Policies Overview

The Center for Computational Sciences (CCS) together with UK ITS Research Computing (ITSRC) operates a wide range of computational resources that faculty have access to. Many resources are available for open access to all users, while other resources operate under a Condo Model. Resources are available for both research and instruction, requiring advanced computational capabilities.

Getting Started

When a faculty member, staff member, or student wants to use CCS/ITSRC's computational infrastructure, they begin by requesting a User Account.

Accounts

There are two types of User Accounts:

• PI accounts (Principle Investigator Accounts): A PI User account is created for anyone who could be the PI for a research project (as defined by OSPA), or is an instructor of an (approved) computationally-related classes at UK.

• General User accounts: All other users receive a General User account.

Generally speaking, UK Faculty are given PI User accounts, while staff and students receive General User accounts. In some cases, students or staff may qualify for a PI User account.

Projects

PI Users can create Projects. A Project represents either a research project -- of the level and scope recognized by OSPA -- or an educational class involving computation. Having created a Project, a PI can associate Resource Allocations with the Project. A Resource Allocation defines some amount of computational time on a resource (e.g., a CPU core, GPU card, etc) or some amount of storage space on a resource (e.g., parallel file system, object storage system, etc.). The final step is for a PI to associate other Users (e.g., other faculty, staff, and students involved in the research, or students taking the class) with the Project. Having created a Project and associated resources with the Project, the PI (and any associated Users) can begin using the resources to carry out computations.

It should also be noted that having a User Account (PI User or General User) does not itself enable use of the infrastructure. In order to carry out computations, the account must be associated with a Project that has been assigned some number of Resource Allocations (by the PI).