LCRC Project and Allocations
All computing carried out on Jazz is associated with a "project". Whenever
a computing job runs on any computing node, the time that that job uses
will be counted and recorded as computing use by the associated project. A
job must have a project in order to run on the computing nodes.
This web page describes projects in detail, including policies, concepts,
background, and so on. There are other web pages related to projects
and allocations:
An Example
As an example for how projects work, consider a project named popcorn,
which might have a project title of "Simulation of Popcorn Kernel
Dynamics".
The project would have an allocation, perhaps of 20,000 initial
hours for the year, and might have a PI and 3 other scientists on it.
If one of the scientists runs a job as part of the Popcorn project for 10
hours across 100 nodes, then that would use 1000 hours of the total
allocation, leaving 19,000 hours.
Once the 19,000 hours was gone, the project would be unable to use the
system for the rest of the year. At the point, the project might determine
that it needs more time on the system, which it could request from the LCRC
Allocation Board.
Project PIs and Accounts
Each project has exactly one Primary Investigator, or PI. The PI is
generally the person who requested that the project be created on Jazz.
Except for "startup projects", as described below, PIs must be
current Argonne employees.
A project can have one or more accounts associated with it. Some projects
may only have one account (the PI), while others may have dozens.
An account can be associated with more than one project, and can also be
the PI on more than one project.
The PI is responsible for adding and removing accounts from projects.
The PI is responsible for administering the allocation associated with the
project, i.e. describing who on the project can use how much of the
allocation. There are a set of tools available for this type of management
available on the Managing
existing projects page.
A project can have a co-PI, who also has the ability to manage the
project like the PI. Co-PIs do not need to be current Argonne employees.
Startup Projects and Allocations
In order to help promote the use of the system and to foster new projects,
all accounts are given a "startup project". The startup project can be
used by someone getting familiar with the system, planning a new project,
as "breeding ground" for new project ideas, or whatever the user wishes.
The startup project has a 1000 hour allocation. The startup projects will
not be allocated more time beyond the initial 1000 hours. The 1000 hours
will never expire, i.e. it does not have to be used in the first year.
Startup projects should be used only by the account originally associated
with that project.
It is expected that anyone wishing to use the system for more than 1000 hours
will either request their own project or join someone else's project.
The Project Life Cycle, from the PI perspective
Projects will go through basically this life cycle:
- The PI requests a project using these web pages:
https://accounts.lcrc.anl.gov/new-project.php
- The project request is sent to the Jazz allocation administrator and to
the LCRC Allocations Board.
- The LCRC Allocation Board decision is reported via email to the project
requester.
- If the project has been approved, the mail will include the number of
hours allocated to the project. This number may be different from what
was requested. This number may also be some initial allocation that
will subsequently be augmented based on decisions by the LCRC
Allocations Board.
- As a part of creating the project, someone on the LCRC Allocation Board
will be affiliated with the project. That person will be the project's
contact on the board. They are expected to become moderately familiar
with the project, to act as the project's advocate if necessary, and to
be able to explain the project and the project's status to the board.
- Once the project has been created, PIs can add other users to the
project, appoint co-PIs, and administer the project's allocation.
- PIs will be asked approximately quarterly to report any results they
might have from using Jazz to the LCRC Allocations Board. These
quarterly requests are only requests. Information from these requests
will be used to help guide the allocation of the system.
- Every October (in conjunction with the fiscal year of the Laboratory),
all projects will have their allocations zeroed out and be restarted
with new allocations. This will be done in order to annually adjust
and balance the use of the system.
- In advance of the annual reallocation, PIs will be reminded to send
in a request for the next year's allocation for their project.
- Also, PIs will be required to provide a report on their project at that
time. If reports had been sent in for previous quarters, those will be
sufficient, if they're current. Te basic goal here is to get at least
one annual report for each project. This report will be used to help
describe the overall use of Jazz and will also be used when deciding on
annual allocations for all projects. The format of the report has yet
be determined, but will be roughly 2-3 pages long, with pictures highly
encouraged.
Allocation Usage and Tracking
Actual usage of allocations:
- If a system error occurs that causes a program to crash while it is
running, a project won't be charged for that time. (This policy may
be amended in the future in order to promote the use of user-based
checkpointing.) The scheduler
may or may not deduct the time used from the
project's allocation, depending on how the crash took place. If someone
thinks their project should be credited time because of a system crash
or other system problem, they should just send email to
support@lcrc.anl.gov to get that time back into the project.
- If a project runs out of allocation time during a run, that run will be
allowed to continue to completion.
- If a project runs out of allocation time, all users on the project will
be notified. At the present time, no steps will be taken to stop any
jobs associated with that project from running. Usage of the system
will be tracked, and the project's allocation will have a negative
balance.
- That negative balance will be taken into account by the LCRC Allocations
Board when considering overall allocations on the system.
- These policies are intended to keep things flexible in order to support
the best overall scientific use of the system. However, if they are
exploited unfairly, then we will put in restrictions. For example, we
may consider requiring a job to have a positive project allocation balance
in order to be launched.
Last Updated: 5/19/2003
