The ODISSEI Secure Supercomputer is available for use by researchers affiliated with one of the ODISSEI member organisations or users of the CBS Microdata facility. 

If your institute is a member organisation of ODISSEI and you want to use the OSSC, please contact microdata@cbs.nl 

The terms of use for other researchers are currently being established.

In order to gain access to the OSSC platform, a researcher should go through the following steps:

  1. Request access to CBS data and to the CBS RA environment
  2. Obtain an allocation on the HPC system at SURF
  3. Set up the environment


Request access to CBS data and to the CBS RA environment

To request access to CBS data and to the CBS RA environment, please open a ticket in the SURF servicedesk selecting "ODISSEI Secure Supercomputer" as Service/System and describing your project and the need for using the OSSC.

Once you have access to the CBS RA environment, you can run analyses on the CBA hardware and make an assessment if the compute resources offered on the OSSC are needed for your project.

If your research is pushing the limits in terms of computing and storage in the RA environment, you can request access to the OSSC. For that, please contact your project contact person at CBS Microdata Services and they will consult you to make an assessment to decide whether the OSSC is needed.

Once it is decided that OSSC is required, SURF will plan an intake with you to learn more about your technical requirements.

In case you need extra information about resources on OSSC, please contact us through our Servicedesk portal:

  • select "Helpdesk for all SURF Research services" 
  • select "ODISSEI Secure Supercomputer" as Service/System.


Obtain an allocation on the HPC system at SURF

In order to be able to use the OSSC environment it is necessary to obtain compute time on the HPC system where the OSSC is running.

The OSSC currently runs on the Snellius HPC system. Check the SURF website here and the documentation here for more information on how to apply.

Access to the OSSC can be granted via the SURF Compute Call and NWO Compute Call. However, please take into consideration the following additional rules (not yet mentioned in the calls or on the application portal):

  • Requests for the OSSC via the SURF Compute Call and NWO Compute Call must include 20 hours of consultancy per year as a fixed cost for the environment setup and support. Additional consultancy can be required if needed. Please note that software installation may require more effort because the OSSC is isolated from the internet, and dependencies must be resolved manually.
  • The amount of compute time requested should include an overhead of 10-20% to account for the time that can be lost due to the reservation system used in the OSSC (c.f. details about the setup of the compute environment).
  • The amount of compute time requested should include the cost of running the "work environment" (8 cores node running for the full duration of the grant, which is equivalent to 70,020 SBUs).
  • Storage in the OSSC is limited to 1 TiB per project. If you are granted less than 1 TiB at the start of your project, you can request an extension later in your project through our Servicedesk portal.

If you are not eligible for the above-mentioned calls, access can be arranged by a paying contract. In this case, please contact us to discuss the conditions of the contract (offerte) to get an allocation on the HPC system and on the OSSC.

For more information or help preparing the application, please contact us through our Servicedesk portal selecting "Create a ticket" and "Secure Supercomputer" as Service/System.

For requests through SURF Compute Call, please select "Snellius" as Resource and mark "Yes" below the question "Snellius: Do you need access to the OSSC?"


Set up the environment

Once you have access to the CBS RA environment and you have been granted compute time on the HPC system at SURF, we need to create an virtual environment on the OSSC and enable the connection between your accounts on the CBS RA and the OSSC.

We also need to set up the OSSC environment according to your needs:

  • Make sure you can transfer your datasets to the OSSC
  • Install the software you need for your analysis
  • Allocate sufficient storage space to you project (within a maximum of 1 TB per project)

For new customers, an intake meeting with a SURF advisor (and a system specialist if needed) will be planned before the start of the project to answer questions, gather the customers' requirements, and make sure the OSSC can fill the needs of the customers.

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