HPCf Usage Policies

All users must abide by the University-wide policy for acceptable use of information technology, Certification number 35, 2007-2008, and the appropriate standards. Failure to abide by the University policy can result in termination of the account, dismissal, or legal action. In addition, you must also comply with the following policies.

Account Policy

Users must have a current HPCf account request form on file. Each user is required by UPR policy to have a separate, individual account. Research groups may request shared access to files, but this shall be carried out through appropriate group permissions on the files, and not through shared access to a single account.

Jobs Policy

Long running jobs must be run through the job queue. Per University policy, users may not monopolize any resource. If you need dedicated access to hardware for a particular experiment, contact the HPCf staff beforehand to arrange exclusive access. Jobs found to monopolize hardware or network resources, or out of queue, may be killed by staff without warning. Repeated violations may result in the termination of the account.

Storage Policy

The HPCf cluster, Boqueron, is not meant to provide reliable long-term storage.  We do our best to keep users’ data safe, but by making use of the HPCf cluster (and HPCf systems in general), users agree that they are the ones ultimately responsible for keeping their own data safe, including keeping their own backups outside of HPCf systems.  Also, the /work directory in Boqueron is specifically built for performance and not for reliability.  As such, data in users’ /work directory is not and will not be backed up.  Users should not keep anything that they are not willing to lose inside their /work directory.

Software Licenses Policy

All programs run on HPCf resources must have valid licenses. You must make a copy of the appropriate license available to HPCf staff before installing any software on our servers or supercomputers. HPCf staff need this information to comply with University guidelines.

Password Policy

User passwords must be at least 8 characters in length. Passwords will expire every 180 days. Do not share your password with anyone, including HPCf staff. We don’t need your passwords for anything, and it is a violation of University policy to share your account information with anyone.

Acknowledgment Policy

The HPCf operates almost exclusively on external funding. We respectfully request that you thank our support in your research. Please send us copies of any publications each year, and mention that your work was supported in part by our sponsors. Contact HPCf staff if you have any questions. At this time, the HPCf is supported principally by three grants: INBRE grant P20GM103475 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, the Institute for Functional Nanomaterials (IFN) award from the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Track 1 program of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and an EPSCoR Track 2 awards for computational nanoscience (EPS 1002410, EPS 1010094).

HPCf Newsletter Policy

By requesting an account at the HPCf, you agree to be signed up to the HPCf Newsletter, which is hosted by MailChimp.  This newsletter is used to inform users of important news at the HPCf, and will never be used for commercial advertisement or spam of any kind.  You may unsubscribe at any time.