Skip to content

MARS Governance

Background

The new college computing facility MVLS Advanced Research System (MARS) is now available to all MVLS users. This document outlines “light-touch” procedures to guide access to MARS under the supervision of the MVLS Research IT Committee (MVLSRITC). Their aims are specifically to rationally:

  • Allocate resources on a per project basis, considering factors such as the available resources, the wider demands of the community and future scheduled activity.
  • Provide guidance to researchers on how to carry out analyses and technical/programming support, both to adapt existing workflows and create new ones.
  • Log activity and provide usage metrics for MARS users, for MVLSRITC and College Management.
  • Plan and approve future developments for MARS (i.e., upgrades and expansion).
  • Oversee technical support and Research Software Engineering staff (RSE) who will help researchers making use of the system.

Procedures

Registration Process

Each computational project submitted to MVLSRITC generates a unique project ID, which identifies that project and is used to tag all relevant information for the proposed research activity. Typically, this information includes a brief high-level description, a summary of the computational and storage resources required, and a list of the users involved. Field space will also be available to add the supporting grant information (if there is one) and details of the charges applied (when that is active).

Information collected from the activity logs will be added on a regular basis to record how the actual resource usage matches that requested.

Start-up Guidance and Support

Technical/programming support will be available to researchers who need it, to establish their presence on the system and successfully launch jobs for processing. This includes installing and testing new applications and programming tools as required.

Training will be available on common tools and technologies as well as guidance on optimising workflows to take best advantage of the hardware.

Technical support staff will also monitor usage log information to assist in debugging new applications/workflows and diagnosing problems with existing and mature code/applications.

Activity Log

In addition to providing a support diagnostic tool, the activity logs will be retained to provide details on patterns of usage for each project. This will be available to researchers and RSEs to tailor code and workflows/job queues to ensure that each project uses the appropriate computing hardware.

Activity logs will be collated across the system to provide a dashboard of how MARS is delivering on it targets, thereby providing a successful service to College.

Future Planning

MVLSRITC will monitor all the above information to identify strengths and weaknesses of MARS, and advice on how it can be rebalanced for future investments and expansions of computational and storage capabilities. Technology changes at a fast pace, with newer generations offering significant performance boosts at relatively low costs. MARS upgrades offer streamlined routes to converting financial/equipment contributions from researcher activity generating income (e.g. research grants) or for further college investments.

Technical and Programming Support for Researchers

MVLSRITC has oversight and line management of the Technical Support and RSE staff providing the bulk of support to researchers using MARS, including RSE staff (managed by Iain Barras from MVLSRITC) and High Performance Computing staff (jointly managed by central IT and John McClure on MVLSRITC).

MVLS support is intended to complement the existing School/Central IT technical and programming support to foster a community of support and expertise across College and UofG.