This guide provides an overview of the service details for the Macleod HPC cluster designed for teaching purposes. If you have any questions regarding Macleod and its usage, please email us at [email protected]
Content:
- Service Description
- Features
- Users
- Service Hours
- Level of Service
- Support and Documentation
- Request Process
- User Responsibility
- Costs
Service Description
The Macleod HPC facilitates staff and student access to HPC services for teaching and learning purposes. The purpose of Macleod is to enable students to learn the tools and techniques to solve complex computationally intensive research problems.
- Lecturing staff can use resources to deliver related teaching
- Staff and student access for testing HPC functionality
- Student access for mini projects (e.g., 4th year and MSc projects)
Features
- CPU cores for general computing
- GPU resources for AI and deep learning problems
- User management for class use on request
- Class training on how to use HPC on request or via scheduled courses
Users
- Teaching Staff
- PGRs
- Students
Service Hours
- 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, with the following exceptions:
- Planned outages which will be notified in advance
- Unplanned outage may interrupt services, but services will be re-instated at the earliest convenience
Level of Service
- Availability: See service hours above
- Backups: User Home Directories are the only storage on Macleod that is backed up. Scared scratch space is NOT backed up. Users should retain a copy of their data on university-managed servers (e.g., on your home drive or OneDrive).
- Restrictions: Macleod is a teaching and learning resource, facilitating the delivery of in-class and remote teaching. It also is available for other related activities – see Service Description above. Users requiring more substantial computing power should request access to Maxwell here.
Support and Documentation
- See our HPC website for further information
- Find out more on the University's award-winning Toolkit.
- See our helpful short training videos on using HPC
- See more HPC documentation here.
To see all HPC documentation, you have to be logged in to Fresh Service
For additional support, please contact [email protected]
Request Process
- Staff: Request access here. Please complete all details requested as this helps us understand the use and to make the case for future resourcing. Staff must register classes each relevant semester so that we can check for timetable clashes/heavy load)
- Student accounts also need to be added to HPC. Once we have the Course number, we will access the class details in SRS and upload them to avoid a manual exercise. However, any changes to the initial upload (students joining or leaving the course) will need to be notified to [email protected], so they can be added or removed).
- Where it is not possible to access the student cohort’s details via SRS, staff will be asked to supply the names and usernames of students to [email protected] at least 10 working days in advance of the access date.
- Students: Can request access to Macleod out with class time to test HPC functionality and/or carry out mini research projects (e.g., 4th year or MSc projects). Access for these purposes can be requested here.
User Responsibility
Users must comply with all relevant University policies and guidance (see policy zone), including:
- Data Protection Policy
- Information Security Policy
- Conditions for using IT Services
- Research Data Management Policy and Guidance
Principal investigators of research projects and supervisors of students are responsible for ensuring compliance with the above.
Costs
There are no charges to access Macleod resources.
For further advice or support please contact [email protected]