Resource allocation#
DKRZ resources are allocated to projects. New projects can be requested by existing DKRZ users or after creating a new DKRZ user account.
Purpose of DKRZ resources#
DKRZ is open to all interested research groups working in the field of climate and earth system modeling. International research groups might be accepted if they contain a significant German contribution or provide services in compensation to German groups. This usually requires that the principal investigator (PI) is affiliated with a German research institution. DKRZ resources can only be used for non-commercial purposes.
Submission of proposals for new and ongoing projects#
To apply for resources from the public share (community project), a leading scientist has to submit a project proposal.
Proposals can be submitted each year from September 1. to October 31. (project start January 1. following year) and from March 1. to April 30. (project start July 1. that year).
Resources are granted for 12 months. Additional resources for the ongoing allocation period can be requested at either date. Existing projects have to submit a report on their work when they apply for a new allocation period.
Request documents and reports now have to stay below certain page limits. The website will remind you of the maximum number of pages for each document. Furthermore, the minimum font size for the text body is 9pt.
To help you plan for your proposals, here are the limits for each type of document.
Normal project |
Joint project |
|
|---|---|---|
First proposal for 12 months |
8 |
20 |
Proposal for additional resources |
5 |
15 |
Report |
2 |
15 |
Any partially submitted proposals for new projects which have missed the deadline will be deleted from the database.
Resource properties#
Different resources have different policies attached to them which define how you use them and what happens over the course of the allocation period and after it. Specific information to each resource is available when you request them. Here is a quick overview to give you an impression.
Compute resources expire after three months. You can check on luv.dkrz.de how much you have to consume in the current three month period to avoid compute time expiring.
Disk storage like Levante storage can be used during the entire allocation period but you have to request the storage again for the next allocation period. Space for existing data can be requested in special cases but the general approach should be to move them to archive during the allocation period.
Archive storage has to be requested only for data that you want to put into archive in addition to any data you might already have there. This also means that any archive capacity you may not use until the end of the allocation period, will expire. Existing data can stay in archive until the project ends plus one year. No need to request them again. In the case of long term archive, the data will stay for ten years after the project ended.
If you request additional resources during an ongoing allocation period, these resources will be added to what you already got for the current allocation period. In the case of compute resources, this means that you have to consume them over a shorter period of time because you are already in the middle of the allocation period.
Additional resources can be requested for various reasons. In any case, you have to declare experiments or activities for which you need the resources. This may be experiments you want to do in addition to the ones you already declared in the initial request for the current allocation period. It may also turn out that you need more resources for the experiments you initially planned. Then you have to calculate which experiments or simulation years of a larger experiment you cannot perform with the given resources and only request those.
Resources for pre-/post-processing#
Please remember to request compute time for data processing in addition to what you need for your model runs. All pre- and post-processing must be performed via the slurm scheduler and therefore require allocated compute resources.
GPU resource#
A substantial number of nodes are equipped with four A100 GPUs each. You should request this resource if your model is programmed to make use of the GPUs provided.
If you want to use the system for remote visualization, you also should request the GPU resource. While remote visualization with software rendering is also possible on normal nodes, many visualization tools can benefit from the hardware acceleration provided by the GPU nodes.
As with most other resources, you cannot use the GPU resource without an allocation.
Early bird proposals#
If you submit your proposal until two weeks before the actual deadline, DKRZ offers to check your proposal so you can find a solution to any problems we may see from our point of view.
Review process#
Proposals for new and ongoing projects are reviewed by our Scientific Steering Committee. Projects are informed of the outcome of the review one to two weeks before the new allocation period starts.