Posted by s.hettrick on 17 February 2011 - 11:05am

The NGS is undergoing major changes over the next few months. All users should ensure they are aware of these changes and the effect they may have on their usage of the NGS. At the end of March 2011 approximately 700 free-to-use CPU cores and most SRB and Oracle database resources from core funded NGS sites will be retired from service. This is due to the age and efficiency of the hardware and to allow the NGS to transition to a sustainable platform to better support e-research.

Please note that the CPU resources being withdrawn from service represent less than half of core funded sites and only a fraction of the total number of CPU cores that are available to the NGS Virtual Organisation (NGS VO) and its users. Every user with an account on the NGS is automatically a member of the NGS VO and this VO is supported by most of our numerous partner and affiliate sites.

To continue to be able to support early career researchers and pump prime novel projects with a smaller resource pool all individual user accounts exceeding 2000 CPU hrs allocation will be reset to 2000 CPU hrs on 1st March 2011.

Should users wish to apply for more time they should contact the NGS helpdesk. Researchers and projects requiring larger CPU and data resources may be interested in purchasing these from UK providers – information and prices are available here.

Should there be a specific software facility that exists on any of the deprecated resources that may not be available elsewhere after 31st March 2011 please contact the helpdesk as soon as possible.

The free-to-use core NGS resources are listed below along with a description of how they will exist post March 2011.

• STFC RAL: A small allocation of resources will remain available to pump prime projects but the majority of free-to-use CPU and all data resources will be removed. SRB and Oracle databases that are currently free-to-use will cease. STFC will offer costed services for users wanting large CPU or data allocations: view the costed services or contact the helpdesk.
• Leeds WRG: All free-to-use CPU resources will cease after 31 March 2011.
• Oxford: Oxford will offer 64 free-to-use CPU cores via the Oxford Supercomputing Centre after 31 March 2011. Old hardware will be deprecated at this time.
• Manchester: All free-to-use CPU resources will remain in service until 30 September 2011. From mid-August these will be out of warranty and will run at risk. Oracle and MySql services will also remain operational.