Terms of Use of the AMU mésocentre
The main mission of the Aix-Marseille University mésocentre (hereinafter referred to as the mésocentre) is to enable the community to access material and application resources, databases and communications networks (hereinafter referred to as resources) in high performance scientific computing (HPC), distributed computing (Grid) and intensive computing in the Cloud.
Allocations of computing resources are based on a scientific project. A project is led by a coordinator, normally holding a permanent position in a research establishment, responsible for the proper use of the resources allocated by the mésocentre.
The consumption of the allocated computing hours is periodically examined by the scientific committee. If a project shows a low consumption rate, its allocation may be reduced after discussion with its coordinator.
In return for the use of these resources, the coordinator of a project agrees to :
- Communicate to the mésocentre the list of publications or communications made within the framework of the project.
- Thank the mésocentre in these same publications and communications with the sentence : « Centre de Calcul Intensif d’Aix-Marseille is acknowledged for granting access to its high-performance computing resources. »
- Send a brief report (1 page) to the scientific committee at the end of the project and / or at the end of each year. If possible, a figure illustrating the project will come along with the report for publication on the mésocentre web page.
The request is made using an online form.
It is subject to the acceptance of the present terms of use as well as the acceptance of terms of use of Aix Marseille Université.
The call for projects is permanent, the submission of applications is possible throughout the year. For details on the typology of eligible projects and the frequency with which applications are examined, please consult the allocation of computing resources page.
Allocations of HPC computing hours for B projects are usually carried out by sessions. During the principal session, they are allocated to new projects or to ongoing projects requiring a new annual allocation. During additional sessions, hours may be allocated to a new project and an increase or reduction in allocation is possible for running projects :
- Additional allocation may be allocated to projects of which at least 50% of the initial allocation has been consumed.
- A reduction may be applied, in consultation with the coordinators concerned :
o during the first additional session (June), for B projects whose consumption is less than 15%, reduction of up to 20% of the annual allocation.
o during the second additional session (October) for B projects whose consumption is less than 50%, reduction from 30% to 50% of the annual allocation.
Mésocentre users agree to make use of the resources of the mésocentre in compliance with the legislation, ethics, rules of professional ethics and according to the recommendations made by the technical committee. In particular, they agree to :
- Store only professional data and software related to the project for which an allocation has been obtained on the resources.
- Do not install any commercial software without the prior authorization of the technical committee.
- Use the software, made available by the mésocentre, or installed by themselves, under the conditions of the subscribed licenses.
- Ensure the protection of their authentication details (ssh key and password) which are personal to them and which must not be communicated to third parties.
- Run no HPC calculation on the connection front ends (login nodes) that the mésocentre may delete without notice.
- Ensure the backup and possibly the encryption of the data they store at the mésocentre, in particular those considered sensitive. As the mésocentre does not save or archive user data, it cannot be held responsible for the loss of data.
- Do not attempt to use or access user accounts other than their own.
- Do not read, modify, or destroy data other than their own and for which they have not been expressly authorized to do so.
- Acknowledge having been informed that access to the resources of the mésocentre is likely to be interrupted at any time due to maintenance.
Personal accounts are created for coordinators and users of projects that have received a computing allocation. These accounts are personal and non-transferable. Users out of any active project are notified by e-mail that they have one month to transfer their data out of /home, /scratch and possibly /save /scratchw storage directories. After this delay, their account and data are deleted, and they are unsubscribed from all the mesocentre mailing lists.
The coordinator of a project is automatically subscribed to the mesocentre-projets-responsables@univ-amu.fr mailing list. Like all users associated with the project, he is also subscribed to the mesocentre@univ-amu.fr mailing list. Users have the option of unsubscribing from the lists, however they take the responsibility of not being kept informed of notifications and in particular maintenance notices which may only be disseminated through this channel. The user is unsubscribed from these lists when deleting their access account.
The mésocentre allocates disk spaces with quotas to each user. The storage, backup and archiving of data and software that the user places or installs on the equipment of the center is under his sole responsibility. When a user account is deleted, his/her disk space and data are erased definitively.
In the event of non-compliance with the above Terms of Use, the mésocentre may immediately and without notice suspend a user’s access to the resources.