Alps environments

Once you have logged into a cluster on Alps, you will want to set up your environment and find the software and tools provided by CSCS. This part of the documentation will give guidance on how to set up your shell, and how to access software in uenv and container environments.

• Set up your login environment

  A good spot to start is to read our guide on configuring your shell.

  Using the terminal

• Setting up your development and simulation environments

  CSCS provides two ways to access software, and create the environment used to develop and run.

  Scientific HPC workloads are a good fit for uenv -- a tool developed by CSCS to deliver scientific software stacks on Alps.

  uenv

  The container engine runtime is recommended for machine learning workflows. It can also be a very good choice for Python environments installed using pip, uv and conda.

  container engine

CSCS provides ready to use environments in uenv and containers:

• Programming environments;
• Applications and software.