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Quest Access and Resources

Access to Quest is provisioned in the form of compute and storage resources. These resources are requested and managed through a resource and user management portal. Resource types and tiers are summarized below along with links for managing them.

Use of Quest must be consistent with the Quest Policies and Guidelines, as well as the Rights and Responsibilities for the Use of Central Network and Computing Resources at Northwestern University.

Setting Up Quest Access

Quest access has two layers: an individual user account and membership in one or more Projects with associated compute and storage resources. Projects, resources, and user access are managed through the ColdFront Resource Management portal.

User Accounts

Users gain access to Quest by requesting a new Project on their own or by being added to an existing Project and its resources via ColdFront. Everyone with a Northwestern NetID has access to ColdFront.

Anyone with an active Northwestern NetID is eligible for a Quest user account, including faculty, staff, postdocs, instructors, graduate students, undergraduate students working on sponsored research, and approved external collaborators. User accounts cannot be requested directly and are not provisioned on their own. Rather, individual user accounts are set up when someone is first given access to a computing or storage resource within a Quest Project. Individual user accounts expire six months after a person no longer has access to active resources on Quest.

Most resources on Quest are shared by all users on a Project, but each individual user account also has an 80 GB personal home directory for storing files that cannot be shared with others. Users with access to a compute resource on Quest are also provisioned a 5 TB scratch space directory.

Projects

Projects are the organizational containers for compute and storage resources on Quest. Resources are requested, renewed, and managed at the Project level.

Each Project has assigned roles that determine who can administer it and who can use its resources. See the “Resource Ownership” section below for additional role detail.

Resources can be shared between multiple users in a Project.

Resource Overview

Resource Types and Tiers

Within Projects, users request the specific resources needed for their work. There are two types of resources on Quest: compute and storage. Compute and storage resources are each offered under three access models: General Access (at no cost to the user), Priority Access (available through investment by PI, school/college, departmental, etc.), and Classroom Access (at no cost).

General Access

There are two tiers of General Access compute and storage resources to meet different research needs: Research I and Research II. All resource allocations start at the Research I tier. New Research I compute resource requests are typically approved and set up within a week.

Users requiring additional resources may request a transition to Research II tier with a proposal detailing the need. Transitions from the Research I tier to the Research II tier will be reviewed within a month of submission. Research II applications are evaluated based on the quality and readiness of the proposal and whether available compute and storage resources are appropriate for completing the project successfully.

All General Access resources are allocated for one-year periods and can be renewed annually.

General Access Compute

  • General Access Research I: Appropriate for users expecting to use up to 100,000 compute hours per year, which is equivalent to 12 processor cores running full-time for a year. This usually meets most moderate-scale research needs.
  • General Access Research II: This tier is appropriate for users needing to use between 100,000 and 500,000 compute hours per year.

Wait times before jobs start may vary depending upon how many compute hours have been used through that compute resource. When demand for compute resources exceeds capacity, wait times are determined via a fair share mechanism.

General Access Storage

  • General Access Research I: Appropriate for users needing up to 1 TB of storage.
  • General Access Research II: This tier is appropriate for users needing up to 2 TB of storage.

Researchers with computational needs exceeding 500,000 compute hours per year who prefer not to purchase Priority Access resources (details below) should consult with Northwestern IT Research Computing and Data Services to explore options and resources, including the use of national computing facilities.

Priority Access

Priority Access offers fee-based resources to support workloads that exceed the storage or compute capacity available through General Access. Information about purchased Priority Access resources is available on the Purchasing Resources on Quest page.

Researchers who need access to an existing Priority Access resource should contact the Project Sponsor, Project Lead, or Managers for that project. These roles are responsible for granting user access to resources.

Focused groups have purchased Priority Access resources for use by their researchers:

Classroom Access

Classroom resources are intended for instructional use only and cannot be requested by individual students for their personal coursework. Instructors should request Classroom resources at least one week before the start of their class or workshop to ensure student accounts and access are ready. New classroom storage requests can take up to one week for approval and setup.

Classroom Compute

  • Grants access to compute resources that are equivalent to General Access Research I compute to be shared by all classroom or workshop participants.

Classroom Storage

  • 2 TB of shared storage for the classroom or workshop participants.

Classroom storage resources are allocated for one year and can be renewed annually. Classroom compute resources are allocated to cover use during academic quarters and can be renewed quarterly.

Resource Ownership

Quest resources are grouped into Projects associated with research (General Access and Priority Access resources) or instructional activities (Classroom resources). For each Project, there are several roles that determine what permissions and responsibilities people associated with the Project have.

Project Sponsor

  • Has the ultimate decision-making authority over the Project, associated resources, and user access.
  • Northwestern faculty or staff
  • Typically the Principle Investigator of the research group. For Classroom Projects, the course instructor is the Project Sponsor.
  • One per Project
  • Can also be the Project Lead
  • Permissions:
    • Manage users
    • Request and renew resources

Project Lead

  • Primary requestor and manager of Project resources and access.
  • Northwestern faculty, staff, or graduate student
  • The person who requests the Project is the initial Project Lead; this can be changed later if needed.
  • One per Project
  • Permissions:
    • Manage users
    • Request and renew resources

Project Manager

  • Additional users with permissions to manage Project resources and access.
  • Anyone at Northwestern with an active NetID
  • Optional role; multiple users can be assigned
  • Permissions:
    • Manage users
    • Request and renew resources

Project User

  • Default role for anyone added to a Project who has not been assigned another role
  • Permissions:
    • View project resources
    • No administrative actions

Manage Your Quest Resources

Get Started with Quest

Join Existing Resources

If you are new to Quest and your research group already uses Quest, you are encouraged to use an existing Project rather than requesting new ones. Researchers who need access to an existing Quest resource should contact the Project Sponsor, Project Lead, or Managers for that Project. These roles are responsible for granting user access to resources.

If you are new to Quest and are eligible to join the Genomics Compute Cluster, please fill out the GCC User Registration form.

In all cases above, if you are a new Quest user, an individual Quest user account will be created for you. Requests are typically processed within a week, and you will receive information via email.

Request New Resources

If your research group does not already have access to Quest or you want to request your own resources, you may create your own Project and request Research I General Access resources to begin using Quest or invest in Priority Access.

Managing Resources and Users

Adding/Removing Users

The Project Sponsor, Project Lead, or Project Manager can add or remove users from a Project and its resources.

Upgrading Resources

Active General Access Research I compute and storage resources can be transitioned to Research II if additional resources are required.

Renew Your Resources

General Access compute and storage resources can be renewed by the Project Sponsor, Project Lead, or Project Manager(s) annually. A renewal justification must be provided for all requested resources. Research II compute renewals also require an updated overview of computational methods and estimated resource use, like those provided when initially requesting an upgrade to Research II tier resources.