Accounts and Allocations
Account Eligibility
Two objects are required to access LONI systems: a user account and an allocation. The user account controls access to the systems and identifies individual users. An allocation determines how many core-hours may be expended on a project. Allocations are awarded to principle investigators (PIs) in a proposal request process. A user account may be requested by a member of any LONI affiliated institution, or by a collaborator of a LONI PI, including graduate or undergraduate students. Accounts and usage of the resources is offered at no financial charge. All policies of the LONI Allocations Committee are available for review on-line.
LONI provides system services to the NSF TeraGrid. Parties interested in accessing Teragrid resources should review the Teragrid Accounts and Allocations section later in this document. LONI users should note that access to these resources requires a separate Teragrid account.
Accounts
Eligible individuals may apply for an account using the Account Request form. The initial request form contains a field for an email address and a "captcha" field that should be filled in with contents of a randomly-generated image present on that same page. Please note that applicants must enter the email address associated with their sponsoring institution or organization into the account request form in order to facilitate confirmation of their identity. For example, a user from the University of New Orleans should enter their UNO email address. Other email accounts, such as Gmail, Hotmail, etc. will not be accepted.
The submitted form will be processed by system administrators. Once identity if confirmed, the user will be sent a link via the input email address that will direct the applicant to another form where they will enter in their personal details such as name, title, etc.
Notes on the LONI Contact/Collaborator field: students, postdoctoral researchers or research associates from a LONI Member/Associate Institution should enter the name of their advisor in the "Contact/Collaborator" field. Applicants originating from a non-LONI institution must supply the name of a research collaborator from a LONI affiliated institution in order to be eligible for an account
Account Management
Users can manage various attributes of their account, such as name, department or login shell, using the profile editor available on the LONI allocations management site.
Attribution Requirement
Researchers are asked to acknowledge their use of LONI resources in any publications or reports that result from their research. The following statement should be included in any such work:
Portions of this research were conducted with high performance computational resources provided by the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (http://www.loni.org/).
Allocations
All LONI users must be associated with a resource allocation in order to use the LONI HPC systems. An "allocation" is defined as an approved allotment of SUs to be used for a specific project. SU's are units of core-hours computed simply by multiplying the number of cores used by the number of hours they are run. So 8 SUs may be: 1) 1 core running for 8 hours, or 2) 4 cores running for 2 hours, or 3) any other product of cores times run time that amounts to 8.
Allocation Types
LONI offers two classes of allocations that are differentiated by
the amount of requested SUs. Each allocation type is governed by
separate policies and requirements, as shown in the following table:
| Startup Allocation | Large Allocation (LRAC) | |
|---|---|---|
| SUs Requested | Up to 50,000 SUs | Over 50,000 – 4,000,000 SUs |
| Submission Window | Year-round | November 1 – December 1 February 1 – March 1 May 1 – June 1 August 1 – September 1 |
| Deadlines | N/A | December 1 March 1 June 1 September 1 |
| Allocations Begin | Two weeks after submission | January 1 April 1 July 1 October 1 |
| Review Cycle | Within one week | Quarterly |
| Typical Use | Testing, course work. | Experienced users with research projects |
Large Allocations
Large allocation requests are reviewed quarterly by the LONI Large Resource Allocation Committee (LRAC), chaired by Dr. Bradd Clark of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL). The proposal submission windows and deadlines for each quarter are show in the table above.
Proposal Requirements
A formal proposal, of no more than 5 pages, is required. The following format, describing 5 sections, should be followed:
- 1. Problem Statement - section limited to 1 page, or less, describing the desired outcomes of the project.
- 2. Background - section limited to 1 page or less, describing how the resources will be used to address the problem (i.e. student access for course work, specific models, etc.).
- 3. Methodology - section limited to 1 page, or less, describing the computational methodology that will be used. This should include the applications required.
- 4. Research Plan - section limited to 1 page, or less, describing the research schedule, including the anticipated expenditure of granted resources. Allocations are assumed to be uniformly consumed over their lifetime. If this will not be the case, an estimate of expenditure by calendar quarter is required.
- 5, Requirements Analysis - section limited to 2 pages, or less, detailing the basis for the requested computer time. Requests for large allocations must exhibit an understanding of application efficiency, scaling, and provide accurate estimations of the SU requirements.
Summary Report
A short summary report on each allocation should be submitted to
the Allocations Committee at the end of the allocation
period. Renewal requests for a project will not be approved until
this report has been received. A summary report template is
available here
Startup Allocations
Startup allocation requests originating from a LONI institution that houses one of the LONI compute clusters will be reviewed by designated representative from that campus. All other requests will be reviewed by the Executive Director of LONI. In contrast to the large allocation review process, startup allocations can be submitted and reviewed at any time, although each user is limited to no more than 2 active startup allocations at any time.
Requesting an Allocation
Allocation requests are submitted using a form on the LONI Allocations Site.
Allocation Management
Users can review and manage their existing allocations at the LONI Allocations Site.
TeraGrid Accounts and Allocations
As a TeraGrid Resource Provider, allocations on the LONI cluster Queen Bee may be requested by Teragrid users via the TeraGrid proposal form. Details about the types and sizes of awards can be found at Teragrid Allocations and Accounts or by calling TeraGrid (Toll-free at 1.866.907.2383). Individuals interested in obtaining a Teragrid account should visit the Teragrid Getting Started guide.