HPC Etiquette¶
The HPC is a shared resource, and to help make sure everybody can continue to use the HPC together, the following provides some expected behaviour.
Head / Login / Management Nodes¶
- The Head / Login / Management Nodes are to be used for light, single-threaded tasks only.
- If it takes more than 5-10 minutes or > 2-3GB of RAM, do NOT run it on the head node.
- Some acceptable tasks include:
- Compiling software for your own use
- Transferring / Decompressing Files
- Light Pre/Post Processing
- SLURM Job Management
General Cluster Rules¶
- Use only the resources you need, remembering this is shared resource.
- Clean up your disk usage in /scratch and /home regularly.
- Do not attempt to bypass security controls.
- Do not attempt to bypass job Scheduling.
- Do not access the compute nodes directly.
Permissions & Access Levels¶
The HPC has the following capabilities. If a capability is NOT listed, then you are not permitted to perform the action. Security is approached via a list of allowed actions, not a list of denied actions.
General User¶
- Full read & write permission to your own /scratch/FAN and /home/FAN locations
- The ability to compile and run your own software, stored in your /home directory
- The ability to run any module present in the module system
- Manipulate your own jobs via SLURM
Group Admins¶
Trusted partners may be appointed ‘Group Administrators’ at the sole discretion of the HPC Team allowing them to:
- Perform all actions of a general user
- Manipulate SLURM actions of users under their remit
Permissions that are Never Granted¶
The following is a non-exhaustive list of permissions that are never, and will never, be granted to end-users. The HPC is a complicated system and, while the Support Team is asked for these permissions quite often, the potential inadvertent damage to systems means these permissions cannot be provided.
- Root or Sudo access
- Global ‘Module’ Software Installation
- Elevated Access to the HPC System
- Access to the Cluster Management System
- Access to the Storage Analytics
If You Break These Rules¶
If you break these rules the HPC Team may take any or all of these actions:
- Cancellation of running tasks/jobs
- Removal problematic files and/or programs
- Warning of expected behaviours
- Revocation of HPC Access