Prerequisites

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) Office of Innovative Technologies (OIT) High Performance & Scientific Computing (HPSC) group manages the Infrastructure for Scientific Applications and Advanced Computing (ISAAC) resources which are available to all University of Tennessee researchers. Accessing the ISAAC resources is available to UT faculty, students, and other researchers, in general, by registering the researchers UT NetID for ISAAC access. Access is available to research collaborators from other organizations by UT faculty sponsoring the external researcher to have a sponsored UT NetId.

Account Registration for UT Researchers

To get set up for ISAAC access, navigate to the portal “request an account” page at https://portal.acf.tennessee.edu/accounts/request. Once there select the “I have a UT Netid” box and follow the prompts to complete your ISAAC account registration. Generally, your account should be created immediately and you should get an email with introductory information sent to your University email address. If you suspect a problem with setting up your ISAAC account, please submit a service request by clicking on the “Submit HPSC Service Request” button in the menu on the top left of this page. Once your account is set up you can login to the User Portal (link in menu at the top left) to check your account and you can login to the ISAAC login nodes as described in the “Access and Login” page under the ISAAC Open Enclave menu to the left of this page. This account registration is for the ISAAC Open research side of the resources.

If you need access to the ISAAC Secure Enclave cluster resources please register for the ISAAC Open side as described above and then review the ISAAC Secure Enclave Access and Login web page (in the ISAAC Secure Enclave menu to the left) for further instructions. If you only need access to ISAAC Secure Enclave virtual machine resources, you do not need to register for cluster access and please see the ISAAC Secure Enclave Access and Login web page for further instructions.

Account Requests for Non-UT Researchers

Access is available to research collaborators from other organizations by UT faculty sponsoring the external researcher to have a sponsored UT NetId. The collaborator will need a faculty sponsor and that collaborator needs to be registered for a sponsored UT NetID using the sponsored NetID process for the UT faculty sponsor’s home campus. The sponsored NetID process starts by the UT faculty sponsor filling out the Request to Sponsor a Person for OIT Services form which is available at https://oit.utk.edu/forms. Be sure to fill out all of the form fields and most likely one would check the “Request a NetID and Sponsorship for a Person” button and indicate the UT campus and department of the faculty sponsor and indicate the appropriate approver for this request (Department Head most likely).

This form submits a service request ticket and should email information about the sponsored NetID request to the faculty sponsor (the requestor). Any issues with your account request will be communicated through email. If you suspect there was a problem with this sponsored NetID request, please contact the OIT Help Desk by phone at 865-974-9900. Please do not submit another sponsored NetID request unless User Assistance or OIT staff explicitly tells you to do so.

Once the UT NetID is created for the non-UT external collaborator, then the researcher can register that UT NetID for access to the ISAAC resources. Once the UT NetID is created navigate a browser to the portal “request an account” page at https://portal.acf.tennessee.edu/accounts/request and now follow the same instructions above for a UT researcher. The researcher should be requested to be added to the faculty sponsor’s ISAAC project (see Requesting a Project below) and will be removed from any default projects.

Accounts for Former Faculty and Former Students Collaborators

Generally, once a person leaves the University one’s access to University resources, such as, high performance & scientific computing resources, are suspended. Once a person leaves the University or if a faculty member wants to have a collaborator use the faculties project resources, the faculty member must sponsor a NetID for them. See the section above for obtaining a UT NetID for a collaborator or former faculty or student.

Requesting a Project

In many cases a researcher or a research group will want an ISAAC project created so there is a Linux project group and a project directory on the Lustre file system where the research group can share files and coordinate work. If a project is requested, a project directory on Lustre is created and this is in addition to a researchers home directory and Lustre scratch directory (See ISAAC Open Enclave File Systems for more info). One can go to the User Portal and once logged in one can make a request by selecting the button under the Projects heading that says “click here to request a new project …” Project directories get a default quota of 1 terabyte. Additional space can be requested via a service request. Requests over 10 terabytes may be required by the HPSC Director to be reviewed by the Faculty Advisory Board before being granted.

All projects must have a full-time University of Tennessee faculty member as PI. All other staff and students desiring creation of a new project will need to find a faculty member to sponsor their research by creating a project on their behalf.