Quest High-Performance Computing Cluster
Quest is Northwestern’s high-performance computing cluster. It is housed in the University Data Center. Quest supports a variety of computational workflows to align with the varied needs of researchers in different domains.
Quest has a General Parallel File System (GPFS) backed by a 12 PB capacity IBM Elastic Storage Server (ESS) system to store research data. It also includes a flash-tier scratch space for temporary data storage, and each user has an 80 GB home directory for storing code files and applications.
Please note that Quest is not approved for use with sensitive or restricted data; refer to the Quest Data Security Guidance for details.
Additional details about Quest’s architecture can be found in the Quest technical specifications.
Please include the Acknowledgment of Use when publishing research done using Quest.
Getting Access to Quest
University-Supported General Access
Northwestern provides compute and data storage resources on Quest for use by the entire Northwestern research community at no cost to researchers and for classroom use. Approximately half of Quest’s CPU and most of Quest’s GPU nodes are reserved for General Access. Short-running jobs under 4 hours from General Access users can also utilize open capacity on reserved, Priority Access resources. Quest General Access users can also use the Quest Analytics Nodes and Quest OnDemand for interactive work.
Access to Quest is granted through requests for storage and compute resources. General Access resources provide a set amount of storage or a certain priority level for using compute resources. Compute load on Quest is managed through a fair share mechanism that balances utilization of General Access resources when demand exceeds availability. General Access resources are valid for one year and can be renewed. Compute and storage resources can be shared with other Northwestern researchers who work on the same research project or need access to the same files.
Group-Supported Resources
Specialized or dedicated resources are available to research centers, departments, or schools who have invested in resources on Quest to support their members.
Priority Access Resources
Researchers or research groups requiring compute or storage beyond General Access can purchase Priority Access to compute resources on Quest.
Storage
Researchers can purchase additional Quest storage. Purchased Quest storage does not have backups nor snapshots, and files that are deleted cannot be recovered. Large storage requests are subject to availability. Quest storage is intended only for actively used data on Quest. Therefore, users must be utilizing the storage for high-performance computing purposes to purchase Quest storage.
Compute Resources
Priority Access compute resources are available by purchasing nodes. Purchasing nodes on Quest has many advantages over running stand-alone systems. The nodes are administered by the professionals, including system updates, patches, account management, and troubleshooting, in a facility configured for high-performance computing. The cost of supporting infrastructure for the nodes, such as networking, cooling, and access to Quest storage system is covered by the University.
Standard compute nodes, high-memory nodes, and GPU nodes are all available for purchase. Full node details are available in Purchasing Resources on Quest. Contact quest-help@northwestern.edu with any questions.
Getting Started with Quest
After setting up or getting access to Quest resources, there are tutorials, videos, consultations, and workshops to help you get started using Quest.