proper execution host on which the actual computations are carried out. Therefore you have to setup a job submission file by means of which you allocate certain resources for your job (this is common practice on HPC systems on which multiple users access the available resources at a given time). Examples for such a job submission script for both, single-core and multi-core usage, are detailed below.

Using STATA: Single-slot variant

You might submit the stata do-file using a job submission script similar to the following (with annotated line-numbers):

 
  1 #!/bin/bash
  2 
  3 #$ -S /bin/bash
  4 #$ -cwd
  5 
  6 #$ -l h_rt=0:10:0
  7 #$ -l h_vmem=300M
  8 #$ -l h_fsize=100M
  9 #$ -N stata_linReg_test
 10 
 11 module load stata
 12 /cm/shared/apps/stata/13/stata -b linreg.do
 13 mv linreg.log ${JOB_NAME}_jobId${JOB_ID}_linreg.log
  

Checking the status of a job

After you submitted a job, the scheduler assigns it a unique job-ID. You might then use the qstat tool in conjunction with the job-ID to check the current status of the respective job. Detail on how to check the status of a job can be found here. In case the job already finished, it is possible to retrieve information about the finished job by using the qacct tool, see here.

Mounting your home directory on Hero

Consider a situation where you would like to transfer a large amount of data to the HPC System in order to analyze it via STATA. Similarly, consider a situation where you would like to transfer lots of already processed data from your HPC account to your local workstation. Then it is useful to mount your home directory on the HPC System in order to conveniently cope with such a task. Details about how to mount your HPC home directory can be found here.