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Available Resources

Below is the list of resources available for the Resource Allocation Competition (RAC). For technical documentation about the resources available, please visit our wiki page.

System

Sub-system
(as shown on CCDB)

Available resources
for each sub-system

Backup storage?

Arbutus cloud

arbutus-compute-cloud

VCPU, VGPU, RAM, local ephemeral disk, volumes, snapshots, floating IPs, volume and snapshot storage, shared filesystem storage*, object storage

No

arbutus-persistent-cloud

arbutus-dcache

dCache storage

No

Béluga cluster

beluga-compute

CPU

No

beluga-gpu

GPU

No

beluga-storage

Project storage, Nearline storage

Yes

Béluga cloud

beluga-compute-cloud

VCPU, RAM, local ephemeral disk, volumes, snapshots, floating IPs, volume and snapshot storage

No

beluga-persistent-cloud

Cedar cluster

cedar-compute

CPU

No

cedar-gpu

GPU

No

cedar-storage

Project storage, Nearline storage, dCache storage

Yes

Cedar cloud

cedar-persistent-cloud

VCPU, RAM, local ephemeral disk, volumes, snapshots, floating IPs, volume and snapshot storage

No

cedar-compute-cloud

Graham cluster

graham-compute

CPU

No

graham-gpu

GPU

No

graham-storage

Project storage, Nearline storage, dCache storage

Yes

Graham cloud

graham-persistent-cloud

VCPU, RAM, local ephemeral disk, volumes, snapshots, floating IPs, volume and snapshot storage

No

Narval

narval-compute

CPU

No

narval-gpu

GPU

No

narval-storage

Project storage

Yes

Niagara

niagara-compute

CPU

No

niagara-storage

Project storage

Yes

hpss-storage

Nearline storage

No

* The shared filesystem storage is backed up.

 

How to request resources in the online RAC application form

Note: There should be no discrepancies between what you request in the application document attached to your application and what you request in the online form. In case of discrepancy, the online form will prevail.

Resources in the clusters and in the cloud are organized by subsystems. As indicated in the table above, each subsystem will only show the resources available there. For example, the niagara-storage subsystem will only show /project storage; niagara-compute will only show CPU (and memory); nearline storage on Niagara is available in the hpss-storage subsystem only, etc.

  1. In the corresponding Resources for Research Groups (RRG) or Research Platforms and Portals (RPP) application forms on CCDB, go to the Resource Request section.
  2. The dropdown menu under New resource request will show the list of all systems and subsystems with the corresponding resources available. 
  3. To indicate that your request can be allocated in any resource and that you do not have a preference for a particular one, please check the option "I have to select a system but I don’t mind receiving an allocation on any other suitable one" in the "Reason for selecting system" section.
  4. Requesting resources in a cluster: As previously mentioned, in the national clusters, compute and storage resources are shown as different subsystems on CCDB following this convention:
    • 4.1. system-compute (e.g. cedar-compute): select these to request CPU resources. Please pay special attention to your memory requirements as this will be taken into account for final allocations.
    • 4.2. system-gpu (e.g. cedar-gpu): select these to request GPU resources.
    • 4.3. system-storage (e.g. cedar-storage): select these to request storage resources on a particular system. Each subsystem will only show the storage resources (/project, /nearline, etc.) available for that particular subsystem. 

For example, if you want to request both CPU resources and /project storage resources on the Cedar cluster, you will have to fill in two separate requests: one with the cedar-compute subsystem for core years and memory, and another one with the system-storage subsystem for /project storage (in TB). 

  1. Requesting Cloud resources: If you need to request cloud resources in more than one location, then you will have to make one request for each location. On CCDB, cloud resources follow this convention:
    • 5.1. system-compute-cloud or system-persistent-cloud: you can select compute or persistent VMs on Arbutus, Cedar and Béluga clouds, but only persistent VMs on graham-cloud. Each cloud resource will only show the specific "flavours" of VMs available for that particular site.

Please email allocations@tech.alliancecan.ca with any questions on how to request resources.