NegevHPC Usage Policies & Guidelines

General Conditions of Use

The use of High Performance Computing (HPC) resources is subject to the HPC Usage Policies & Guidelines of NegevHPC. When requesting an account on NegevHPC systems, all users have to agree to abide by these policies and guidelines.

Acceptable Use Policy

Accounting Policy

1. All HPC cluster systems are for access by registered users only who have to observe the usage policies. Users are responsible for taking reasonable precautions to protect their own HPC account from unauthorized access.

2. Users are prohibited from sharing their HPC account(s) or credentials with others; neither students nor other collaborators. This includes the prohibition in sharing the password of the account, providing access via a .rhost entry or other means of sharing. As such, users are also prohibited from using others' logon ID and password to gain access to the HPC cluster systems.

HPC Usage Policy

HPC clusters are sharely used among multiple users, thus your actions can have serious impacts on the HPC system(s) can affect other users. The following policies and rules are in place to ensure a fair use of the computing resources and enable the access from unauthorized or malicious use .Jobs/accounts may be suspended if any misuse of the system is identified.

1. The use of HPC clusters is restricted for academic and research purposes only. It must NOT be used in relation to any commercial activities, consultancy services, or creating any nuclear, biological or chemical weapons or military products capable of delivering weapons.

2. Users are responsible for using HPC clusters, resources and facilities in an efficient, effective, ethical and lawful manner.

3. Access to HPC clusters is to be via secure communication channel(e.g. ssh) to respective master/login nodes. Compute nodes are intended for handling heavy computational work, and must be accessed via the resource management system (Slurm) only. Direct access to compute nodes is not permitted.

4. Master/Login nodes are used for interactive work required to prepare computational tasks, as well as pre-precessing and post-processing works such as source code editing, compilation, program testing, job submission and data analysis. There is a 15-minute CPU time limit for any process on the login nodes. All processes that use more that 15 minutes may be terminated without notice.

5. All computational jobs run on the cluster systems must be submitted via the resource management system (Slurm). This enable resources to be sensibly allocated and most efficiently used.

6. Users are requested to report for any weaknesses in computer security and incidents of possible misuse or violation of the account policies to the NegevHPC.

7. NegevHPC team try to plan and inform users of cluster maintenance (via www.negevhpc.com or email announcement), however the cluster systems may require shutting down without prior notice in case of an emergency or unavoidable maintenance.

This policy will be amended and reviewed periodically.

1. Users shall not attempt to access any data or programs contained on the cluster system for which they do not have authorization or explicit consent of the owner of the data/program.

2. Users shall not make copies of system configuration files (e.g. the password file) for unauthorized personal use nor to provide such information to other people/users.

3. Users shall not purposely engage in activities to circumvent computer security or system administrative measures (for example batch queue control settings).

4. Users shall not download, install or run security programs or utilities which reveal weaknesses in the security of HPC systems.

5. Installation of software on HPC systems must include a valid license (if applicable). No software will be installed on HPC cluster without prior proof of license eligibility.

6. Users are requested to acknowledge the use of NegevHPC facilities in their research publications in the exact following form: “Computational support was provided by the NegevHPC project.”

NegevHPC team try to plan and inform users of cluster maintenance (via www.negevhpc.com or email announcement), however the cluster systems may require shutting down without prior notice in case of an emergency or unavoidable maintenance.

This policy will be amended and reviewed periodically.