Project-Based Management of Resources of the RWTH HPC Cluster

The IT Center has been operating high-performance computers for several decades, which support scientists throughout Germany in their research. In addition, all members of RWTH Aachen University have free access to the high-performance computer so that it can also be used for teaching purposes. However, since HPC systems are cost-intensive and limited resources, the computing time that a single person can use is limited. Researchers who have higher computing time needs must justify them.

The process for requesting, reviewing, and allocating computing time is consistent with the recommendations of the Gauß-Allianz (de) for establishing nationally coordinated request and approval processes, as well as with current National High Performance Computing (NHR) regulations. The overall process for requesting computing time is outlined below.

Request and Approval Process

  1. Projectpreparation
  2. Application 
  3. Formality Check
  4. Technical Inspection 
  5. Scientific Evaluation 
  6. Evalutation, Specification and Control

The scope of the applications to be submitted and the scope for the evaluation, concerning, for example, the number and status of reviewers involved, depend on the volume of the computing time requested.

More details about the different project types can be found on IT Center Help.

The allocation process for computing time for each computing project is supported by the JARDS software. The integrated award process facilitates making the most appropriate platform available to users. Here, the larger projects are awarded through NHR4CES at the national level (Tier-2). Here, the entire review process is gone through, where the joint NHR4CES Resource Allocation Board (RAB) manages the review process and makes the final award decision based on the recommendations of the scientific reviewers. The RAB represents the beneficiaries, as it is composed of scientists* from the disciplines mainly represented on the systems. After a successful review, applicants receive an HPC account of the RWTH via a coupon procedure and can thus independently invite further external persons to work on the project on the system.

The smaller projects, on the other hand, serve the local and/or nationwide basic supply (Tier-3). In addition, small computing contingents for courses and theses are also allocated on a project basis under the leadership of the lecturers or supervisors, so that resources can also be reliably provided on the Tier-3 system for this work.