BwForCluster User Access

The usage of bwForCluster is free of charge. bwForClusters are customized to the requirements of particular research areas. Each bwForCluster is/will be financed by the DFG (German Research Foundation) and by the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts of Baden-Württemberg based on scientifc grant proposal (compare proposals guidelines as per Art. 91b GG).

Granting user access to a bwForCluster requires 3 steps:

1. Registration of a new or joining an already existing rechenvorhaben (RV) at "Zentrale Antragsseite (ZAS)". An RV defines the planned compute activities of a group of researchers. As coworker of this group you only need to register your membership in the corresponding RV.
2. Application for a bwForCluster entitlement issued by your university.
3. Personal registration at assigned cluster site based on approved RV and issued bwForCluster entitlement .

Step 1 and 2 can be done in parallel. When both are finished, you can do step 3. Which cluster you will get access to depends on your research area and is decided in step on ("ZAS").

1 RV registration at ZAS

The rechenvorhaben (RV) registration at ZAS does not correspond to typical compute project proposals as for other HPC clusters, since:

• there is no scientific reviewing process
• the registration inquires only brief details and
• it covers a group of coworkers, and
• only the RV responsible must submit the RV.

1.1 How to register?

1.1.1 Register a new RV

Typically done only by the leader of a scientific work group or the senior scientist of a research group/collaboration.

You will be:

1. held accountable for the co-workers in the RV
2. asked to provide information for the two reports required by the DFG for their funding of bwFor clusters
3. likely asked for a contribution to the grant proposal for a new bwFor cluster of the same research area

Please follow the steps at bwForCluster RV registration

1.1.2 Register for an RV as coworker

Each coworker must add herself/himself to a rechenvorhaben (RV). To become coworker of an RV, please login at

• https://www.bwhpc-c5.de/en/ZAS/bwforcluster_collaboration.php

and provide the

• acronym
• password

of the RV. Your RV responsible will provide you with that information. You will be assigned to role RV member.

Response

1. After submitting the request for participating in an RV, the coworker will receive an email from ZAS about the further steps (i.e. personal registration at assigned bwForCluster). The membership status in the RV is set active by default.
2. Each person with role RV responsible or RV manager will be notified automatically. They can check the list of RV members at https://www.bwhpc-c5.de/en/ZAS/info_rv.php by clicking on the RV acronym.
3. The RV responsible can set any RV coworker to RV manager and vice versa as well as deactivate/reactivate any RV coworker or RV manager.
4. An RV manager can deactivate/reactivate any RV coworker.

1.2 Roles in an RV

Role	Explanation
RV responsible	Registers the rechenvorhaben (RV), i.e. the planned compute activities. Can deactivate but also reactivate RV managers and coworkers. Can promote coworkers to mangers and vice versa.
RV manager	RV coworker with elevated rights to deactivate and reactivate other RV coworkers.
RV coworker	Typical user who has registered her/himself via RV acronym and password.

2 Issuing bwForCluster entitlement

Each university issues the bwForCluster entitlement

http://bwidm.de/entitlement/bwForCluster

only for their own members.

The bwForCluster entitlement issued by a university assures the operator of a bwForCluster that its university member's compute activities comply with the German Foreign Trade Act (Außenwirtschaftsgesetz - AWG) und German Foreign Trade Regulations (Außenwirtschaftsverordnung - AWV).

The following unversities have already established a process to issue the bwForCluster entitlement:

• Hochschule Esslingen
• University of Freiburg
• University of Heidelberg
• University of Hohenheim
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• University of Konstanz
• University of Mannheim
• University of Stuttgart
• University of Tübingen
• University of Ulm

If you do not find your university in the list above, please contact your local service desk.

3 Personal registration at bwForCluster

Once you have registered your own RV (rechenvorhaben) or a membership in an RV, the cluster assignment team will provide you with information about your designated cluster. You will receive an email with a website to create an account for yourself on that cluster.

Available bwForCluster registration servers (service providers):

Cluster topic and location	Registration server
bwForCluster Chemistry JUSTUS Ulm	http://bwidm.rz.uni-ulm.de
bwForCluster MLS&WISO (Production and Development)	https://bwservices.uni-heidelberg.de
bwForCluster NEMO Freiburg	https://bwservices.uni-freiburg.de
bwForCluster BinAC Tübingen	https://bwservices.uni-tuebingen.de

Please note, this step is different to your registration at ZAS since here you register yourself as a person. Only based on your personal credentials a user account can be generated. However, resource requests of the RV in ZAS will be cross-checked with the resources consumed by you and your RV coworkers on this cluster.

After steps 1 and 2 (RV approval and bwForCluster entitlement) please visit the

• bwForCluster service provider registration website (see table above or email after RV approval):
  1. Select your home organization from the list of organizations and click Proceed.
  2. You will be redirected to the Identity Provider of your home organization.
  3. Enter your home-organizational user ID (might be user name, email, ...) and password and click Login or Anmelden.
  4. When doing this for the first time you need to accept that your personal data is transferred to the service provider.
  5. You will be redirected back to the cluster registration website.
  6. Select Service Description of the designated cluster.
  7. Click on Register link to register for this cluster.
  8. Read and accept the terms and conditions of use and click on button Register.
  9. Finally you will receive an email with instructions how to login to the cluster (please wait ~15 minutes before trying).
  10. Click on Set Service Password and set a password for the cluster.
  11. Note: Users from Tübingen accessing the BinAC do not set a separate service password and have to use their local account credentials instead.
  12. Note: You can return to the registration website at any time, in order to review your registration details, change/reset your service password or deregister from the service by yourself.

4 Login to bwForCluster

Personalized details about how to login to the cluster are included in an email send after registration at the bwForCluster service provider.

General instructions for the bwForCluster login can be found here:

Cluster topic and location	Login instructions
bwForCluster Chemistry JUSTUS Ulm	bwForCluster Chemistry Login
bwForCluster MLS&WISO Production	bwForCluster MLS&WISO Production Login
bwForCluster MLS&WISO Development	bwForCluster MLS&WISO Development Login
bwForCluster NEMO Freiburg	bwForCluster NEMO Login
bwForCluster BinAC Tübingen	bwForCluster BinAC Login

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