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