Cloud RAS Allocations

Parent page: Cloud

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). Primary Investigators (PIs) with a current RAC allocation are still able to request resources via RAS.

Using cloud resources such as storage, compute and network, researchers can create cloud instances (also known as Virtual machines or VMs). 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 Cloud1	Persistent Cloud1
Who can request	PIs only	PIs only
VCPUs (see VM flavours)	80	10
Instances	20	5
Volumes	2	5
Volume snapshots	2	5
RAM (GB)	300	45
Floating IP	2	2
Persistent storage (GB)	10000
Default duration	1 year2, with 1 month wall-time	1 year (renewable)2
Default renewal	April3	April3

To request RAS, please fill out this form online.

Note:

1. Users may request both a compute and persistent allocation to share a single project, but storage is shared so is limited to 10TB/PI.
2. 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 effect in April.
3. This is to align with the RAC allocation period of April-March.

Rapid Access Service

Resource Allocation Competition