General

Are CI computational resources free to use?

Yes!  CI computational resources  are free to use for all students, faculty, and staff at any of the campuses in the University of Hawaii system.  Each user is allocated a small amount of free permanent storage and is able to use many computing cycles as they require. 

Why would I want to acquire an account for CI resources?

High performance computing  (HPC) clusters, are utilized for tasks that require resources that your local computer is not able to handle.  Some general cases where the use of  and HPC might be a benefit to your computational needs are:

1. Your application takes too long on your local system, making it unusable for other tasks
2. Your application requires more resources than your local system can provide, either in the number of processor cores or  RAM (memory)
3. You utilize applications that require multiple computers working together on a single problem (typically the application will mention something called MPI)
4. You have hundreds or thousands of similar, yet independent jobs that can take advantage of multiple computers (referred to as high throughput computing)

How do I get an account on CI resources?

Members of the UH community can obtain an account on  CI resources by registering and attending one of our onboarding sessions.  These sessions are typically held twice a month.  Registration can be found here: https://datascience.hawaii.edu/hpc

What SSH client do you recommend I use?

1. Windows: ITS supports the use of PuTTY as seen by this ASK US. https://www.hawaii.edu/askus/685

2. MacOS:  While ITS does not have a recommended SSH client, Mac machines have a built-in SSH client in the terminal program that can be utilized.  https://osxdaily.com/2017/04/28/howto-ssh-client-mac/
3. Cross Platform: The Open OnDemand portal has an SSH client that is useable within most modern web browsers.  You would visit https://koa.its.hawaii.edu the go to the "Clusters" and select "Koa Shell Access"
   1. Note for Open OnDemand it is recommended to utilize an incognito/private browsing window so that you can securely log out by just closing the browser window when done.
      
      

I have an external collaborator who requires computation resources for the project we are collaborating on.  Can they be granted access to CI resources?

It is possible to grant an external collaborator access to CI Resources, but the first step in the process is to have a valid UH account.
In order to get a UH account for your collaborator, the simplest method would be to go through the ITS help desk process for a special affiliate account.
The process to do this is outlined here: https://www.hawaii.edu/askus/1785
Accounts granted through this process are good for one year but can be renewed yearly.
Once the process outlined in the link above is complete and they receive a UH account, your collaborator will go through the same account request and onboarding process as everyone else at UH.

If CI computational resources are free to use by everyone throughout the UH system, what are these paid options I keep hearing about?

CI computational resources is what is known as a condo cluster.  Sections of the resources were purchased by University funds, which allows for all members of the UH community equal access to these resources and are  free to use  as long as you are an active student, faculty, or staff member associated with any of the campuses in the University of Hawaii system.   While a significant amount of work can be completed using free community resources, some researchers may find that they need more storage than is freely provided or need dedicated resources as they need jobs to run longer than the community nodes allow or they find the wait times for community resources to significantly impede their research. 

What is a condo cluster?

1. Benefits for the researcher
   1.  The researcher is provided a private partition which is used to grant priority access to them and members of the UH community defined by the researcher
   2. The private partition allows jobs to run up to 30 days 
   3. Managed by ITS Staff
   4. Take advantage of the infrastructure already provided (Networking, Storage systems, Physical infrastructure)
   5. Purchased computing nodes are housed in the ITC data center
   6. ITS staff is available to help troubleshoot software problems as well as aid in compiling software
2. Benefits to the University Community
   1. Idle servers are not sitting and wasting electricity
   2. Idle cycles are harvested by community users to perform University research but are immediately stopped and freed up when use is requested through the private partition
      
      

What is the differences between buying a condo node or leasing a node?

While both of these options provide you the same benefits - max of 30 day jobs, private partition - leasing and condo nodes have a difference from the fiscal standpoint.
Leasing nodes is classified as a service.  As a result, depending on the source of your money purchasing lease nodes may be subject to indirect cost.  On the other hand, condo nodes meet the threshold of a capital equipment purchase and would not be subject to indirect costs.

Where can I find the price card for condo nodes and leasing nodes?

Pricing for condo nodes and leasing can be found here: https://datascience.hawaii.edu/hpc-ordering-process/ .

My question was not answered by the information you have online. Who do I contact with my question?

If you do not find an answer to your question in our documentation, please contact us at  UH-HPC-Help@lists.hawaii.edu