USC Center for High Performance Computing and Communications

:: Systems & Resources
 > Linux Computing Resource
 > HPCC Policies

:: Getting Access
 > Account Applications
 > Account Resource Limits

:: Learning to Use
 > Linux Computing Resource
    - HPCC Linux Queues
    - Standard Environment
    - Setting Up the Compiler
    - Temporary Disk Space
    - USCLinux
    - Portable Batch System
    - MPI Tutorials
    - MPI Compilers
    - MPI Execution
    - Gaussian03
    - Useful Commands
    - Compiler Help Pages
    - 64 Bit Nodes
    - Standard Environment
    - Setting Up the Compiler
    - Temporary Disk Space
    - Portable Batch System
    - MPI Tutorials
    - MPI Execution
    - Applications on Almaak-01

HPCC Policies

The users of HPCC computing resources must abide by all USC computing policies set forth by the Information Technology Services (see http://www.usc.edu/its/policies). As stated in "Policies Governing Use of Computing Resources," Section 4.2: "No one is permitted to share his or her university computer account with any other person, in any way. Users must not give their passwords to a friend, allow remote or password-free logins to their accounts, or permit another individual to use their account after personally logging in." Users of the same HPCC account must also abide by these regulations including not sharing passwords.

Accounting Policy

The various accounting policies set forth by the Faculty Advisory Committee can be found in the sections Account Applications and Account Resource Limits.

Restrictions on the Number of Processes on the Head Nodes

All users are restricted to one active process on almaak.usc.edu, hpc-login1.usc.edu and hpc-login2.usc.edu. There is a 30-minute CPU time limit for any process on the head nodes. All processes that use more than 30 minutes of CPU time will be terminated automatically.

Linux Resource Limit Policy

Users may submit a job that requests up to 24 hours and 256 nodes maximum to the standard default queue. If a user really needs more computing resources, the user needs to contact hpcc@usc.edu and justify the request. If the user requests more resources than the maximum, the user will get the error message "rejected by all possible destinations". This policy is set forth by the faculty advisor committee.

The Linux cluster nodes can be accessed by default through the following queues:

  • Main Queue: The main queue is the default queue to which all jobs are submitted. Jobs are routed to either the quick or long queue depending on the requested NWCH and the requested number of nodes.
  • Quick Queue: The quick queue has a block of eight nodes interconnected by Myrinet. All jobs in the main queue with requested wall clock time of less than an hour and a node count of less than eight are transferred automatically to the quick queue. The quick queue has unrestricted access.
  • Large Queue: All jobs that require more than 100 nodes are transferred automatically to the large queue. The large queue has unrestricted access.

There is currently no limit on the number of jobs that can be executed or submitted to the PBS queue for the Linux cluster. This policy may be revised in accordance with user demands in the future.

Computing Resource Usage Policy

It should be noted that the Linux cluster and the Sun servers are shared computing resources. Therefore, no user is allowed to run a long wait or sleep loop job. This wastes valuable computing time that could be used by other researchers. Any job found to be violating the above rule will be terminated without advance notice.

Disk Usage Policy

All users should use temporary disk rather than their home or project space for the execution of their programs. This increases performance dependant upon the data set size. Please refer to the Temporary Disk Usage Policy below.

Any job that causes heavy load on our NFS server will be terminated without advance notice.

Temporary Disk Usage Policy

The temporary disk space policies for the Linux cluster may be found at http://www.usc.edu/hpcc/systems/use-l-2.php. The Sun machine's temporary disk usage policy may be found at http://www.usc.edu/hpcc/systems/use-s-3.php.

E-mail Policy

All HPCC users should be subscribed to hpcc-announce-l for important system announcements. The email account used is provided by the account PI. It is the responsibility of the PI to ensure it's validity. Users are also encouraged to subscribe to hpcc-discuss-l a forum for users to ask questions and share their knowledge.

If you have problems, maintenance requests, questions or concerns, you should send e-mail to hpcc@usc.edu and not to individual staff. HPCC staff are not responsible for slow responses to e-mails addressed to individual staff.

Policy Violations

If HPCC management determines that its policies, or any other USC computing policies, have been violated, the violator's accounts will be deactivated immediately. The suspended user's account will not be activated again until HPCC management receives a formal request from the primary investigator of the project.
  ITS Policies       Contact HPCC