Cloud RAS Allocations

Cloud RAS Allocations

Summary

Any Compute Canada user can access modest quantities of compute, storage and cloud resources as soon as they have a Compute Canada account. Rapid Access Service (RAS) allows users to experiment and to start working right away. Many research groups can meet their needs through using the Rapid Access Service only. Users requiring larger resource quantities can apply to one of our annual Resource Allocation Competitions (RAC). Using cloud resources such as storage, compute and network, researchers can create cloud instances (also known as Virtual machines or VWs). There are two options available for Compute Canada cloud resources:

• Compute cloud: These are instances that have a limited life-time (wall-time) and typically have constant high-CPU requirements. They are sometimes referred to as ‘batch’ instances. Users may need a large number of compute instances for production activities. Maximum wall-time for compute instances is one month. Upon reaching their life-time limit these instances will be scheduled for deactivation and their owners will be notified in order to ensure they clean up their instances and download any required data. Any grace period is subject to resources availability at that time.
• Persistent cloud: These are instances that are meant to run indefinitely and would include web servers, database servers, etc. In general, these instances provide a persistent service and use less CPU power than compute instances.

Cloud RAS resources limits

Attributes	Compute Cloud	Persistent Cloud
Who can request	PIs only	PIs only
VCPUs (see VM flavours)	79	9
Instances	20	5
Volumes	2	5
Volume snapshots	2	5
RAM (MB)	307,200	45,000
Floating IP	2	2
Persistent storage (GB)	999	999
Default duration	1 year1, with 1 month wall-time	1 year (renewable)1
Default renewal	April2	April2

1. PI’s may request a 1-year renewal of their persistent cloud for an unlimited number of times; however, allocations will be given based on available resources and are not guaranteed. Requests made after January 1 will expire March of the following year and therefore may be longer than 1 year. Allocation requests made between May-December will be less than 1 year. Renewals will take affect in April.
2. This is to align with the RAC allocation period of April-March.

How to request RAS cloud resources

In order to use cloud RAS resources, two steps must be completed:

1. Principal investigator (PI) request cloud resources and cloud project is created along with PI's cloud account;
2. Users sponsored by PI and required access to the cloud project apply for cloud accounts

PIs can request cloud resources within the limits available for RAS and sponsored users can request cloud accounts by completing this on-line form. PIs must provide, among other things, the following information with their request:

• Why you need cloud resources
• Why the various Compute Canada HPC clusters are not suitable
• Brief description of exactly what resources will be required within the RAS limits
• What your plan is for efficiently using these resources.
• Describe your plans for maintenance and security upkeep (refer to this page).

All requests will be received and processed by Compute Canada Cloud admin staff within 48 hours. When PI's RAS request is processed a default cloud project is created. PI can have maximum of 3 projects:

• <PI_RAP_name>-dev (Default cloud project. For example: def-jsmith-dev)
• <PI_RAP_name>-prod (For example: def-jsmith-prod)
• <PI_RAP_name>-<suffix> (For example: def-jsmith-test)

All 3 of these cloud projects share the same pool of resources, allocated trough RAS request. To request creation of non-default cloud projects (-dev, -<suffix>), PI needs to submit a support ticket to Compute Canada OTRS (email support@computecanada.ca).

All sponsored users' requests for cloud accounts needs to be confirmed by their PI. After such request is received, Compute Canada Cloud admin staff will contact PI via email to confirm sponsored users request for clod account and to assign wht cloud projects, owned by PI, that user can have access to.

If you have questions or need help, please contact support@computecanada.ca.

Rapid Access Service

Resource Allocation Competition