BioTeam iNquiry is a cluster enabled bioinformatics platform that becomes the portal for distributed computing. Many informatics tools have a UNIX command line interface and require the submission of UNIX shell statements to a distributed resource management system in order to schedule their execution on a cluster. The BioTeam iNquiry goes beyond the command line to provide an intuitive human readable consistent interface to over 200 cluster enabled bioinformatics tools.
This document highlights common iNquiry usage, features and benefits.
To begin a session, log into iNquiry. See your system administrator for a username and password.
Upon login, the application browser opens in the left pane of your browser window. In this pane, applications are organized by classification category. In addition, all applications also reside in the All Applications folder. Holding the mouse cursor over the application name will generate a popup window with a brief explaination of the application. Double clicking on the application will bring the application submission form in the main window.
Two views are available for each application: Expert and Simple. The Simple view provides a form that has only the required fields for the execution of the application.
The Expert view provides an interface to the full capability of the application.
The two different views can be toggled by selecting the View Simple Forms or View Advanced Forms link at the top of the application browser in the left pane.
Once the form is completed, the request is processed by pushing the Submit button.
iNquiry keeps a record of submission each user executes and is available from the Home-->Job History menu.
Jobs are ordered from most recent to oldest. Results of the jobs are accessible by clicking the link under Results. Please note, job results older than 10 days are automatically removed from the system and may not show up in the results window.
A snapshot of the status of the cluster can be obtained from the various cluster monitors on the system. The monitors are accessible in the left application browser pane at the bottom in the Monitors folder.
Hint: it is sometimes useful to have a monitor (such as the QueueStatus tool) opened in a separate window. To do this, right click on the monitor and select Open In A New Window from the popup menu.