Terms and Conditions§
Info
The Terms and Conditions were changed on 10 September 2024. The previous Terms and Conditions are still available for reference.
All use of Research Computing Platforms is subject to the general UCL Computing Regulations.
The following terms also apply to the use of ARC HPC services, including:
- Myriad
- Kathleen
- Michael
- MMM Young
- ARC Cluster Filesystem ("ACFS").
They do not apply to other ARC services, including:
- Data Safe Haven
- Research Data Storage Service
These services have their own terms and conditions for use.
Commercial Services§
It is not permitted to provide commercial services from your account on our systems.
Impairing Other Users§
On nodes intended for shared use to access a service ("login nodes"), we run a system intended to restrict the load any single user can produce.
We may also terminate running processes, or remove running or queued jobs, if they impair the availability of shared resources for other users.
Access Suspension§
If you:
- are subject to a UCL disciplinary procedure,
- or breach UCL's Computing Regulations,
- or are suspected to have shared your access credentials,
- or are suspected to be involved in a security incident,
we may raise this with relevant UCL teams1 and suspend your access to services until any relevant processes have been completed.
Your Data§
Our research computing services have data storage capabilities, but should not be treated as the sole repository for your data. We do not make contractual agreements about uptime or availability.
Outages and data-loss events will be handled on a best-efforts basis within normal UCL working hours.
Transferring Data Ownership§
You may contact us to arrange to transfer ownership of your data on a service to another user, with their consent. Please arrange this before you stop being a user.
Data Access by Support Staff§
We will not access your data without your consent, except in the following circumstances:
- You contact us with a support issue and the data is relevant to your request.
- We have reason to believe the data is relevant to investigating an on-going security incident.
- In automated service processes, such as backups, or transfers between storage systems for service maintenance.
Occasionally support requests can involve more involved work, including running jobs as a user. Since this can be disruptive or involve changes to files and directories, in this case we will check with you when it is safe to begin the work, and when the work has ended.
Data Retention§
Data Retention on Leaving UCL§
We intend to retain user data for 180 days after a user has either left UCL, requested that their account be removed, had their institution request that their account be removed, or become ineligible for an account in some other way.
This process is not currently automated, so data may still be retained after this time. Please contact us if you need to ensure your data has been erased.
Backup Retention§
- On clusters where home is backed up, backups are retained for 15 days.
- On the ACFS, backups are retained for 30 days minimum.
Filesystem Retirement§
When filesystems or clusters are retired, they will be decommissioned and we will not retain the data left on them. Barring unforeseen circumstances, you will receive three months' notice before this happens.
Acknowledgement in Works§
We request that you acknowledge the use of our HPC services in any publications describing research that has used them, in any part. The following words should be used:
"The authors acknowledge the use of the UCL Myriad High Performance Computing Facility (Myriad@UCL), and associated support services, in the completion of this work".
Or analogous terminology for other services.
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I.e. the Information Security Group, or Human Resources. ↩