1. General User Policies 
2. CCAST Accounts
3. Data Management 
4. Computing 
5. Software

1.General User Policies

1.1. Overview

The Center for Computationally Assisted Science and Technology (CCAST) is a unit within the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Division of Information Technology (IT). CCAST provides advanced cyberinfrastructure for research and education at NDSU and beyond. The policies defined in this document supplement and are governed by NDSU IT and North Dakota University System (NDUS) IT policies.

All CCAST account holders must read, understand, and consent to the CCAST Usage Policies before accessing any CCAST resources. Conversely, any usage of CCAST resources implies agreement with these policies.

1.2. Acceptable Use and Misconduct

Owners of CCAST accounts are authorized to use CCAST computing facilities for academic educational and research purposes only and in accordance with NDSU Policy 158 “Acceptable Use of Electronic Communications Devices” and NDUS Policy 1202.1 “Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources”. Use of the facilities for anything other than academic research and instruction (e.g., for commercial purposes) must be approved by CCAST administration prior to such use.

Failure to comply with any of the policies mentioned herein may result in deactivation and termination of CCAST access.

1.3. Data Confidentiality and Intellectual Property

Although CCAST provides technology to protect CCAST account owners’ data, it cannot guarantee that this data will not become compromised, for example due to inappropriate access controls set by account holders. It is the individual CCAST account holder’s responsibility to protect their data from exposure.

No data with legal restrictions on access [e.g., HIPAA, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), or FERPA data, etc.] may be stored on CCAST resources without prior authorization by CCAST Executive Director and/or NDSU Vice President for IT (VP/IT). Intellectual property (IP) developed using CCAST resources will be governed by NDSU Policy 190 or by agreement with external partners.

1.4. File Permissions

Owners of CCAST accounts are solely responsible for setting and maintaining permissions for their files and directories and must understand Linux filesystem permissions. CCAST account holders are advised not to change the default file system permissions without testing if their changes are correct.

1.5. Administrative Access of Data 

CCAST will not access CCAST account holders’ data without consent except under circumstances that require immediate action or by direction of NDSU VP/IT. In such cases, CCAST may notify account owners and NDSU VP/IT that such action has taken place. In situations that do not require immediate action (e.g., user support), CCAST will ask the account holder for consent before accessing data using administrative privileges.

1.6. Reporting

During the first two weeks of each new fiscal year, all Principal Investigators (PIs) must provide to CCAST administration information about research derivatives, teaching, and outreach activities enabled by use of CCAST computing facilities in the previous fiscal year. Fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30. Examples include publications (journal articles, book chapters, conference presentations, and other significant publications), submitted patent applications and awarded patents, submitted proposals (with information whether the proposals were successful, not successful or were still pending), completed M.S. and Ph.D. theses or degrees, courses, and outreach activities for which CCAST computing resources were used.

1.7. Acknowledgements

CCAST account owners are required to acknowledge the use of CCAST computing facilities and resources in any research outputs (publications, reports, presentations, etc.) resulting from their use. The standard acknowledgement text can be found in the CCAST User Guide.

1.8. Contact

Important notices from CCAST staff to account owners will be sent via email to the CCAST user mailing list. Support requests are to be sent to ndsu.ccast.support@ndsu.edu.

2. CCAST Accounts

2.1. Account Eligibility

NDSU faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and students with valid Bison Login credentials are eligible to obtain a CCAST account. External collaborators of NDSU faculty (and of certain NDSU staff members) and who are affiliated with a U.S. academic, government, or other institutions may apply for CCAST accounts provided they work on a project whose PI is a member of NDSU faculty (or staff). External partners who have an agreement with CCAST may also apply for CCAST accounts. Account requests from external collaborators or partners are subject to additional review and procedures.

CCAST account holders are responsible for promptly reporting to CCAST any changes in their status at NDSU, department affiliation, and/or institutional affiliation (for external users).

2.2. Account Expiration

Unless explicitly revoked (e.g., for reasons of unauthorized use), CCAST accounts will remain valid and active so long as the user’s Bison Login credentials remain active and in good standing with NDSU. Conversely, if Bison Login credentials are locked or deactivated, CCAST access will be locked by extension. Reasons for automatic deactivation of Bison Login credentials include, but are not limited to, graduation, employee termination, credential compromise, etc. It is the sole responsibility of the account holder to migrate all their data completely out of CCAST systems before their CCAST access is locked.

2.3. Security and Compliance 

CCAST account holders are solely responsible for all activities conducted using their accounts. CCAST account holders must not share their accounts or their account passwords with anyone. CCAST staff will never ask for account holders' passwords. CCAST account holders must promptly inform CCAST staff if their account is compromised or if they notice any suspicious activity associated with their account.

2.4. Acknowledgement of User Guide and Policies

CCAST account owners must attest that they have read and agree to the CCAST Usage Policies. In particular, they must agree to comply with CCAST Usage Policies regarding the prohibition of storing or processing any sensitive or classified material, including information subject to HIPAA, FERPA, etc.

CCAST account owners should also read the CCAST User Guide and other documentation relevant to the computing resource they intend to use before logging into that resource for the first time.

2.5. CCAST Projects for Researchers

NDSU faculty members and certain staff members may be PIs (herein referred to as CCAST PIs) on one or more CCAST projects. A CCAST project entitles the PI to a shared data storage space (“projects directory”) associated with a project group ID. Project group membership can be updated by the PI to include students, staff, postdocs, and other collaborators with active CCAST accounts. Project groups may entitle group members to use all general pool CCAST computing resources.

3. Data Management

3.1. Data Storage Locations

CCAST provides several directories for CCAST account owners to store and manage their research data. CCAST account owners are solely responsible for following the guidelines of NDSU's Record Management Program with respect to data stored on CCAST systems. CCAST account owners are also responsible for selecting appropriate directories for the most effective use of CCAST storage infrastructure.

CCAST standard directories include the following:

3.1.1. Home Directories

The home directory is private to each user and intended for storing relatively small files such as source codes, executables, and input files. The home directory is not designed to store large datasets or output from compute jobs. Running jobs from the home directory is highly discouraged, due to both performance and space considerations.

3.1.2. Projects Directories

The projects directory is intended for sharing data among users belonging to the same research group. Each CCAST PI is entitled to their own projects directory. Projects directories have larger quotas than home. Due to performance and space considerations, running jobs from a projects directory is discouraged.

3.1.3. Scratch Directories

The scratch directory is intended for storing temporary data from CCAST account owners’ job runs and has the fastest access speed. CCAST account owners should only keep temporary data here, e.g., intermediate outputs from jobs, test data sets, etc. Files in scratch that have not been accessed in 60 days are automatically purged to preserve sufficient free space for operation. It is the CCAST account holder’s responsibility to transfer valuable data to a long-term storage location, e.g., the home or projects directory.

CCAST administration sets default allocations for home, projects, and scratch directories. Current allocation quotas for each directory type are published in the CCAST User Guide.

3.2. Data Backup

Data in home and projects directories is backed up for purposes of disaster recovery; see the CCAST User Guide for details on data backup and restore procedures. Data in scratch is not backed up, and files deleted from scratch–either automatically or accidentally–cannot be recovered.

4. Computing

4.1. Job Queueing

CCAST employs a job queuing system to ensure efficient and fair use of its computing resources. All computing jobs must be submitted through the queuing system. Users have access to certain queues (see the CCAST User Guide) and should use queues which are most suitable for their workflows. Different queues provide access to different types of resources (e.g. standard, large memory, GPU, etc.) and may have varying limits on job runtime (“walltime”), group access, and per-job resource counts.

4.2. Login Nodes

Login nodes are servers through which users may submit, query, or delete jobs. Running jobs or other heavy computations on login nodes is prohibited. Nodes allocated by the queuing system are the only computing resources for use of more than minimal computation. CCAST reserves the right to delete, without warning, processes running on login nodes for more than 10 minutes.

4.3. Researcher-Owned “Condo” Nodes

Researchers are encouraged to partner with CCAST on the procurement of "condos". The “condo model” for HPC facilities is defined as the addition of a certain number of compute nodes and/or data storage units to a base facility by individual users who are allowed to maintain a higher level of queue policy control in their condos in exchange for a contribution to CCAST operating costs. Prospective condo owners should contact CCAST staff well in advance in order to budget condos into their grant proposals. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between a condo owner and CCAST must be signed upon receipt of the equipment. CCAST will make all condo purchases, with funding information provided by the researcher.

5. Software

5.1. Software Licensing

All software installed on CCAST systems must conform with NDSU software licensing policies. For software installed and maintained by CCAST considered to be core software modules, CCAST staff will be responsible for ensuring license compliance. For user-requested software, the requestor will be responsible for obtaining license review. Users can contact ndsu.software@ndsu.edu for questions about software licensing.

5.2. Personal Software Installations

Installation of single-user or project-level application software in home or projects directories is the responsibility of the individual CCAST account owner. This software must be properly licensed and must be approved for use by NDSU. It is CCAST account holders’ responsibility to procure license approval, install and maintain the software, and respond to any cybersecurity concerns associated with the software.

5.3. System-Wide Software Installations

All system-wide application software installation requests must be approved by CCAST administration. In the case of commercial software, approval should be sought prior to the purchase of the corresponding software licenses by users/researchers. CCAST will not be responsible for installing incompatible software after license purchase. Multi-seat or site-licensed software is generally installed in a system-wide location and maintained by CCAST (subject to prior approval). Users of the system-wide application software on CCAST systems must comply with the terms of applicable license agreements. CCAST reserves the right to decline a request for installation of any particular application software deemed unsuitable for its environment.