Birds of a Feather

ACCESS Resource Provider Forum

Authors: Eva Siegmann (Stony Brook University), Jeremy Fischer (Indiana University), David Hancock (Indiana University), Jaime Combariza (Johns Hopkins University), Brett Bode (National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)), Christopher Simmons (Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC), Open Storage Network), Sergiu Sanielevici (Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC)), Carol Song (Purdue University), Robert Sinkovits (San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)), Dan Stanzione (Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)), Honggao Liu (Texas A&M University), John Huffman (University of Delaware), Anita Schwartz (University of Delaware), Vikram Gazula (University of Kentucky)

Abstract: The ACCESS Resource providers (RP) will give an overview of the available resources and their unique characteristics. Those resources are open to a broad audience of computational researchers. Individuals can apply for allocations by submitting a request to ACCESS. Once this request is approved they can exchange their awarded service units for resources at one or several of the providers (e.g. node hours, GPU hours, storage).

The presentations will highlight the variety of resources and will be followed by a discussion with the community, allowing the audience to directly interact with the RPs.

Visit https://app.meet.ps/attendee/fcqctplo to submit questions beforehand

Long Description: ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support) [1] utilizes a network of computational resources around the US to pair researchers with the appropriate resources faster and more efficiently. Computational researchers can submit allocation requests to ACCESS and exchange their service units for resources (e.g. node hours, GPU hours, storage) at different sites when awarded. These sites are the ACCESS Resource Providers (RPs). The different tracks of the ACCESS project, as well as the RPs, are funded by NSF. The RPs are autonomous entities that agree to coordinate with ACCESS and each other to varying degrees. The ACCESS Resource Provider Forum may also include other non-service provider organizations. The resource providers offer a wide range of cyberinfrastructure assets available for use. Some of the many resources in the ACCESS portfolio include: - Compute resources – High-performance computing clusters (GPU and CPU based) accessed by logging in to front-end nodes. Researchers can install their application software and run batch computing jobs under a scheduler on these resources. - Storage resources – Data storage systems for storing and managing large amounts of data. - Cloud resources – Cloud infrastructure where researchers can launch and run virtual machines. - Scientific support to ensure efficient utilization of resources. In this BOF session, the various RPs will give a brief overview of their unique resources. They will highlight the characteristics of the systems and services (e.g. traditional HPC, testbed, specialized for data-intensive applications, ML resource, support). Also, other aspects like utilization will be covered, allowing users to better understand which resources are the best fit for their needs. After the presentations, the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss with the RP representatives. This can include a discussion about each resource's characteristics, how to choose the right resource for a specific task, roadmap discussions, as well as time for answering any other questions the community brings up. The overall goal of this BOF is to enable an open, productive, and fruitful discussion between the RPs, the ACCESS community, and researchers who are considering using ACCESS but want to learn more about its capabilities. Experience showed that an in-person session like this BOF can provide the community a much bigger advantage than pure online documentation. Direct communication with representatives from large computational systems make those resource much more approachable and can have a huge impact on the research of the users.

References: [1] ACCESS - https://access-ci.org/ [2] ACCESS RP Forum - https://operations.access-ci.org/pub/rpf

Website: https://app.meet.ps/attendee/fcqctplo