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Account Creation

There are two types of cluster accounts, see the sections below for details:

  • Individual accounts for research computing.
  • Course accounts for classes teaching statistical computing.

Individual Accounts

Individual accounts are used for research computing, and provide access to all cluster resources. These accounts remain active for as long as the user's computing account is active.

Requirements

  • Statistics Computing Account: A Statistics Computing Account is a prerequisite for cluster access.
  • Faculty Sponsorship: A faculty sponsor is required for account access. The sponsor is accountable for a user's cluster usage, and will be contacted if an issue arises that can not be resolved directly with the cluster user.
    • Ideally, the account should be sponsored by the user's faculty advisor.
    • If a faculty advisor is unable to sponsor the account, another Statistics affiliated faculty member may act as a sponsor in most cases. Contact us at help@washington.edu for details.

Steps to Obtain an Individual Account

  1. The user must already have a Statistics Computing Account.
  2. The faculty sponsor must email help@stat.washington.edu requesting the account for the user. The user cannot email the account request themselves, even with their sponsor's agreement.
  3. After the account is ready, the user and sponsor will be notified by email.

Course Accounts

Faculty members teaching a course related to statistical computing may request access on behalf of their students.

Requirements & Limitations

  • Unlike individual accounts, students in the course do not need a Statistics Computing Account.
  • Access is limited to a small subset of compute nodes (the "student" partition).
  • Access is limited to the duration of the course.

Steps to Obtain Course Accounts

  • The instructor must email a request for course access to help@stat.washington.edu two weeks before the quarter begins.
  • The request should include the course number, and the NetIDs of any TA's assisting with the course.

Course Account Guidelines

  • The course instructor and TA's are responsible for instructing students on proper cluster access and usage. If the instructor or TA's need guidance on using the cluster, they can contact help@stat.washington.edu.
  • If a problem arises during the course, the instructor/TA should email help@stat.washington.edu. Individual students should not email support requests directly, unless it is clear that the problem is specific to that user.
  • We strongly recommend testing course material on the cluster ahead of the course. This ensures that code examples are compatible with the latest cluster updates, reducing the likelihood of urgent problems during the course.