Computing infrastructure

The Process

Your administrative manager (usually your unit director) and then a Bilille manager must approve your account creation request. A Lille University IT engineer will then process it.
Administrative manager approval is required for any use of IT resources. Bilille approval verifies that your request falls within the platform's scientific scope.

In Practice

The request is made by email. You must send a mail from your institutional address to your administrative manager, with a copy to bililleuniv-lillefr and hpcuniv-lillefr.

Subject: Request to open an account on the Lille Mesocentre OpenStack Cloud (Bilille project).

Email text: Ask your manager to authorize you to use the Bilille Cloud by replying to your message with "Reply All". Specify your laboratory, the nature of the project, the software used, your contract end date for fixed-term contracts, and any software licenses.

Example email:

Dear Sir/Madam,

As part of my research, I would like to use the HPC resources of Bilille and the Lille University Computing Centre.
I will, therefore, request access to the OpenStack Cloud, which requires your validation.
To do so, simply reply to this email (via reply all) approving my request.

Research Unit and Team: XXXXX / XXXXX
Establishment: XXXXX
End date: XXXXX
Nature of the project: XXXXX
Software(s) used: XXXXX

Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,

Best Practices and Rules of Use

Before using the cloud for the first time, please read the Bilille Cloud charter (PDF). In this document, you will find useful information: VM lifecycle, data confidentiality, obligations in case of publication, etc. The use of the cloud is conditional on the acceptance of the terms of this charter.

Mailing List

Bilille Cloud users are automatically subscribed to the bilille-cloud-usersuniv-lillefr mailing list. This list has two objectives: to allow the dissemination of information relating to the cloud to users (new resources, modifications to the charter, etc.) on the one hand, and to allow users to contact each other on the other hand (to regulate the sharing of resources, for example).

Documentation

All information on cloud configuration can be found on the Univ. Lille Mesocenter documentation: https://hpc-doc.univ-lille.fr/en/docs/category/cloud-openstack/.

Thanks to the pooled funding from the EquipEx+ MuDiS4LS project and the Cross-Disciplinary-Project PIE (Protein-Interaction-Evolution), 22 Nvidia L40S 48Gb GPUs will be progressively installed in the mutualised cluster from late 2024 to mid-2025. In addition, 182TB of storage, usable from the cluster, will be made available for research on these two projects. The use of this storage space is conditional on the acceptance of the mudis4ls-storage charter (PDF).

Request for access procedure can be found on the website of the Univ. Lille Mesocenter: https://hpc.univ-lille.fr/en/request-for-access