Qualified Free Access to Advanced Compute Resources with NSF's Jetstream2 and ACCESS
A Q&A with David Hancock and Jennifer Taylor
NSF-funded Jetstream and now Jetstream2 resource providers have, for about a decade, served up advanced and high performance compute resources to researchers and education programs approved for free allocations through NSF's ACCESS program.
This coordination of Jetstream2 and ACCESS has helped many otherwise under-resourced research and education projects succeed. And now, with the growing emphasis on data- and compute-intensive programs on our campuses, and a need to find an "on-ramp" to the nation's advanced cyberinfrastructure, many more institutions will obtain ACCESS allocations and look to the cloud-based Jetstream2 program for a wide variety of in-demand high performance compute resources.
For some background and a look at the process and where to start, CT visited with Jetstream2 PI David Hancock and Jetstream2 Education, Outreach, and Training Leader Jennifer Taylor, speaking to us from their Jetstream2 home base at Indiana University-Bloomington.
Mary Grush: David, as the Jetstream/Jetstream2 PI, could you tell us a little about how Jetstream and Jetstream2 began and the history of establishing them? How are these programs funded?
David Hancock: The initial conception of Jetstream occurred about 10 years ago with a National Science Foundation award in 2014, starting as a pilot and production system for deploying a new high performance infrastructure that would broaden access for individual researchers and education programs that need advanced or HPC resources.
Building on that, the project that we currently reference most today, is Jetstream2. It began in 2020 and is now in its third year of operation. Jetstream and Jetstream2 are separate awards from different NSF programs, but they have operated concurrently, each contributing to the momentum.
These NSF awards are intended for five operational years. So we currently have two more years of operations — actually about two and a half years at this point. After its third year, Jetstream2 will be up for potential renewal of the resource.
Grush: Jenn, given your extensive interactions with users, could you speak about how Jetstream and now especially Jetstream2 work, and tell us about obtaining allocations?
Jennifer Taylor: Sure. The original Jetstream was part of an NSF program called XSEDE, which later became, and is still called ACCESS. The process of getting access to the resources provided by these programs starts with creating your ACCESS ID and applying for and receiving an ACCESS allocation. So the model of access is for potential users to apply for allocations, which are kind of like small grants. The allocations are typically awarded for one year.
Jetstream and now Jetstream2 are referred to as resource providers for the ACCESS program, so ACCESS and Jetstream/Jetstream2 are very closely enmeshed.
Grush: These days, are the resources in the cloud?
Taylor: Jetstream2 is a cloud computing environment. So all of our resources exist in the cloud, available on demand once you've applied for and received your allocation.
Jetstream2 is a cloud computing environment. So all of our resources exist in the cloud, available on demand once you've applied for and received your allocation.
At that point, you have the ability to launch virtual machines, also called instances, on Jetstream2. And you have full admin access to them. You can install whatever software that you might have the license for, as well as applications from our software collection. You have a lot of ownership of these resources.
Grush: Can users define the kind of resources they'll need? How can they qualify for the level of resources they decide they'll need?