NCSA HPC Account Management

Managing your Account

Passwords
Your shell
Managing your "dot" files
Forwarding your mail

Managing your Allocation

Adding/removing users
Charging Algorithms
Verifying Your Account Balance
Setting Projects for Charging
Refunds
Account Termination, Renewals, and Extensions

1. Managing your Account

1.1 Passwords

A default password is sent to you as part of the new user packet you receive via postal mail after your account is created. It is important that you keep the new user packet information that contains your default password in a secure place for your reference. You will have the same default password on all NCSA systems. If you already are a user on NCSA HPC systems, use your current password to log in to a new NCSA HPC system. Visit this secure web page to change your password from the default within two weeks.

NCSA requires you to change your password at least once a year. You will be notified via email that your password is going to expire at 30, 14, 7, 3, and 1 days before it expires. Once a password has expired, the only way to get it reset is to contact the NCSA Helpdesk (help@ncsa.illinois.edu). If you change your password more frequently than once a year, you should never be notified.

Never share your password with another user or make your password known to anyone else.

Changing your NCSA password

You can change your password via this secure web page.

NCSA offers a webpage with tips on selecting good passwords that you should consider when you change your password.

What if I have forgotten my NCSA password?

You may contact the NCSA Helpdesk and request that your password be reset to the default. If you do not have your default password form, you will need to contact NCSA Allocations to get a replacement.

1.2 Your shell

When your account is first activated your default shell is set to tcsh, an enhanced version of the Berkeley UNIX C shell (csh). The tcsh shell is completely compatible with the standard csh, and all csh commands and scripts work unedited with tcsh. Enter "man tcsh" at the prompt for details about tcsh.

The other shell available on NCSA HPC systems is the GNU Bourne-Again SHell (bash), which is completely compatible with the Bourne shell (sh).

To change your shell, send email to NCSA Helpdesk with a request.

1.3 Managing your "dot" files

When your account on an NCSA system is created, default "dot" files are placed in your home directory.

The SGI Altix UV system Ember uses the module system to set uo the user environment. See the section Managing Your Environment (Modules) for details.

For other "dot" files, you can find copies of the default files in /etc/skel. Copy the appropriate file to your home directory and customize as needed.

1.4 Forwarding your mail

No email services are supported on NCSA HPC systems. All mail is automatically routed to NCSA Email systems. You will be prompted to enter a forwarding e-mail address the first time you log in. Note that NCSA staff do not need to set up mail forwarding.

You will be asked to verify your forwarding email address every six months.

To change your forwarding email address:
Edit /var/forward/$USER/.forward -- it should contain one line which is the email address to which mail shall be forwarded.

2. Managing your Allocation

2.1 Adding/removing users

After your request for an allocation on an NCSA HPC system has been granted and your account has been activated, you may request to add users to your allocation if you are a Principal Investigator (PI) on an account. From time to time as the people working on your project change, you might need to remove a user from your allocation. Please contact NCSA Allocations Support for adding and removing users from your project.

2.2 Charging Algorithms

Once you have an allocation, you will be charged for the amount of service units (SUs) used. SUs for the NCSA HPC systems are calculated based on wall clock time of jobs.

The charging algorithm for the SGI Altix UV is as follows:

 # SUs =  ServiceLevel * Time

where

ServiceLevel = 1.0  for Normal Interactive
                        Normal Batch
                        Normal Dedicated Batch
             = 1.25 for Industrial Batch
                        Industrial Dedicated Batch

Timeshared jobs:
 Time = # cores allocated  * Total Wall Clock
            to the job           Hours

Dedicated jobs:
 Time = # cores on the host * Total Wall Clock
                                  Hours

For timeshared jobs, the scheduler allocates cpusets (cores and associated memory) to jobs so different jobs don't share resources. The Altix UV systems have 6 cores per socket, with two sockets per node board. The minimum number of cores allocated to a job is 6. Charging will be based on the resources required to accommodate the core and memory specifications of the job.

2.3 Verifying Your Account Balance

NCSA's usage command

NCSA local and Private Sector Partner (PSP) users should use usage to monitor usage of your allocation.

Entering usage with no options displays cumulative information about the usage of all your allocations on all applicable NCSA machines. For example:

% usage
Proj   Mach    Login    Usage  Status  P_alloc  P_usage  P_expire  Name
jed       abe  mowjinn 452.94  Active   100000   713.72  04/30/11  Jinn, Mace
jed     ember  mowjinn  26.15  Active    50000  2114.19  04/30/11  Jinn, Mace
jed   lincoln  mowjinn   2.60  Active    50000   213.13  04/30/11  Jinn, Mace
jdi ncsa_tape  mowjinn   0.00  Active        5     0.00  08/31/11  Jinn, Mace

If the project name is specified using the -p option, information is returned for all users of that project on all applicable machines. The data displayed by usage is normally updated once each day, so SUs accrued by jobs on a given day will be reflected in usage the next day.

For a more complete description of the usage options, enter man usage.

2.4 Setting Projects for Charging

If you have more than one project (PSN), you can charge to various projects within a logon session. Most users have only one project. You do not need to define a default project unless you have multiple projects.

Setting a Default Project

You can define (or change) a default project with the 'defacct' command. After a default project is set, you will no longer be prompted to choose one of your projects during the login process.
Enter 'defacct' at the prompt to set your default.

Enter 'none' at the prompt to unset a default project, and enter a carriage return to leave your default project unchanged.
See the defacct man page for more information.
The 'batch_accts' command lists all your accounts on the current system.
IMPORTANT: If you have a default project set, batch jobs will automatically be charged to the default project at the time that the job is submitted unless you charge the batch job to a specific project (see below).
Charging to Projects in a Batch Job

You can also charge batch jobs to a specific project (PSN) with the -A option in the PBS qsub command.

2.5 Refunds

NCSA considers a request for a refund for service units when one of the following is true:

output was lost because of a system crash or hardware failure
a bug in system software caused incorrect output
NCSA staff gave misleading advice, causing incorrect output

Refund requests are denied when one of the following is true:

fewer than 50 SUs were consumed (academic users)
the request was made more than two weeks after the charge
no charges were recorded for the job in question (e.g., the system crashed before a job finished so the CPU usage was not recorded in the accounting file)
output was lost because the job did not use the batch scratch file system

Submit the following information to NCSA Consulting Services to request a refund:

user ID
machine name
Batch Job ID
reason for the request
date the job finished

The list above shows the minimum information required. Additional information that may be requested includes error messages or a copy of your batch script. In such cases, you will be contacted by a member of the consulting staff who will let you know what additional information is needed to review your request.

2.6 Account Termination, Renewals, and Extensions

Account Termination

Academic accounts on NCSA Production machines are deleted when they either use up the allocation or reach the expiry date on the project, whichever comes first. See the section Verifying Your Account Balance for information on your allocation. The Principal Investigator of a project is notified automatically via email when

80% of allocation is used
90% of allocation is used
3 months to expiration of the project
1 month to expiration of the project

Note that industrial user accounts do not expire automatically.

Users have restricted access to their account for a one week period after the account is terminated. You cannot login, but have ftp access via a gridftp or kerberized ftp client to retrieve home directory files, etc. if you haven't already done so.

Users' MSS accounts are active for a period of 4 months in read-only mode after your last NCSA production machine account is deleted. This means that you can retrieve already existing files from MSS, but cannot save any new files. You can use an SSH based client, or a gridftp or a kerberized ftp client to access MSS. See the MSS page for details.

Project Renewals and Extensions

If you have an existing Startup or Research allocation, you can have the expiration dates extended. This is requesting that the expiration date be moved. It is not a request for more service units. To request an extension, please contact NCSA Allocations Support. Please make the request at least two weeks prior to the project deactivation date. Your request will be reviewed prior to deactivation, and you will be contacted via electronic mail with the extension decision.