Request Access
HPC projects are available to all NC State faculty members on request at no charge. New to HPC? See the Quick Start overview of the Hazel Cluster.
NC State
Faculty — research projects
NC State faculty members can request an HPC project using the Research Services web application (opens in new window) and clicking Create Project. Faculty can request a single HPC research project.
- Add additional Unity IDs to an existing project using the Research Services web application (opens in new window). See instructions for adding a user.
- Adding a user to your HPC project group is different from adding a user as a member of your Linux group (which grants file access but keeps the user in their current project).
Faculty — instructional use
Instructors may request an additional HPC project for teaching a class. See Hazel for Instructional Use for details on access, storage, software, and training.
Non-faculty
- Graduate students, postdocs, and other collaborators must be added to a project by the faculty PI.
- IT staff may request to be added to the HPC Support Project.
- Directors of Core Facilities or other university group leaders may contact HPC to request a project.
East Carolina University
ECU researchers should review the information and request access from the High Performance Computing Program page.
UNC Greensboro
UNC Greensboro faculty, staff, and students may request an account on Hazel at no charge. Visit 6-TECH Online (opens in new window) to open a request with the following information:
First name: Last name: Department: UNCG username (as on your UNCG email): UNCG email address: Phone number:
Students requesting an account should submit written proof of faculty sponsorship (an email is fine). The student's advisor must already have an account and be a PI on Hazel.
UNC Wilmington
UNCW researchers may request access from the Academic Research Computing page.
Before using the HPC
All users must learn the basics of Linux and the cluster. After getting access but before running jobs, we strongly recommend:
Acceptable Use Policy
Reading and accepting the HPC AUP is a requirement for gaining access to Hazel. This video on the HPC Acceptable Use Policy (opens in new window) explains the technical details of the AUP including the difference between login nodes and compute nodes, and actions that would result in a violation.
HPC Acceptable Use Policy
OIT's HPC services are provided to support the core university mission of instruction, research, and engagement. All use of HPC services must be under or in support of a project directed by a faculty member. The faculty member directing each project is ultimately responsible for ensuring that HPC services are used appropriately by all accounts associated with their project. Students wanting to use HPC resources for academic purposes who are not working with a faculty member or enrolled in a course may request access through an arrangement with the NC State Libraries.
OIT's HPC services are provided on shared resources. To ensure equitable access for all HPC projects, certain restrictions on acceptable use are necessary. All use of HPC services must adhere to the following guidelines. Accounts repeatedly violating these guidelines will have their HPC access disabled.
- Access to the HPC Linux cluster (Hazel) is to be via Secure Shell protocol (SSH)
to respective login nodes or other interfaces that may be intended for
direct access (e.g. Web Portals) and all access to compute nodes must be via
the job scheduler. Direct access to compute nodes is not permitted.
- A maximum number of concurrent login sessions will be enforced on login nodes.
- SSH sessions that have been idle for an amount of time will be automatically disconnected.
- These limits will be adjusted as necessary to manage login node resources and to comply with applicable security standards.
- The purpose of a login node is to provide access to the cluster via SSH and to prepare for running a program (e.g., editing files, compiling, and submitting batch jobs). Processes that use a non-trivial amount of compute or memory resources must not be run on any of the shared login nodes. These processes may be run via the job scheduler either as a batch job or as an interactive session on a compute node. The HPC-VCL nodes should be used only to run GUI applications. Processes running on login nodes that have used significant CPU time or that are using significant memory resources will be terminated without notice.
- Scratch file systems (/share*, /gpfs_share) are intended to be used as data storage for running jobs or files under active analysis. Use of techniques for purpose of protecting files from the automated purge of scratch file systems is not permitted. Files on these file systems may be deleted at any time and are not backed up - the only copy of important files should not be kept on these file systems.
- To the extent feasible, jobs run on HPC resources are expected to make efficient use of the resources.
- Resources requested for jobs should be as accurate as possible even if such requests result in longer queue waiting times (e.g. if jobs require majority of per node memory they should use exclusive option even though this will likely increase the time the job will wait in queue).
- Compute nodes which have lost contact with the job scheduler for more than a few hours or which are unreachable from the console will be rebooted without notice.