This page provides user-friendly resources to help you navigate our systems. You can access information on obtaining a DiRAC SAFE Account and find links to our site-specific user guides. We have also established a user-friendly GitHub Wiki page sharing site and service information, along with a tips and tricks guide created by our research software engineers.
For users who have utilised our resources to produce scientific output, we also provide the appropriate acknowledgment wording for that section of your publication.
Projects and accounts on DiRAC resources are administered through the DiRAC SAFE. SAFE stands for Service Administration From EPCC. It is a large web-based application, provided by EPCC for DiRAC. The same software is used by the Archer UK national supercomputing service and for other facilities at EPCC.
Every DiRAC user should have an account on SAFE. You can use your SAFE account to check your use of CPU time and disk space now and in the past, to apply to join other projects and create service machine accounts, to change passwords, to keep your personal details up to date, to check the progress of the helpdesk queries you have submitted, and so on. PIs and project managers can do many other things. such as viewing usage by each member of their project team.
The DiRAC team also uses SAFE to administer the system and generate reports. The helpdesk software is also part of SAFE. If you are a PI or project manager you can manage your project via SAFE.
For any other information please email DiRAC Support.
User guides specific to each of our four sites can be found below. For service specific user guides, please see our github user guides repository.
We have created a user-friendly GitHub Wiki page to share site and service information in one place as well as providing tips and tricks compiled by our research software engineers. As part of the DiRAC-3 technical commissioning phase, our technical leads and research software engineers (RSE) worked very closely to tune the systems and gather useful insights for our users. We’ve captured this information on GitHub and also included links to the main user guide. Some of the Tips and Tricks may not be site-specific, but rather service-specific, so please bear in mind there may be overlaps.
Our research software engineers are here to help you get the best science results by helping you optimise your codes. Tips and tricks examples include optimising codes from Intel to AMD, finding the best compiler, and so forth. If you need RSE support in the first instance, we recommend you raise a technical support request at your DiRAC-3 site. The technical team will address the request and triage whether an RSE can help you in the short term. If you’re thinking about the types of code that you might be putting in or the work you’re looking to do, it’s worth thinking about applying for future RSE time in the annual RAC Call for Proposals, especially when you might need more significant support.
All research publications whose results are obtained using our resources are required to acknowledge DiRAC. Among other things, our publication rates form a significant element of our funding applications. Acknowledgement statements for each service can be found below.
Data Intensive Service: Cambridge
SMP Cambridge
This work used the DIRAC Shared Memory Processing system at the University of Cambridge, operated by the COSMOS Project at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). This equipment was funded by BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant ST/J005673/1, STFC capital grant ST/H008586/1, and STFC DiRAC Operations grant ST/K00333X/1. DiRAC is part of the National e-Infrastructure.
Data Analytic Cambridge (Darwin)
This work used the DiRAC Data Analytic system at the University of Cambridge, operated by the University of Cambridge High Performance Computing Service on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). This equipment was funded by BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant (ST/K001590/1), STFC capital grants ST/H008861/1 and ST/H00887X/1, and STFC DiRAC Operations grant ST/K00333X/1. DiRAC is part of the National e-Infrastructure.
If you have used the DiRAC Resources prior to 30th April 2018 for your publication, please use the following statements:
SMP Cambridge
This work used the DIRAC Shared Memory Processing system at the University of Cambridge, operated by the COSMOS Project at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). This equipment was funded by BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant ST/J005673/1, STFC capital grant ST/H008586/1, and STFC DiRAC Operations grant ST/K00333X/1. DiRAC is part of the National E-Infrastructure.
Data Analytic Cambridge
This work used the DiRAC Data Analytic system at the University of Cambridge, operated by the University of Cambridge High Performance Computing Service on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). This equipment was funded by BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant (ST/K001590/1), STFC capital grants ST/H008861/1 and ST/H00887X/1, and STFC DiRAC Operations grant ST/K00333X/1. DiRAC is part of the National E-Infrastructure.
Data Intensive Service: Leicester (DiaL)
Complexity Leicester
This work used the DiRAC Complexity system, operated by the University of Leicester IT Services, which forms part of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk ). This equipment is funded by BIS National E-Infrastructure capital grant ST/K000373/1 and STFC DiRAC Operations grant ST/K0003259/1. DiRAC is part of the National e-Infrastructure.
If you have used the DiRAC Resources prior to 30th April 2018 for your publication, please use the following statement:
Complexity Leicester
This work used the DiRAC Complexity system, operated by the University of Leicester IT Services, which forms part of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk ). This equipment is funded by BIS National E-Infrastructure capital grant ST/K000373/1 and STFC DiRAC Operations grant ST/K0003259/1. DiRAC is part of the National E-Infrastructure.
Extreme Scaling Service: Edinburgh
This work used the DiRAC Blue Gene Q Shared Petaflop system at the University of Edinburgh, operated by the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). This equipment was funded by BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant ST/K000411/1, STFC capital grant ST/H008845/1, and STFC DiRAC Operations grants ST/K005804/1 and ST/K005790/1. DiRAC is part of the National e-Infrastructure.
If you have used the DiRAC Resources prior to 30th April 2018 for your publication, please use the following statement:
Blue Gene/Q Edinburgh
This work used the DiRAC Blue Gene Q Shared Petaflop system at the University of Edinburgh, operated by the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). This equipment was funded by BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant ST/K000411/1, STFC capital grant ST/H008845/1, and STFC DiRAC Operations grants ST/K005804/1 and ST/K005790/1. DiRAC is part of the National E-Infrastructure.
Memory Intensive Service: Durham for all RAC projects except dp004 (Virgo)
Memory Intensive Service: Durham for Virgo (dp004) and Durham (hpcicc) users
This work used the DiRAC@Durham facility managed by the Institute for Computational Cosmology on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). The equipment was funded by BEIS capital funding via STFC capital grants ST/K00042X/1, ST/P002293/1 and ST/R002371/1, Durham University and STFC operations grant ST/R000832/1. DiRAC is part of the National e-Infrastructure.
If you have used the DiRAC Resources prior to 30th April 2018 for your publication, please use the following statements:
Data Centric for all projects except dp004 (Virgo)
This work used the DiRAC Data Centric system at Durham University, operated by the Institute for Computational Cosmology on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk. This equipment was funded by a BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant ST/K00042X/1, STFC capital grant ST/K00087X/1, DiRAC Operations grant ST/K003267/1 and Durham University. DiRAC is part of the National E-Infrastructure.
Data Centric for Virgo (dp004) and Durham COSMA4 users
This work used the DiRAC Data Centric system at Durham University, operated by the Institute for Computational Cosmology on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). This equipment was funded by BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant ST/K00042X/1, STFC capital grants ST/H008519/1 and ST/K00087X/1, STFC DiRAC Operations grant ST/K003267/1 and Durham University. DiRAC is part of the National E-Infrastructure.
