Program Information
In an effort to provide the most comprehensive support to the USC research community, the Center for Advanced Research Computing offers researchers a way to customize their experience with advanced computing systems through the Condo Cluster Program.
The Condo Cluster Program (CCP) is a service available to USC researchers that require dedicated resources for their work. The CCP gives researchers the convenience of having their own dedicated compute nodes on an HPC cluster system, without the responsibility of purchasing and maintaining the nodes themselves.
The compute nodes dedicated to CCP researchers form the Endeavour condo cluster, a high-performance computing cluster similar to CARC's general use cluster, Discovery. All existing condo nodes from CARC projects were migrated to Endeavour and the new cluster was officially launched in November 2020.
The CCP operates on two different models - an annual subscription model and a traditional system purchase model - to provide researchers with flexible and efficient options for their resources.
Annual subscription model
The annual subscription-based model allows research groups to subscribe to their selected number of compute nodes on a yearly basis. The resources that a research group subscribes to will be dedicated for use by their condo job queue. All of the hardware is purchased and maintained by CARC throughout the course of the subscription term.
Detailed information on the CCP's subscription pricing model
Request New Condo Subscription user guide
Traditional purchase model
The second option for CCP resources is the traditional system purchase model. This is a useful option when research groups need to make a bulk purchase using a research grant or departmental budget, and it is also useful for grant proposal budget planning purposes.
Detailed information on the CCP's traditional purchase pricing model
Request New Condo Purchase user guide
Endeavour condo cluster
The Endeavour condo cluster is a dedicated HPC system for Condo Cluster Program users. Users log in to the cluster at endeavour.usc.edu to access their condo nodes. Endeavour's application stack and module system are identical to those of the Discovery cluster; users won’t see any difference between Endeavour and Discovery when using applications.
One key difference between Endeavour and Discovery is configuration of the Slurm job scheduler. The Slurm configurations on Discovery are geared for use on a shared cluster system, but on Endeavour, each research group can have customized Slurm configurations on their condo nodes. For more information about custom Slurm configurations on Endeavour, please contact us at carc-condo@usc.edu.
Detailed information on the Endeavour condo cluster, including how to log in and access the cluster, can be found in the Getting Started with Endeavour user guide. User guides applicable to both Endeavour and Discovery can be found in the HPC Basics user guides section.
What's next?
This is just a starting point for the new Condo Cluster Program. CARC is currently developing more detailed policies. More information will be available in the next 6 months as we upgrade the Endeavour cluster and add more features for CCP users. If you have any questions about the CCP, please contact us at carc-condo@usc.edu.