Eligibility

• The listed Lead CI for each project must be a University of Sydney staff member actively engaged in research

• Students are not eligible to be Lead CIs, though they may be listed as users under eligible projects

• Projects must be used solely for research projects, as described in the original project application. Use of resources for non-research activities is not permitted

Acknowledgement requirement

All research outputs utilising resources provided by the Sydney HPC Allocation Scheme must acknowledge the support of the Sydney Informatics Hub. Please use the following statement:

This research was conducted using resources of the [PLATFORM^*], an NCRIS-enabled capability supported by the Australian Government. Access to these resources was provided by the Sydney Informatics Hub, a Core Research Facility of The University of Sydney, as supported by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).

Replace [PLATFORM] with an appropriate description of which platform, for example:

• National Computing Infrastructure HPC ‘Gadi’

• National Computing Infrastructure Cloud service ‘Nirin’

• Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre HPC 'Setonix’

Allocations

NCI

• Each Lead CI may request up to 300,000 service units (SU) per quarter across all their projects

• While we expect most Lead CIs will have only one project, researchers can have multiple projects as required

• New projects will be provisioned with a starter allocation of 2,000 SU for testing and onboarding. A formal request for additional SUs can be submitted via the allocation portal

• Please complete the SIH request form for changes to your gdata allocation - justification for increases will be required.

Pawsey

• Each Lead CI may request up to 300,000 service units (SU) per quarter across all their projects

• While we expect most Lead CIs will have only one project, researchers can have multiple projects as required

• Please complete the SIH request form for changes to your Pawsey allocation - justification for increases above 300 KSU will be required

Resource management

• Lead CIs are responsible for monitoring usage and managing team access to their project

• Any project member may request top-ups via the allocation portal

• Top ups can be requested at any time, subject to SU availability and approval

Reclaims

• Allocated service units on both Setonix and Gadi HPCs cannot be rolled over to a later quarter

NCI:

• In order to promote equitable access and avoid idle allocations, unused service units will be reclaimed periodically for redistribution to active projects

• Project allocations that have been adjusted or created in the 10 days prior to the reclaim will be exempt from reclaim

• Before the final month of each quarter a reclaim process will occur. During this process:

  • Projects that have used 0% of their allocation will have 100% of their remaining service units reclaimed

  • Projects that have used less than 10% of their allocations will have 75% of their remaining service units reclaimed

  • Lead CIs can request allocations are returned as needed

• In the last month of the quarter, a reclaim process will occur. This will be a more stringent reclaim, to minimise watsed service units for the quarter that could be used for another project

• Additional reclaims may be performed at the discretion of the Sydney HPC Allocation Scheme managers depending on usage trends and overall demand

Policy changes

Sydney HPC Allocation Scheme is designed to be responsive to the University’s research community needs. As such, we reserve the right to modify these conditions and allocation policies in response to usage patterns, emerging needs, and system constraints

Allocations

• Default: 10 GiB will be allocated upon project creation

• Limit of 1 Tb per project, allocation permitting. Short-term, compelling arguments for larger amounts are negotiable with Scheme managers

Eligibility

• Submit a request for changes to your g/data allocation via https://sih.tools/request

• Lead CIs must make the request on behalf of the project

• Provide a compelling justification for use of g/data over scratch storage

Audits

• Will be performed every 6 months by Sydney HPC Scheme managers

• Assessment: actual usage vs allocated quota; alignment with approved justification

• Reclaims for projects with:

  • Usage is 50% below allocated quota

  • Project is inactive (no SU allocation or consumption in past 2 quarters)

  • 6-month period expired without renewal

  • Project cannot justify continued use

Reclaim process

• Lead CI notified

• Reasonable remediation or data migration period provided where practicable

• Non-compliant projects will have service unit allocation withheld

Data management

• Actively curate and manage data

• Remove obsolete/duplicate files; use g/data for active workflows only, not archival storage

Renewal approval subject to

• Allocation availability. As an institution, we are constrained to 5.5 Tb of g/data per MSU we have purchased from NCI

• A compelling justification of the need for g/data over scratch. E.g.:

  • Shared software installations

  • Regularly used reference datasets and databases

  • Globus endpoint set up

• Clear usage timelines aligned with project requirements

Data management expectations

• g/data should not be used as a longterm storage solution in place of RDS

• Be courteous to your colleagues, only request what you need

• Ensure g/data allocations are actively used, if not, get in touch with Sydney HPC Scheme managers about returning your allocation

Long-term retention

The University provides the Research Data Store as a secure, long term data storage solution at no cost to researchers