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Acquiring Accounts and Project Resources

Contents

General Information

Types of User Accounts

Application Forms

 

General Information

Eligibility

ARSC is not a general-purpose, academic computing center. Accounts for ARSC resources are granted to eligible researchers based upon their need for High Performance Computing (HPC) resources. All users must read and abide by the User Policies governing the use of ARSC resources. Continued access to ARSC resources is contingent upon compliance with these policies. Preference for project requests will be given to projects led by University of Alaska faculity or staff members and arctic and high latitude related research.

The ARSC DoD Supercomputing Resource Center is also an Open Research Center. This means that all information that is processed on any ARSC system must be unclassified and publicly releasable. Users are not required to undergo a formal background check, but must provide verification of their citizenship/identification. Further, ARSC does not require HPCMP Primary Investigators (PIs) to submit Section IV forms for any Foreign Nationals in their project. However, PIs for any HPCMP project must provide an Open Systems certification for that project.

Available System Resources

The following systems are available at ARSC:

Access to ARSC's HPC resources is regulated via CPU node/hours. Approved requests for CPU node/hours allocated to the project when it is created or renewed. All users in a project share the allocation. Once a project's allocation has been consumed, the PI may apply for additional resources to be granted to the project

Account Lifetime

Accounts at ARSC can be in one of three states:

Active The user has full access to the account and its associated resources.
Inactive The user is unable to login to the account. However, no user data is removed from the system.
Disabled The user's home directory and all archived data is removed (unless that data has ben transferred to another user).

Accounts are initially created for all systems, but are only in an active status on those systems requested by the user. Accounts can be Active on some systems and Inactive on others. Accounts must be renewed during annual re-registration. If an account is not renewed during the re-registration period it will be placed in an inactive status. Other conditions that may lead to inactivation are:

  • Non-use of the account for 180 consecutive days
  • Violations of ARSC policy
  • Requests by the user, S/AAA or primary investigator
  • Termination of the project and/or class

Accounts are eligible to be disabled if they have not been registered for the current Fiscal Year and have been in an inactive status on all ARSC systems for at least 6 months. Please note that ARSC will never remove an account without giving ample, prior warning to the user, PI and/or S/AAA. If desired, PIs and/or S/AAAs can request the transfer of data from the account to be disabled to another project member's account.

For information on how to return an inactive or disabled account to an active status, please contact User Support.

Required Documentation
In order to activate any account on an ARSC system, each user is required to
  1. Apply for an Academic, DoD, or Commercial/Government account
  2. Complete the Information Assurance Awareness training
  3. Provide verification of their citizenship/identification
  4. Sign/submit the Standard User Agreement
  5. Sign/submit a Section III Account Agreement form
Information Assurance Awareness (IAA) training

ARSC, along with our sponsoring agency, the High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP), requires that all users of ARSC computer resources complete Information Assurance Awareness (IAA) training. This training must be completed before a user account will be activated.

Additionally each user must complete an annual Information Assurance Awareness refresher course in order to receive continued access to ARSC resources.

See the Information Assurance Awareness Training page for more details.

Citizenship and Identification Verification
There are two ways to verify your citizenship/identification:
  1. ARSC users who do not have a completed National Agency Check (NAC) or clearance:
    US Citizens: must provide one of the following. Foreign Nationals: must provide all of the following.

Copies of these documents may be either faxed to the ARSC fax number or presented in person to an ARSC account representative. Please do not send us your original documents.

  1. ARSC users who do have a completed NAC or clearance:
    Please forward your NAC/clearance information to our Facilities Security Officer (FSO) via either a visit request or via the JPAS system.
    • Visit Request
      - Please have your FSO include your full name, date of clearance and citizenship
      - fax VRs to 907-450-8601
    • Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS)
      - ARSC's JPAS SMO: 4B2824

For Academic applicants, please be sure to note which documents you will use to show your proof of citizenship when you complete the User ID Application (Section II)

Standard User Agreement
Every user of ARSC resources must also submit a signed Standard User Agreement Form. As with the IAA training, there is both the HPCMP wide DoD version and the localized ARSC version available. While either form is suitable for computing on ARSC systems, only the DoD version can be used for other DSRCs. Thus, we recommend that all DoD/HPCMP applicants use the official DoD version.
 
ARSC Section III Account Agreement
As an Open Research Center, ARSC does not allow the processing of sensitive or classified data on any of our systems. Our version of the Account Agreement (Section III) form has been updated to include this restriction so we require all ARSC users to submit one. This includes HPCMP users with non-ARSC.EDU Kerberos principals.

Academic Applicants

Who can apply?

Resources are granted to projects and not to individuals. Each project must have a designated Principal Investigator (PI). PIs may apply for a project resource grant, using the Resource Grant Application (Section I). You may apply as a PI if you are:

Students requesting an account must seek the partnership of a qualified faculty researcher in order to gain access to ARSC resources. For example, a UAF faculty research member can apply for an ARSC resource grant as the PI, and the student is added to the project by submitting a User ID Application (Section II) form.

The PI of a project is the manager of the users and resources associated with the project and is the person held primarily responsible for all associated project activity. The PI can allow collaborators to perform work under his/her project account, but not under his/her login User ID. Additional User IDs can be granted for a project by submitting a User ID Application (Section II) .

If you are new to supercomputing or you are beginning a new project, contact our Help Desk for assistance in determining an initial allocation of CPU hours. You can use these hours to optimize your code and obtain accurate estimates for the CPU and storage resources needed to complete your project. Once your code is ready you may apply for an additional allocation for your project.

Note that we cannot guarantee the availability of hours for your request and all allocations are reviewed by an ARSC allocation committee prior to approval. Contact our Help Desk if you have questions about the allocation process.

What resources are available?

Applicants may request an active account on any of ARSC's platforms and must specify which systems are necessary in order to perform their work. If access to additional systems is needed subsequent to the initial application, contact User Support.

How to apply

Fill out the following forms:

  1. Resource Grant Application (Section I) This form specifies the project, the PI, any additional researchers, and the resource requirements. It is used both to apply for a new project account and to apply for additional resources for an existing account.
  2. User ID Application (Section II) This form is used to apply for a UserID. A separate Section II must be submitted for each member of the project.
  3. Account Agreement (Section III) This form acknowledges that each user has read, understood, and agrees to the policies and procedures of ARSC. Every user must submit a signed Section III via mail, fax or in person, before their account is activated on any system.
  4. Standard User Agreement This document shows the user agrees to specific conditions when accessing the ARSC information systems.
  5. Proof of Citizenship The user must show documentation verifying their identity and current citizenship status.
  6. Information Awareness Assurance Certificates These signed certificates show that the user has finished the Information Awareness on-line training sessions regarding the safety and security of electronic data and devices.

Class Accounts

Class Accounts are available to provide ARSC resources in support of courses in the UA curriculum. The Academic Class Application form should be filled out by the instructor. See the document, Student Accounts and Course Projects for details.

Department of Defense Applicants

Initial Account Application

All account requests for DoD users must come through the appropriate Service/Agency Approval Authority (S/AAA) and will need to be processed through the HPCMPO Information Environment database. In order to activate the account, the user must submit a signed Section III Account Agreement form.

Please fax, mail, or email the Section III Account Agreement to:

HPC Accounts
Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
University of Alaska Fairbanks
PO Box 756020
Fairbanks AK 99775-6020
fax : 907-450-8601

In addition, the official government point of contact for the project (who may or may not be the primary investigator) must fill out, sign and fax a copy of the HPCMPO Open Systems Certification verifying that the project is non-classified, non-sensitive open research.

For further information and assistance with DoD project and user applications, please contact the HPCMP Consolidated Customer Assistance Center.

Commercial or Federal/State Government Applicants

ARSC offers customizable partnerships for Commercial, Federal and State agencies. Please contact Barbara Horner-Miller, ARSC Associate Director, for more information at:

Barbara Horner-Miller
Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
PO Box 756020
Fairbanks AK 99775-6020
phone: (907) 450-8629
e-mail:

Commercial applicants that already have an established relationship with ARSC use the same application process as Academic applicants. Please refer to the policies and forms listed under the Academic Applicants section of this page.

 

Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
PO Box 756020, Fairbanks, AK 99775 | voice: 907-450-8600 | email:

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