What is the condominium model

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Research Computing - What is the condominium model?

Condominium clusters have become the standard for central campus high performance computing resources. In this model the cost of the cluster is shared between the university and researchers. The primary responsibility of the researchers in this model is to provide funding for computational resources, which are then placed into the central cluster. Scheduling software then allows these resources to be shared with other university members when they are not in use by the contributing researchers. To provide a viable computing environment for a large research university, it is important to balance the goals of making usage, especially for students, as friction-free as possible while providing a level of service to contributing researchers to make inclusion in a central cluster a value-added proposition. In this sense, the "value-added proposition" usually refers to the underlying storage systems, network & physical infrastructure, and management by highly trained staff, or any combination thereof.

Models of contribution

  • Resource sharing

In this model the active contributor receives higher priority and preemption rights. The boost in priority is in effect for the whole cluster. Preemption rights are restricted to the contributed resources. In this case, the contributor can use all cluster resources at the higher priority effectively multiplying their contribution. After a period of 4 years, Research Computing reserves the right to place the contributed hardware into the general, open access pool without restriction.

  • Non-sharing

Some computational tasks, especially those handled under contract, must begin within specific time frames. In this case the contributor can have sole access to the contributed hardware, but does not get access to the rest of the cluster. In this case neither the contributor or their research group will gain any priority or preemption rights on the rest of the cluster. Again, after a period of 4 years Research Computing reserves the right to place the contributed hardware into the general, open access pool without restriction.