About the STFC Cloud

What is the STFC Cloud?

The STFC Cloud is a dedicated cloud infrastructure which provides access to compute resources for users across STFC and partner organisations. The STFC Cloud is designed to be flexible and support different use cases from our user communities to enable our users to perform complex data analysis or run services for their own communities.

What services are available on the Cloud?

On the STFC Cloud, users are able to:

• Create and manage VMs

  • VM Flavors Image Types Virtual Machine Best Practises

• Create and manage storage

  • Volumes (Cinder) Volume Management in OpenStack, Shares (Manila) Manila, S3 Object Store (Swift) Swift

• Loadbalancers Octavia

• Application Credentials Application Credentials

We also provide the following additional services on the STFC Cloud:

• Kubernetes Deployment Guide: We provide a guide for deploying Kubernetes Clusters using Cluster API Cluster API Setup

• STFC DockerHub Mirror: A mirror of DockerHub STFC Docker Hub Mirror

• JupyterHub Platform: A platform for users to run training courses for their own communities using Python Notebooks The JupyterHub Platform

• Harbor: A registry to store and manage container images

Common Use Cases on the Cloud

Below is a list of common use cases based on how our user communities use the STFC Cloud.

• Data Analysis as a Service.

• Deploying and managing web services/ web portals.

• Providing training courses for their communities through the JupyterHub Platform Service.

• Utilising GPUs for a range of use cases, including machine learning and remote desktops.

• A compute resource for running scientific computational workloads.

• Developing code for scientific use cases.

We also have case studies for how the STFC Cloud is used by our user communities:

• STFC Cloud Speeds-Up Drug Discovery (2022)

• STFC Cloud delves into dark energy (2022)

Maintenance on the Cloud

We publish our current and upcoming Cloud interventions in our mailing list, Slack channel, and on this page STFC Cloud Service Intervention Published Dates. Links to the mailing list and Slack workspace can be found here: Contact Details .

Getting Started?

• Need to Contact the Cloud? Our contact details can be found here Contact Us

• Getting Started on the Cloud? See our workshops! https://stfc.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CLOUDKB/pages/286490651

• Frequently asked questions can be found here: https://stfc.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CLOUDKB/pages/211943602

Cloud Considerations

• Services built on the STFC Cloud where they need to be highly available must be architected in such a way to do this.

• VMs on the STFC Cloud should not be used as a persistent datastore and have no resiliency of storage.

• If data needs to be backed up, users would need to arrange and set up back ups for data.

• STFC Cloud support covers the management and deployment of resources onto the platform, however any services deployed by users, such as scientific software, would need to be supported by the owners of the service.

• The STFC Cloud cannot be used for the storage or management of medical data.

• Users should not store sensitive data on the STFC Cloud. If you are unsure or have questions about handling potentially GDPR sensitive data, please contact the Cloud Team.

The full Service Level Agreement can be found here: https://stfc.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CLOUDKB/pages/211583144

How do I access to the Cloud?

• New to the Cloud? Contact the Cloud Team here: Contact Us

• Already have access to the Cloud? The Cloud can be access through the web interface.

• Can also interact and manage compute resources in your project in the Cloud using the CLI as well.

Terms of Service and Policies

For policies for using the STFC Cloud, including the Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Service Level Agreement:https://stfc.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CLOUDKB/pages/211681395

For information about Security Compliance: https://stfc.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CLOUDKB/pages/673185793