{"id":55,"date":"2015-06-30T19:45:55","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T19:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/srvcnthpc001.uct.ac.za\/?page_id=55"},"modified":"2025-05-13T13:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T11:32:22","slug":"acceptable-use-policies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/acceptable-use-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"Acceptable Use Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Acceptable Use Policy<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Agreement<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By logging on to the ICTS HPC cluster you are agreeing to abide by UCT\u2019s policy and rules on Internet and email use as well as the HPC Acceptable Use Policy terms and conditions outlined below;<\/p>\n

General HPC terms and conditions<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u2022 Computing resources including but not limited to CPUs, RAM, disk space, internet bandwidth and networking are to be used for research purposes only.<\/p>\n

\u2022 User accounts may not be shared.<\/p>\n

\u2022 No commercial work is permitted.<\/p>\n

\u2022 No proxy work, you may not submit jobs on behalf of someone else.<\/p>\n

Revocation of access<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Any infringement of the above terms, or if the following abuse is noted, may result in your user account being suspended\u00a0and\/or disciplinary action:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Running jobs or any high load process on the head node.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Viewing or editing extremely large files on the head node.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Fraudulent requests for HPC resources.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Causing a file system to run out of space.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Allowing illegal access to the cluster.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Downloading non-research related files or data.<\/p>\n

Abandoned accounts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u2022 Accounts that have never been logged into will be deleted after 12 months.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Accounts not accessed in over a year will be deleted in the event we are unable to contact the researcher to establish a continued need.<\/p>\n

Core, Memory and Time limits<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By default, users will have access to\u00a0a set number of cores<\/a>. \u00a0This can be boosted if the cluster is under-utilised or if the usage patterns of a researcher’s jobs can be anticipated. If jobs are queued and the cluster is severely under-used then these jobs will be allowed to run by discretion of the HPC system administrators. The limits will be altered over time as hardware and usage patterns change in order to achieve maximum efficiency and usage of the cluster.<\/p>\n

If your jobs are known to have a low wall time and\\or you make use of the wall time directive then depending on the current state of the cluster your core usage may be increased substantially at the discretion of the administrators.<\/p>\n

The maximum wall and times are displayed on the dashboard under partition parameters. Additional partition attributes can be found under resource allocation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Space usage<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When your account is deleted all files on \/home and \/scratch are deleted. It is your responsibility to move data off the HPC file systems when your research projects come to an end.<\/p>\n

\/home:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0There is limited disk space on \/home and this is shared with other researchers. You are limited to 10GB in \/home for scripts or reference data. This volume is protected by ICTS’s backup system although there is a cost for restores.<\/p>\n

\/scratch:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0The \/scratch volume provides extremely high speed disk access for transient research data. You will be granted a 50GB quota by default. The \/scratch volume is volatile and is not backed up. Users are expected to move data off this volume once computation is completed. Old files will automatically be deleted if the volume starts to run out of space. Using the touch command to modify files in the \/scratch volume will result in your user account being revoked. The 50GB quota can be increased on request.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Quota<\/th>Lifespan (days)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
50GB (default)<\/td>indefinite<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
500GB<\/td>indefinite<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1TB<\/td>12 months by agreement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5TB<\/td>eResearchdata or by agreement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Over 5TB<\/td>eResearchdata<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/p>\n

Long term storage:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0Users that require long term central storage should contact eresearch@uct.ac.za<\/a><\/p>\n

Privacy<\/strong><\/p>\n

All user home directories are protected at the file system level. Researchers that request shared data areas must inform ICTS HPC staff as to which HPC users or groups may have access to these areas.<\/p>\n

Rogue processes<\/strong><\/p>\n

In order to maintain the stability of the HPC clusters, the ICTS HPC administrators reserve the right to terminate any running job or process that does not fall within the agreement of good usage, or that threatens the running of other researchers\u2019 jobs.<\/p>\n

Data and disaster recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n

You are responsible for your data. Recovery costs due to data loss caused by user action or inaction will incur a cost. Only data that is stored on \/home is backed up to tape. Data stored on these tapes will be kept for a maximum period of one year, thereafter the tapes will be recycled.<\/p>\n

Compilation of software<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Compiling of software or installing libraries must not<\/span> be done on the head node. This must<\/span> be run as a job. If debugging or interaction is required then you must run an interactive job<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Data transfer<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You may transfer data via the head node, however it is preferred that large downloads of data are done via a worker node as part of a job.<\/p>\n

Citations<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Researchers are required to notify us of any submissions, publications or presentations that contains work conducted using the HPC resources. The following form of acknowledgement must also be included in your published work:<\/p>\n

Computations were performed using facilities provided by the University of Cape Town\u2019s ICTS High Performance Computing team:\u00a0hpc.uct.ac.za<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Off-Campus logins<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you need to access cluster from outside of UCT you will need to do so by making use of the VPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Acceptable Use Policy Agreement By logging on to the ICTS HPC cluster you are agreeing to abide by UCT\u2019s policy and rules on Internet and email use as well as the HPC Acceptable Use Policy terms and conditions outlined below; General HPC terms and conditions \u2022 Computing resources including but not limited to CPUs, RAM,...","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nAcceptable Use Policy - UCT HPC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/acceptable-use-policies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Acceptable Use Policy - 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