How Do I Access the Shared Compute Clusters for a Class?

How Do I Access the
Shared Compute Clusters for a Class?

28-Jan-2008

Introduction

Our Shared Compute Clusters are primarily used by Rice faculty members and their graduate students and external collaborators for research projects. However, there are a few courses that use these systems for class projects as well. The following is an overview of class accounts on the shared compute clusters.

Student Accounts and Course Sponsors

All users on the shared compute clusters must have a faculty sponsor. Faculty members who wish to login to the shared compute clusters themselves, or have their graduate students and external collaborators login, must first apply for a faculty sponsor account. Once the account is approved, graduate students and external collaborators can apply for access under the sponsorship of the faculty member. This is described in detail in our FAQ.

The same process applies for courses and students. Student accounts are sponsored by course accounts. If a faculty member wants to use a shared compute cluster for a class project, they must first apply for a course account. Once the course account has been created, students will apply for their student accounts under the course account sponsorship.

Let's use the course COMP422 - Parallel Computing as an example. The following are the major steps in setting up the COMP422 class on the shared compute clusters (substitute your course name/number in the example below):

1. Faculty member applies for the course sponsor account

Faculty member applies for the comp422 account by following the published instructions.
Account is approved by CITI.
Account is created by RCSG.

NOTE: At this point a faculty member might have two sponsor accounts on the shared compute clusters (one is the research sponsor account which matches their NetID. The other is the course sponsor account such as comp422). These accounts are separate and distinct accounts. Combining research accounts and student course accounts under a single sponsor account is discouraged.

2. Students apply for accounts requiring faculty member approval

Once the comp422 account has been created, students can apply for their student accounts under the COMP422 sponsorship by going to the Class Accounts section of the Research Computing Account Management web site.
The faculty member will receive email notification when an account application is ready for approval. The faculty member will then go to the Research Computing Account Managment web interface and login with the comp422 account to approve or reject the account.
If approved, the student will be granted an account with a username that begins with hpc followed by a number, such as hpc10. The student accounts will automatically be a member of the comp422 group as well. The student will be given an account on every shared compute cluster that is part of this course.

3. Logging in and using the accounts

Faculty members will login to the shared compute clusters with the comp422 account and place course materials in /users/comp422 or /projects/comp422 using the same processes and procedures that apply to all users on the shared compute clusters.
Students will login using their hpcXX account and will have access to /users/comp422 and /projects/comp422 using the same processes and procedures that apply to all users on the shared compute clusters.

NOTE: These accounts are not intended to be used for research purposes and are subject to being deleted at the end of the semester!

Getting Help

If you have questions or need help with the account application process, please notify the Help Desk at 713-348-4357.