Service catalogue

Our Service Catalogue is a list of services provided by IT Services to members of the University of Sussex and certain categories of visitors.

Each service within the catalogue typically includes a brief description of the service and how to access it, who is entitled to use/request the service, details of availability and service maintenance, and links to further information. This is intended to help improve knowledge within the University of the range of services we currently provide and to help users get more out of them. The range of services offered is reviewed annually with the University IT Consultative Group.

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High Performance Computing

Service ID

30

Summary

Provides a High Performance Computing environment with a rich set of software applications that support research within the University.   Research groups are encouraged to purchase compute nodes and storage for integration into the cluster. Substantial storage is available on the cluster on the connected Research file service.

Permitted users

  1. Staff and research postgraduate students of the University.
  2. External research collaborators accorded Visitor status.
  3. Exceptionally, undergraduates of the University in support of final year project work.

Gaining access

By application to IT Services for an HPC account.

Hours of operation

This service is accessible 24 hours a day.

Supported period

Normal working days 0900-1700.

Scheduled maintenance

Software and hardware maintenance is carried out periodically and with at least two weeks notice to users.  Software security patches or failed hardware might require emergency maintenance at shorter notice,  endeavouring to keep impact to an absolute minimum.

Change control

Users are consulted before substantial changes to cluster configuration.  Software installed may be installed or updated upon request or major release.

Software application changes (upgrades, additions or removals) follow a procedure described here:

Software@Sussex FAQs.  Changes will be advertised through normal IT Services channels.

ITS Responsibilities

  1. Monitor system usage and security issues and take appropriate action should problems arise.
  2. Maintain IT Services HPC hardware.
  3. Investigate and resolve issues with HPC hardware and software.
  4. Consult with Research staff and Research students to review software requirements.
  5. Manage and support the operation of equipment purchased by research groups.
  6. Provide basic training in use of HPC systems and troubleshooting of user problems.
  7. Define appropriate scheduler for users.

Service user responsibilities

  1. Develop an understanding of the use of High Performance Computing systems and associated software;  
  2. Use the service responsibly and with consideration for other users of limited shared resources, observing prevailing limits on data storage and processing time.
  3. Delete unwanted data from the cluster home file system and scratch file system. 

Recent performance
Service dependencies

Data Network (#1); Managed Filestore (#2).

Detailed service description

IT Services supports a High Performance Computing cluster with around 1000 cores, QDR infiniband interconnect and a Lustre parallel file system providing nearly 200TB of storage.  The service is managed by the Research Support team within IT Services, who maintain the system and advise on best practice.

The HPC service can be accessed from both on and off campus

Research teams are encouraged to fund their own compute nodes within this environment, with the resource dedicated to their needs.

The University participates within several national initiatives providing shared HPC substrates and as a GridPP Tier 2 facility within the EGI.

Links to ITS documentation

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/services/research/highperformance

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/security

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/help

Definitions

Normal working days
These are defined for all ITS services as Monday – Friday inclusive, but excluding Bank Holidays and University Minimum Service Days.
Scheduled Maintenance
IT username and password
These are the login credentials, issued by IT Services to registered students and current staff of the University of Sussex, enabling access to email, workstations and other services requiring authentication.

New and changed services

Information about changes to services including any scheduled maintenance, are posted on the IT Services website and distributed by the IT Services Facebook, Twitter and RSS feed. Current service status traffic light information is also displayed on the IT Services website.

If the service you are enquiring about is not described below, please get in touch.

User responsibilities

All service users are expected to abide by the rules and regulations described in Regulations for the use of Information and Communication Technology and to report faults, as they arise, to IT Services.

Updated on 17 October 2013