Category:Research Computing

INTRO

IT Support for Research Computing in the CS Department is handled differently than other computing services that the CS IT Support Group provides.

Per CS IT's Scope of Services, we only provide computing support in three areas:

• The educational mission of the department (computing resources for coursework, including its computing lab Linux systems.)
• The day-to-day operations of the department (IT support for the CS Office's administrative computers.)
• Providing CS infrastructure-based services (email, web space, networking, printing)

You will see that Research Computing is not mentioned in that list, as it is not an area for which CS IT directly provides server administration services.

So, Who Provides Support For CS Research Computers?

Research Computing at CS generally falls into 3 different support categories

1) Researchers (Faculty, PIs) self-administer or self-support their own research servers. They might have their own PhD students as designees to do the actual computer administration.

2) Whiting School of Engineering's own IT group (WSE IT) offers support for servers used for research throughout the Engineering School, including the CS Department. If you have a server(s) you do not want to self-maintain, reach out to WSE IT, and they will assist you the best they can with system administrative services.

3) JHU has additional High Performance Computing options, including ARCH (Advanced Research Computing at Hopkins) Please contact WSE IT for information.

Who Purchases CS Research Computers?

CS IT does not purchase research equipment. Although CS IT might offer you some advice on the equipment you plan to purchase, in regards to how it relates to utilizing our server room resources, CS faculty and researchers either:

1) spec out their own equipment, and then purchase it with assistance from the CS office,

or

2) request WSE IT help you spec out your servers. WSE IT is familiar with research systems solutions and is an excellent resource when planning out your related purchases. You might still require assistance from the CS office to do the actual purchasing.

Where to store and run your research computers

CS IT manages the Malone Hall Server Room, and you can contact us to discuss if that is an option for your server(s). We will discuss with you your power and cooling needs, based upon the hardware you'd be running, so that we can see if your system(s) would be a good fit for our server room resources. Besides providing power and cooling, we also provide you access to our CS networks (public or private.) Although CS IT will not install, configure, or administer your research computers in our server room, you can request WSE IT to assist you with those functions.

And what about the CS Lab computer systems?

The CS Lab computer systems are primarily available for course work. We do allow some light research on those systems, where the research does not greatly affect CPU and memory resources. Check with CS IT Support if you have questions.