Acceptable Use Policy

for ASU Research Computing infrastructure and resources

The purpose of the ASU Research Computing and the resources it oversees is to further the scientific, research, and educational efforts of ASU and it’s partners. In general, any activity that interferes with this purpose may be modified or cancelled by ASU Research Computing staff to support the research efforts of the University.

By using the ASU Research Computing systems and resources, you agree to the following Acceptable Use Policy:

1. University Policies

• 1.1 All users of ASU Research Computing resources are responsible for following Arizona State University’s “Computer, Internet, and Electronic Communications Information Management Policy” (ACD125) as well as any specific Departmental, College, or School requirements related to computing and electronics.

2. University Use Only

• 2.1 ASU Research Computing resources are specifically reserved for the use of scientists, researchers, and other staff to further research and scholarly advancement at ASU and it’s associated institutions and partners. Any use of the supercomputer for personal or commercial gain is strictly prohibited.

3. Maintenance

• 3.1 ASU Research Computing makes every attempt to schedule server and supercomputer maintenance during regularly scheduled maintenance windows, however issues do occur that may need to be handled outside these pre-described maintenance windows.

4. Jobs

• 4.1 Any jobs or processes that impact the performance or load functions of the login nodes or interferes with other users running jobs will be terminated.

• 4.2 Supercomputer jobs containing wait times or “sleep loops” beyond a reasonable period, may not be run. Any job with a long wait or that contains an impactful/sustained sleep loop may be terminated without advance notice.

• 4.3 Unattended listening services (jobs that create listening ports for other computers to connect to) are strictly prohibited, and may be blocked by ASU Research Center Staff without notice.

• 4.4 Supercomputer jobs must be run on compute nodes configured for this purpose. Running jobs on login nodes is prohibited, and any jobs/processes that impact the performance or functions of the login nodes or interferes with other users running jobs may be terminated without notice.

5. Quotas and Storage

• 5.1 ASU Research Computing reserves the right to create, modify, and enforce quotas on all user directories, including home directories (/home), temporary/scratch directories, and team data directories (/data.) Users are reminded that storage provided by ASU Research Computing is for active research only, and not for long term or archival purposes. ASU Research Computing does not backup user storage, and user files may be deleted, moved, or made unavailable as needed by ASU Research Computing personnel. Users are responsible for backing up their own data.

• 5.2 ASU Research Computing high-speed storage is for data that is actively being used for research on the ASU RC Supercomputers, not for long-term Project Storage. Quotas are enforced for both individual home directories as well as shared research space (/data.)

• 5.3 While ASU Research Computing makes every effort to maintain the availability and integrity of our storage products, the storage arrays are not backed up. They are resilient against failure but do not support redundancy. It is the responsibility of individual users and projects to back up their own data to non-ASU Research Computing storage.

• 5.4 Files stored on ASU Research Computing storage arrays must be under active use on our Supercomputers. “Active Use” is defined as used within the last 60 days or designated as a source dataset used for reference in supercomputer jobs. Files older than 60 days may be removed on an as-needed basis with prior discussion with the user.

• 5.5 The scratch space on the Supercomputer utilizes BeeGFS, a massively-parallel distributed file system that is open to all users of the supercomputer. Scratch is a shared resource available to all users with no space limitations other than the physical limitations of available hard drive space. As a shared resource, users are responsible to limit their use of scratch and the impact their temporary files have on others. The scratch space is short-term storage for immediate use in computation. ASU Research Computing will not create any automatic backups for any user off of scratch and is not responsible for the deletion or loss of any files from the scratch file system. Therefore, older files on this filesystem are subject to review after 30 days of last access or at the determination of the ASU Research Computing Department, if immediate action is required to free up space on scratch. Any files that need to be kept longer should be kept in a user's home directory, leased storage or another storage medium. Home directories or leased storage are not subject to this policy. Owner, Project Owner and Department (if needed) will be engaged to carry out individual actions. Any conflicts will be decided upon Consultation of the Governance Board. The scratch file system is not backed-up. Users are responsible to back-up their own data.

6. Licensing

• 6.1 Some software offered on the system is controlled by individual license agreements. It is the responsibility of the user to maintain proper licensing of any user-installed software.

7. Restricted Data Sets

• 7.1 If your research data contains HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), PII (Personally Identifiable Information), PHI (Protected Health Information), or any other regulated data, please consult with ASU Research Computer Staff prior to using any ASU Research Computing systems to verify that all required measures and controls are supported.

8. Cryptocurrencies, cryptographic mining, distributed cryptography

• 8.1 Performing “mining” operations involving cryptocurrencies such as BitCoin, distributed cryptography such as the distributed.net projects, and all forms of volunteer computing such as SETI@Home are prohibited without specific prior written consent of ASU Research Computing.

9. Violations of this Acceptable Use Policy, ACD125, or other University Policies

• 9.1 Violations of the policies of Arizona State University and/or ASU Research Computing may, at the discretion of ASU Research Computing, result in the temporary or permanent removal of accounts associated with ASU Research Computing, including accounts that allow access to supercomputers and storage.

10. Updates to ASU Research Computing Policies

• 10.1 ASU Research Computing may, at the discretion of ASU Research Computing Management, amend, modify, and or otherwise edit the polices of ASU Research Computing as needed, and published those changes to the ASU Research Computing website.