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Customer Specialist Servers

If the DSH HPC Cluster is unsuitable for your work, you may be able to request one or more dedicated Customer Specialist Servers to carry on work for your project. Customer Specialist Servers are custom-built and configured on a case-by-case basis, with each request being subject to an approval and discussion process, the outcome of which is dependent on both your needs and the resources that we have available, and may be provided on a time-limited basis.

The default Customer Specialist Server is a fairly barebones RedHat Enterprise Linux v8.x virtual machine with above-average hardware specs -- very little software is installed on the servers by default, although all Customer Specialist Servers have access to the DSH Artifactory allowing many software packages to be be self-installed. If you have any particular software or configuration requirements for your server, please be sure to specify these in your request using as much detail as possible.

Note that only a project's Information Asset Owner (IAO) or Information Asset Administrator (IAA) can request creation of a standalone Customer Specialist Server. We ask that you provide us with a MINIMUM set of requirements because resources are limited and must be shared based on need, so if you ask for too much there is a much higher chance that your request will be rejected.

Requesting a Customer Specialist Server

Our configurations are always completely dependent on the needs of the user -- we will work together to figure out what you need, and then our team will put it together for you. To do this, we broadly need to determine four things:

  1. What hardware you need -- specifically, CPU, RAM, storage, and GPUs (if any)
  2. What software you need
  3. How long you need to use it
  4. What sort of configuration environment you want us to create for you (optional)

To request that a Customer Specialist Server be created for your project, please get the project's IAO or IAA to create a Data Safe Haven - General DSH Enquiry ticket in MyServices, and mention that you want a "Customer Specialist Server", along with the following information:

  • Your project's five-digit CaseRef number.
  • Answers to the following questions, where applicable:
    • Do you have specific minimum Storage, CPU, or RAM requirements? Do you require any other hardware?
    • Do you require any specialty software to be installed (e.g. JupyterLab, Rstudio, etc.)?
    • Do you have any other specific configuration or operational needs that we should be aware of (e.g. mounting a project share)?
    • What is the timeline for your study, and how long do you expect to require these computing resources (if these timelines differ)?