Minnesota Supercomputer Institute

Basic Sciences Computing Laboratory Policies and Procedures

All users must follow the Institute's ethical guidelines. In particular, passwords must not be shared with anyone! Every individual with access to the facility should have his/her own user account and password.

Privacy

The default file permissions for the new user are read/write/execute by the user and read/execute by the user's group. A principal investigator has the right to access data and files in his/her research group. In the event that the P.I. has difficulty doing this, he or she may contact the Research Programs Administrator or the Head of Technical Support. Technical support staff do not read a user's email or files or alter them without the user's permission except in cases of emergency and only within the scope of administrative responsibilities.

Workstations

In general and except for a few exceptions workstations are for interactive use, and as such the user who is currently in the lab using the machine has top priority for the use of the workstation.

Due to high demand for the workstations you should be courteous and log out of the machine if you are going to be gone longer then a few minutes. However, there are many programs that require a GUI interface to run, which when killed by logging off also stops the job. If this is the case the user is allowed to lock the screen and have use of the machine until the auto-log out script logs the user out.

If you do forget to log off, the machine will log you off automatically after 3 hours of inactivity. Also if there appears to be no jobs running on the machine MSI staff at the BSCL might also log you off if there is need of the workstation.

Remote Logins

In an effort to make it easier for people in the lab using the machine interactively, remote logins are allowed only on bl1 and bl2 24 hours a day, while remote logins for bl3-bl6 are only allowed between the hours of 10:00 PM and 8:00 AM.

Background Jobs

Background jobs longer then 30 minutes with a few exceptions are subject to being killed if they are causing slow downs for the current user of the workstation.

If you need to run longer then 30 minutes and dont plan on working at the workstation while the job is running, please submit the job to one of the queues (altix, onxy, or x86_64). Please contact Can Ergenekan if you need help submitting jobs to the queue or you if your program can only run through a GUI interface and you need to stay logged on for an extended period (past the 3 hour auto-log out).

Some of the current exceptions are D*Trek and HKL2000 which can run non-interactively but because of licensing can only run on the workstations.

Disk Quota and Usage

Users should be using project and scratch space to their fullest ability, and home directories should not be places to store large amounts of data.

In general though as people accumulate numerous small files in their home directories the space does start to fill up, and if you need an increase in your disk quota for your home directory please request one from user support and in general we will grant the request as long as it is within reason.

Also if you need an increase in your project space please also e-mail user support and we will increase your limit based on current usage and need.

The VIS 3D Wall and Mirror cluster

To request a reservation of the VIS 3D wall please e-mail Can Ergenekan or Nancy Rowe at least 2 days prior to needing the room and the projection system.

If you want to use the Vis 3D system and it is free go ahead, if you have never used it or there is a problem contact Can Ergenekan or Nancy Rowe for help.

To request the Vis3D Wall and Mirror cluster to run an interactive simulation please e-mail Can Ergenekan or Nancy Rowe at least 1 week in advance to allow the queued jobs on the cluster to clear.

Special Requests

If you have need of some temporary special accommodations please contact Can Ergenekan so we can discuss your needs.

As an example in the past we have allowed certain groups the ability to temporally bypass the remote login restriction and greatly increase their project space disk-quotas while they are at another institution generating large volumes of data, which they needed to transfer back to MSI and the BSCL.