Course Access to High-Performance Computing (HPC)

Environment

Advanced Research Computing (ARC) Great Lakes high-performance computing cluster. 

Issue

Need to create and manage access to a computing account for a course on a high-performance computing cluster from Advanced Research Computing (ARC). 

• Learn about HPC course accounts from Advanced Research Computing 

Resolution

Request course account

Only course instructors or facilitators can request a course computing account from Advanced Research Computing (ARC).

Accounts are requested by contacting ARC directly (https://arc.umich.edu/get-help/). Course accounts can be requested ahead of time, before the start of the course term.

To request a course account, a course instructor or facilitator should reach out to ARC with the following information:

1. The term the course is for, the course abbreviation and number, and a section number if applicable.
2. Include the names and uniqnames of individuals authorized to administer the account.
3. Indicate any desired limits, if there are any limits that should be applied other than the default course account limits. 
4. Either when the course account is requested and created, or any time after that, a list of student uniqnames who should initially have access to the account.

Each person who requires access to the course account will also need access to the Great Lakes cluster. If they do not already have access then they can request a cluster login. 

• After account creation instructors can manage access through the Resource Management Portal (RMP).
• Allow 1-2 hours for any updates made in the RMP to take effect.

After 1-2 hours following any updates to account access made through the ARC project portal (RMP), all account permissions should be available. If there are any issues in granting access, or access that has been added and is currently displayed in the portal does not become available after 3-4 hours, then reach out here to contact ARC directly.

Following account creation, students who are confirmed in the Resource Management Portal (RMP) as having course account access can also reach out to ARC directly and report any access issues or errors.

Only regular curriculum courses are eligible for course accounts: for example, 900-level graduate thesis dissertation courses are not eligible regular curriculum courses.

Student access troubleshooting

Students should make sure they:

1. Completed the Cluster Login Request form. What is a cluster login?
2. Waited for the form to be reviewed and processed by an ARC team member, and received a confirmation message that a login was created.
3. Have reviewed the confirmation message and followed the guidance given on how to access and use their cluster login and computing account.
4. Can see in the ARC project portal (RMP) that the course account is listed as a computing account they can access.

Login request forms are exclusively for cluster login requests, and cannot be used to request services, request service access, or grant access to any ARC services or project resources. 

Additional Information

ARC resource access

If you need to access specific ARC resources such as a computing (Slurm) account for a project or class, or a storage volume:

• Contact the owner of that resource, or an ARC project administrator that has been designated by the owner, and ask them to grant you access.
• Project owners and their designated administrators can manage resource access directly in the ARC project portal (RMP).

All access to ARC resources is restricted. Only the project owner (most often the individual faculty member or researcher who originally requested the service from ARC, and therefore "owns" that resource) or any ARC project administrators that the project owner may have designated, is authorized to grant access to an ARC service resource. They can do this directly with the Resource Management Portal (RMP). A specific resource from an ARC (Advanced Research Computing) service is for example a storage volume or a computing (Slurm) account.

To create a new research computing resource or modify an existing resource

• Requests must come from the ARC project owner or one of their specifically designated administrators, and be made directly to ARC.

For any questions, support, or assistance with ARC services, please refer to ARC support documentation or reach out to ARC directly.

Create or check on support requests for ARC here https://arc.umich.edu/get-help/ or by directly emailing arc-support@umich.edu.

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.