Using a resource allocation: Difference between revisions

This page is a guide for Principal Investigators (PIs) who have applied to the Alliance's [https://alliancecan.ca/en/services/advanced-research-computing/accessing-resources/resource-allocation-competition Resource Allocation Competition (RAC)], peer-reviewed processed to grant priority access to storage and compute resources beyond what can be obtained via the [https://alliancecan.ca/en/services/advanced-research-computing/accessing-resources/rapid-access-service Rapid Access Service].  

Your award may have come from one of these processes:

* Resources for Research Groups (RRG)  

* Research Platforms and Portals (RPP)  

You will be notified of the results of your application before the start of the new RAC year. The RAC year typically begins the first week of April, so you should expect notification sometime in March. You and your sponsored users can begin to use the awarded resources at the beginning of the RAC year.  

Alliance resources are made available to PIs through Resource Allocation Projects (RAP). Each RAP has a project identifier (RAPI) and an associated group name.

In general, there are two main types of RAPs:

*Default RAP: A default RAP is automatically created when a PI role is activated. Default quotas and Rapid Access Service quotas for storage and cloud resources are managed via this default RAP. The Default RAP allows PIs and sponsored users to make opportunistic use of compute resources with the default (that is, the lowest) priority. The default RAPI typically takes the form <code>abc-123-aa</code> and has an associated group name that follows the convention <code>def-profname.</code>

*RAC RAP: This RAP is created when the PI receives an award through the Resource Allocation Competition. The RAC RAPI typically takes the form <code>abc-123-ab</code>, with an associated group name that follows the convention <code>rrg-profname</code> or <code>rpp-profname</code> for HPC resources, or <code>cpp-profname</code> or <code>crg-profname</code> for cloud resources.

A RAC award consists of one or more <b>allocations</b>.  Each allocation consists of a resource (such as <code>graham-cpu</code>, <code>graham-gpu</code>, <code>graham-storage</code>) and an amount, and has a designation like <code>abc-123-aa-001</code>.

You can find RAPIs and their corresponding group names and allocations by visiting the [https://ccdb.alliancecan.ca CCDB portal].   

Alliance accounts are <i>per person:</i> Account sharing is strictly forbidden. Each of your students, employees, or collaborators who will use the resources should therefore obtain their own account under your sponsorship. They should go to the [https://ccdb.alliancecan.ca CCDB] to register in their own name, using your CCRI to indicate your sponsorship when filling out the web form. You (the sponsor) will receive an e-mail with a link to click on to confirm the sponsorship of this individual. There is no limit on the number of sponsored accounts that a PI can have, but such sponsorship should only be in the context of a genuine and sustained research collaboration. More details on the process of obtaining an Alliance account are available [https://alliancecan.ca/en/services/advanced-research-computing/account-management/apply-account here].

For more information, please click on the tab below corresponding to where you have been granted resources.  <i>General-purpose clusters</i> are [[Béluga]], [[Cedar]], and [[Graham]].  More than one tab may apply if, for example, you have been granted an allocation on both [[Niagara]] and a general-purpose cluster.

By default, every role that you have sponsored through your Alliance CCDB registration has access to your RAC award. Any co-PIs that were listed on your RAC application will also have access.

1) Log in at https://ccdb.alliancecan.ca/  

2) From the <i>My Account</i> menu, select <i>Manage RAP Memberships.</i> This will take you to https://ccdb.alliancecan.ca/resource_allocation_projects/members.  In the Resource Allocation Project (RAP) drop-down list on this page, select the RAP to which you want to add members.

3) To add a new member, go to <i>Add Members</i> and enter the CCRI of the user you want to add. Once added, you will see the new member highlighted in yellow.

4) If you add a new PI as a member, you can add any of their sponsored users or co-PIs at the same time.  Go to <i>Add Members</i> and click on the <i>In bulk</i> link: this will take you to a new page where you can add all or several of the roles associated with that PI at once. If you do not see the name of the user that you are looking for in that list, then click on <i>Cancel</i> to go back to the RAP membership page and return to step 3.

When submitting jobs to the scheduler, users will need to specify a group name as the value of the <code>--account</code> option.  Jobs pertaining to the research described in the RAC application should be submitted with the group name corresponding to the RAC award, e.g., <code>--account=rrg-profname-ab</code>.  Jobs pertaining to other research should be submitted with the default group name, e.g., <code>--account=def-profname</code>.   

If you have substantial amounts of data to transfer to an Alliance cluster in order to use your storage allocation, we strongly recommend the use of [[Globus]].  

A <code>/project</code> storage allocation on a general-purpose cluster is created as a directory of the form <code>/project/<group-name></code>, e.g., <code>/project/rrg-profname-ab</code>, and an associated quota defining the amount of data that can be stored in the directory.  Files pertaining to the research described in the RAC application should be stored there by all sponsored users. More guidance on the use of <code>/project</code> space can be found at [[Project layout]] and [[Sharing data]].

By default, every role that you have sponsored through your Alliance CCDB registration has access to your RAC award. Any co-PIs that were listed on your RAC application will also have access.

1) Log in at https://ccdb.alliancecan.ca/  

2) From the <i>My Account</i> menu, select <i>Manage RAP Memberships</i>.  This will take you to https://ccdb.alliancecan.ca/resource_allocation_projects/members.  In the Resource Allocation Project (RAP) drop-down list on this page, select the RAP to which you want to add members.

3) To add a new member, go to <i>Add Members</i> and enter the CCRI of the user you want to add. Once added, you will see the new member highlighted in yellow.

4) If you add a new PI as a member, you can add any of their sponsored users or co-PIs at the same time.  Go to <i>Add Members</i> and click on the <i>In bulk</i> link: this will take you to a new page where you can add all or several of the roles associated with that PI at once. If you do not see the name of the user that you are looking for in that list, then click on <i>Cancel</i> to go back to the RAP membership page and return to step 3.

RAP membership is represented as a group in LDAP. It defines a group of users that are authorized to submit jobs against the RAPI (which is the ID of the RAP) and share files within the same Unix group.

If you have substantial amounts of data to transfer to the cluster in order to use your storage allocation, we strongly recommend the use of [[Globus]].  

Cloud resources allocated via the Resource Allocation Competition are awarded through a RAC RAP which follows a different naming convention than default projects. The group name of RAC RAPs with cloud allocations typically takes the form of <code>crg-profname</code> (for cloud resources allocated to a research group) or <code>cpp-profname</code> (for cloud resources allocated to a research platform or portal).

*RAC RAP: By default, only the PI is added as a member of a RAP associated with cloud resources allocated via the Resource Allocation Competition. If desired, you can add sponsored users and/or other active Alliance users as members to the RAP. Only members added to your RAP can use your cloud allocation.

1) Log in at https://ccdb.alliancecan.ca/  

2) From the <i>My Account</i> menu, select <i>Manage RAP Memberships</i>.  This will take you to https://ccdb.alliancecan.ca/resource_allocation_projects/members.  In the Resource Allocation Project (RAP) drop-down list on this page, select the RAP to which you want to add members.

3) Go to <i>Add Members</i>, and click on the <i>In bulk</i> link: this will take you to a new page that will allow you to easily add co-PIs and any of their associated sponsored user roles.

4) If the <i>In bulk</i> page in step 3 above does not show the name of the user that you want to add, then click on <i>Cancel</i> to go back to the RAP membership page.  Once there, go to the <i>Add Members</i> section, and enter the CCRI of the member in the <i>One by one using a CCRI</i> field.

5) Following step 4 will allow you to add an associated PI that was not included as co-PI in your RAC application. Once a new PI is added as a member to your RAP using this process, you will be able to add any of their associated sponsored user roles through the <i>In bulk</i> mechanism explained in step 3.

*Membership in your Cloud RAP allows full access to your OpenStack tenants. For more details, see or wiki page on  [[OpenStack#Projects|OpenStack projects]].