Administrative Information

How to get an account

Definitions and procedures

The CUNY-HPCC operates on a cost recovery scheme, which mandates that all accounts be linked to research projects or class accounts. Research accounts are those associated with projects sponsored by the Principal Investigator (PI) who leads the project. These accounts are associated with the project’s title, funding, and duration. Class accounts are for the duration of the class and are associated with the instructor or lecturer. No other accounts are permitted.  

A Principal Investigator (PI) at CUNY is defined as the lead researcher responsible for the design, execution, and management of a research project. The PI ensures compliance with regulations and oversees the project’s financial aspects. The PI is a faculty member or a qualified researcher at CUNY who has the authority to apply for research funding and manage the project.

The procedure to open an account is as follows:

Step 1: Creation of a sponsor account (PI account) - form A or B. At this step, the PI must create an account for themselves and provide information about the project title, funding, and duration. The request for resources is not mandatory.

Step 2: Upon creating the account, the PI will receive a unique code that must be shared with members of a group (students and postdocs) who require an account on HPCC.

Step 3: Members of the research group (lab) and academic collaborators can apply for an account at CUNY-HPCC by using form C, D, E, or F. It is mandatory to use the code mentioned in Step 2 (from the CUNY PI) in these forms.

Step 4: The PI should assign students to their project.

Accounts overview

All users of HPCC resources must register with HPCC to obtain an account as outlined in the table below. Users are encouraged to create an account on the HPCC web portal at:

hpchelp.csi.cuny.edu

Each user account is issued to an individual user and should not be shared. HPCC will communicate exclusively via CUNY emails to users from groups A to E. For users from groups F and G, communication will be facilitated through their verified work accounts, CCed to the CUNY collaborator (for group F only). Additionally, if resources are available and at the discretion of the CUNY-HPCC director, external researchers can obtain an external research account (type G) at CUNY-HPCC by renting HPC resources and paying the full cost recovery fee in advance. Please contact the HPCC director for further details.

User accounts for:	Type	Conditions	Renuwal cycles	Conditions	Mandatory conditions
Faculty, Research Staff	A	Renews every year at the beginning of Fall semester	Unlimited	Non renewed accounts are disabled in 15 days from renewal date, data in home directory is removed after 90 days. Backup data have rollover time of 30 days.	CUNY EID, Valid CUNY e-mail
Adjunct Faculty	B	Renews every semester (Fall/Spring)	Unlimited	Non renewed accounts are disabled in 15 days from renewal date, data in home directory is removed after 90 days. Backup data have rollover time of 30 days.	CUNY EID, Valid CUNY e-mail.
Doctoral Graduate Students	C	Renews every year the beginning of Fall semester	14	Non renewed accounts are disabled in 15 days from renewal date, data in home directory is removed after 90 days. Backup data have rollover time of 30 days.	CUNY EID, Valid CUNY E-mail, For PhD students the first E-mail is their GC E-mail address. Second mail is the college E-mail.
Master Students	D	Renews every semester (Fall/Spring)	8	Non renewed accounts are disabled in 15 days from renewal date, data in home directory is removed after 90 days. Backup data have rollover time of 30 days.	CUNY EID, Valid CUNY e-mail. First E-mail is the college E-mail address.
Undergraduate Students	E	Renews every semester (Fall/Spring)	8	Non renewed accounts are disabled in 7 days from renewal date, data and home directory are removed after 15 days. No backup of any data.	CUNY EID, Valid CUNY e-mail. First E-mail is the college E-mail address. These accounts are for class only Undergraduate students doing research work must have faculty sponsor and be registered in a project led by legitimate PI.
Academic Collaborators	F	Renews once a year (Fall) for the duration of a project	Unlimited	Non renewed accounts are disabled in 15 days from renewal date, data in home directory is removed after 90 days. Backup data have rollover time of 30 days.	other institution EID, work e-mail and valid CUNY collaborator E-mail
Public and Private Sector Partners	G	No Renewal. Good only for the duration of contract.	NA	Account expires at the date of expiring of the contract.	state/federal ID, verified work e-mail.Advanced pay of full cost for rented resource.

Users who missed renewal for less than 90 days should communicate with HPCC via e-mail to hpchelp@csi.cuny.edu for account recovery. All users must inform HPCC for changes it their academic status. It is mandatory to specify information (or NA) on all points from below list. Please do not forget to provide information about past and pending publications and funded projects and information about your local available resources (local servers and workstations/desktops only). Think carefully about the resources needed and try to estimate as accurate as possible. Note that by applying for and obtaining an account, the user agrees to the HPCC End User Policy (EUP) and Mandatory Security Requirements for Access (MSRA).

Required Information for opening of HPCC account. Please provide information in all fields and/or mark NA when needed.

For All CUNY Faculty, Staff And Graduate Students (A ,B,C,D)
Full name as stated at the CUNY ID card (e.g. John Samuel Doe):
CUNY EID and valid CUNY e-mail (e.g. John A. Smith 22341356 jsmith@csi.cuny.edu):
CUNY Academic status ( faculty, adjunct faculty, PhD student, MS student, research staff):
Primary Affiliation within CUNY - campus name and Department ( e.g Hunter College, Biology):
Secondary CUNY affiliation if any. Provide campus name and Department (e.g. Graduate Center, Biology):
Name, department and college affiliation of PI/Advisor (e.g. John Smith, Biology, Hunter College):
If out of College of Staten Island provide description of local resources available. Please state NONE if you do not have access to local computational resources. Otherwise provide: College (e.g. Hunter) Type of resource (e.g. Department cluster): - number of nodes: - number of cores per node: -- memory per node: - total number of GPU for server: - number of GPU per node: - type of GPU (list of all types e.e. 2 x K20m, 4 x K80):
Resources needed for the project: - CPU Cores (e.g 1000): - GPU options (e.g 2 x V100/16 GB): - V100/16 GB - - V100/32 GB - - L40/48 GB - - A30/24 GB - - A40/24 GB - - A100/40 GB - - A100/80 GB - - Storage Space (above 50 GB) - Backup of data (Y/N): - Archive of data (Y/N):
Title of the project:
Short Description of the project (up to 100 words):
Funding sources of the project (e.g. NSF grant #, CUNY):
Consent that HPCC will be cited properly (see our wiki for details) in all your published work including conference presentations, posters and talks.
Number of refereed publications relevant to the project:
Pending publication relevant to the project:
For All External (not CUNY) Project Collaborators and Researchers (F,G)
Full name as stated at the state/federal ID or EID from other Academic Institution (e.g. John Samuel Doe):
Affiliation outside CUNY if any(e.g. Rutgers University) and valid professional e-mail: ( e.g. John Doe, Rutgers University, jd@rutgers.edu):
Department at NON CUNY Academic Institution (e.g. MIS Rutgers):
Non CUNY-email (collaborator/external contact):
Status of the collaborator (Academic: e.g. Professor; Partner: e.g. NVIDIA lab):
Status of the external researcher(s) (e.g. principal architect NVIDIA):
Resources needed (example: Cores 100; Time 10 000 hours Memory per core 8 GB, GPU cores 2 GPU hours 100 Storage 100GB):
Description of available local resources. Please state NONE if you do not have access to local computational resources. Otherwise provide: type of computational (cluster, advanced workstation): - number of nodes: - number of cores per node: -- memory per node: - total number of GPU for server: - number of GPU per node: - type of GPU (list of all types e.e. 2 x K20m, 4 x K80):
Consent that HPCC will be cited properly (see our wiki for details) in all your published work including conferences and talks.
For All CUNY Graduate and Undergraduate Classes (E)
Full name as stated at the CUNY ID card (e.g. John Samuel Doe):
CUNY EID and valid CUNY e-mail (e.g. 22341356):
Valid CUNY e-mail. Public emails are not accepted (e.g. azho@cix.csi.cuny.edu):
Class ID (e.g. CS 220):
Class Section (e.g. 02):
College (e.g. Baruch College):
Name of the Professor:
Term (e.g. Fall 2025):

Upon creation, every research user account is provided with a home directory of 50 GB (with a maximum of 10,000 files on /global/u) mounted as /global/u/<userid>. If necessary, a user may request an increase in the size of their home directory. The HPC Center will endeavor to accommodate reasonable requests. If you anticipate having more than 10,000 files, please compress several small files into a single larger zip file. Please ensure that only organized and relevant information is stored in your space to optimize the utilization of the existing storage.

Student class accounts (group d) are provided with a home directory of 10 GB. Please note that class accounts and data will be deleted 30 days after the semester concludes, unless otherwise agreed upon. Students are responsible for backing up their own data prior to the end of the semester.

Upon account establishment, only the user has read/write access to their files. The user can modify their UNIX permissions to grant others in their group read/write access to their files.

Kindly inform the HPC Center if user accounts require removal or addition to a specific group. Please refer to the policies outlined below for account management. It is important to note that accounts are not perpetual and will be removed if they are not accessed or active (as detailed below).

User accounts policies

The CUNY HPCC implements stringent security measures for user account management. The institution employs a “account period” system. Account periods vary depending on the account type: one year for accounts in A, C, E, and F categories, and one semester for accounts in B and D categories. All accounts undergo periodic reviews, and inactive accounts are promptly removed. All student accounts automatically expire and are deleted after each semester, unless an advisor requests an extension.

User accounts for groups A, C, E, and F must be renewed annually by September 30th. User accounts in groups B and D must be renewed within two weeks after each semester. Accounts that remain inactive for one account period or are not renewed are automatically disabled or locked and will be deleted 60 days after the lockout. The deletion of a specific account signifies the permanent removal of all data associated with that account.

Reset Password

Users must use automatic password reset system. Click on Reset Password. Upon resetting the users will get their individual security token on the e-mail address registered with HPCC.

Close of account

If a user wishes to close their account, please contact the CUNY at HPCHelp@csi.cuny.edu. Supervisors who wish to modify the access of their researchers and/or students should contact the HPC to remove, add, or modify access. User accounts that are not accessed or renewed for more than one year and one day will be purged along with any data associated with the account. User accounts that are not renewed on time will be locked, and users must contact HPCC to recover access.

Message of the day (MOTD)

Users are encouraged to read the "Message of the day” (MOTD), which is displayed to the user upon logging onto a system. The MOTD provides information on scheduled maintenance time when systems will be unavailable and/or important changes in the environment that are of import to the user community. The MOTD is the HPC Center’s only efficient mechanism for communicating to the broader user community as bulk email messages are often blocked by CUNY SPAM filters.

Required citations

The CUNY HPC Center appreciates the support it has received from the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is the policy of NSF that researchers who are funded by NSF or who make use of facilities funded by NSF acknowledge the contribution of NSF by including the following citation in their papers and presentations:

This research was supported, in part, under National Science Foundation Grants: CNS-0958379, CNS-0855217, ACI-1126113 and OAC-2215760 (2022) and the City University of New York High Performance Computing Center at the College of Staten Island.

The HPC Center, therefore, requests its users to follow this procedure as it helps the Center to demonstrate that NSF’s investments aided the research and educational missions of the University.

Reporting requirements

The Center reports on its support of the research and educational community to both funding agencies and CUNY on an annual basis. Citations are an important factor that is included in these reports. Therefore, is mandatory users to send copies of research papers developed, in part, using the HPC Center resources to hpchelp@csi.cuny.edu. Accounts for users who violate that requirement may not be renewed. Reporting results obtained with HPC resources also helps the Center to keep abreast of user research requirement directions and needs.

Funding of computational resources and storage

Systems at HPC Center are purchased with grants from National Science Foundation (NSF), grants from NYC, a grant from DASNY and a grant from CUNY's office of the CIO. In addition all systems in condo tier are purchased with direct funds from research groups. The largest financial support comes from NSF MRI grants (more than 80% of all funding). CUNY own investment constitute 8.6% of all funds. Here is the list of all grants for CUNY-HPCC.

PFSS and GPU Nodes: NSF Grant OAC-2215760 (operational)

DSMS NSF Grant ACI-1126113 (server is partially retired)

BLUE MOON, Grant NYC 042-ST030-015 (operational)

CRYO, Grant DASNY 208684-000 OP (operational)

ANDY, NSF Grant CNS-0855217 and the New York City Council through the efforts of Borough President James Oddo ( server is fully retired)

APPEL, New York State Regional Economic Development Grant through the efforts of State Senator Diane Savino (operational)

PENZIAS, The Office of the CUNY Chief Information Officer ( Server is partially retired)

SALK, NSF Grant CNS-0958379 and a New York State Regional Economic Development Grant (Server is fully retired)