Managing your allocation¶

Actively managing and monitoring your allocation of computing and storage resources will help ensure that you use these resources as efficiently as possible. Allocations are made to the project lead, who is designated in the allocation request. The project lead often is the principal investigator (PI) for the associated funding awards.

The sections below describe how to perform basic administrative tasks and use the Systems Accounting Manager (SAM) to monitor charges against your allocation. All authorized users on a project can manage their own preferences and review their own usage reports in SAM.

To get the most from your allocation, be sure to fully utilize the compute resources you request and use available memory efficiently. Also be aware that even failed jobs use some of your allocation, so be proactive in identifying reasons for failures.

Info

The NCAR Research Computing Help Desk can help you with these and other tasks related to managing your project. Visit https://rchelp.ucar.edu or call 303-497-2400.

Project admins¶

The project lead may authorize a project administrator (project admin) to perform some tasks on behalf of the project, such as adding or removing users. You can designate a project admin when you initially make your project request. To add a project admin after your project has been created, submit a request through the Help Desk.

Adding and removing user accounts¶

Users who are authorized to share access to a project's allocation may be identified when the allocation is requested. PIs, project leads, and project admins can also add other users to their projects any time after receiving an allocation award.

User accounts must not be shared, so the project lead or project admin should establish a user account for each collaborating individual and make them aware of relevant responsibilities and best practices.

To add new user accounts for a project, send a request through the Help Desk. Include the user's name, email address, and phone number.

A PI, project lead, or project admin should deauthorize or remove a user from a project by contacting the help desk. You should request removal of a user’s account when that individual is no longer associated with your project. Doing so makes sure your allocation isn’t consumed unexpectedly and helps keep NCAR systems secure.

Specifying project to be charged¶

You will have an alphanumeric project code for each of your projects. A user account must be associated with at least one allocated project and may be associated with more than one. These project codes are used to charge your use of computing and storage resources against the appropriate allocations. Take care to specify the correct project code when you submit jobs.

Even if you have only one project code, you must specify the project code to be charged when you submit a job. How to do this is described in the documentation for each HPC system.

Charges for computing¶

Both Derecho and Casper have partitions with CPU-only nodes and with GPU-oriented nodes. The CPU-only nodes are included in allocations for "Derecho" and "Casper," while the GPU nodes are allocated as "Derecho GPU" and "Casper GPU." For Derecho and Casper allocations, charges are assessed in core-hours, and for Derecho GPU and Casper GPU allocations, charges are assessed in GPU-hours.

Job charges are calculated as the number of cores or GPUs requested, respectively, multiplied by the duration of the job in hours. Derecho and Derecho GPU jobs are further multiplied by the job priority. (Jobs that use both types of nodes — so-called “hybrid jobs” — will have both a core-hours charge and a GPU-hours charge.)

If you are concerned about your usage rate, contact the Help Desk for guidance on running jobs more efficiently and conserving your allocation. Sometimes jobs can be configured to make better use of the compute resources, and you may be able to save allocation by using a less expensive priority level. Seek help if you notice anything amiss with your allocation.

Using SAM¶

Individuals can set some of their system preferences and track their HPC system usage in the Systems Accounting Manager. SAM reports show usage data and charges against your allocations. Charges for computing are calculated and updated daily; storage use reports are updated weekly.

User preferences¶

Log in at sam.ucar.edu and select User, then Preferences.

From there, you can:

• Change your primary group if you belong to more than one UNIX group for using NCAR computing resources.

• Specify your default login shell for the systems to which you have access.

• See what your home directory is on each system.

Usage reports¶

Log in to sam.ucar.edu and you will see the following choices on the Reports menu:

• My Account Statements

• My 30/90 Day Use

• Project Search

If you are authorized to charge usage to multiple projects, you will see them listed when you select either of the first two report types. Select one of the projects listed to get information.

Use Project Search to:

• go directly to a report on a specified project, or

• search by username to see all projects with which you are associated.

My Account Statements¶

Your account statement includes an overall report on the status of your project’s computing and storage allocation and the usage associated with it. If you are authorized to charge usage to more than one project, you will have an account statement for each project.

The overall usage report on project activity shows your allocations’ start and end dates, amounts allocated, and remaining balances.

The Activity link at the end of each line reveals more details: the project’s allocation history, a monthly summary of job charges, and other activity, such as refunds. You can select a month and then view or download the individual job records.

Another table includes additional information regarding your project’s status in relation to any 30- and 90-day usage thresholds that apply and to any related projects. This is most common for NCAR users on lab projects. Your own statement may show lines for multiple projects or subprojects, as is often the case for NCAR lab allocations.

My 30/90 Day Use¶

This selection lets you focus on your usage in relation to any 30- and 90-day usage thresholds that apply. Again, this is most common for NCAR lab projects.

Project Search¶

You can also search for a specific project code and get an account statement as described above. If you search by your username, you will see a list of any projects you are associated with and you can select any of them to get an account statement.