alliance-cvmfs

Alliance (DRAC) — CVMFS Software Stack

Software on Alliance clusters is served from CVMFS (read-only, network-mounted) and accessed entirely through Lmod (module command). Login and compute nodes see the same stack.

For cluster policies, storage limits, and account questions, check alliance-docs first.

/cvmfs/soft.computecanada.ca         # Alliance software stack
/cvmfs/restricted.computecanada.ca   # licensed software (MATLAB, etc.)
/cvmfs/containers.computecanada.ca   # pre-built Apptainer/Singularity images

---

Discovery: always use module spider

Never guess versions. Module versions on CVMFS change; guessing one that doesn't exist is the most common failure mode. Always confirm with module spider first.

module spider <name>              # list all available versions
module spider <name>/<version>    # show the exact prerequisite sequence to load it

The spider <name>/<version> output shows one or more valid "You will need to load" lines. Pick one line and load it as a complete set — do not mix lines.

Why module avail is incomplete

Lmod is tiered. module avail only shows what the currently loaded modules have unlocked; it will silently omit CUDA-tier packages (cuDNN, NCCL, etc.) until a compiler and CUDA are already loaded. For discovery, use spider — it searches the full tree regardless of what's loaded.

Core (always visible)
└── Compiler tier (unlocked after: gcc / intel / nvhpc)
    └── CUDA tier (unlocked after: cuda)
        └── MPI tier (unlocked after: openmpi / …)

StdEnv also loads a base stack (gcccore, UCX, OpenMPI, etc.). spider is the right tool when you're not sure what tier a package lives in.

Discovery workflow

# 1. Find real versions for each component
module spider python
module spider gcc
module spider cuda
module spider cudnn

# 2. Get the exact prerequisite sequence for your chosen version
module spider cuda/<version>
module spider cudnn/<version>

# 3. Load the prescribed sequence, then verify
module load StdEnv/2023 gcc/<ver> cuda/<ver> python/<ver>
module list
which python && python --version
nvcc --version