Blanca: Memorandum of Understanding

The “Blanca” compute cluster is a service provided by Research Computing at University of Colorado Boulder. Blanca aggregates compute nodes contributed by individual researchers into a heterogeneous compute cluster managed by Research Computing.

  • Contributions remain the property of the contributors, and may be fitted with the contributor’s asset tag.
  • Contributions may be removed from the Blanca environment by the contributor should the Blanca environment not sufficiently meet the contributor’s needs. Removal also removes access to the benefits associated with the Blanca environment.
  • Administrative (e.g., “root”) access to the Blanca compute environment, including as deployed on contributed resources, is reserved for Research Computing operational staff and its delegates.
  • Contributions are installed in a CU data center at the discretion of Research Computing.
  • Contributed compute nodes are provisioned with a Linux-based operating system and environment at the discretion of Research Computing.
  • Contributed compute nodes are provisioned with access to Research Computing Core services and the PetaLibrary to the extent such access is technically feasible.
  • Research Computing reserves the right to determine what contributions are accepted into Blanca, with recommended example configurations published on the Research Computing website.
  • Contributed Blanca compute nodes are configured as nodes in a Slurm batch compute cluster.
  • All Blanca compute nodes accept preemptable jobs from all Blanca contributors (and their appointees). These jobs may be preempted when contributors (and their appointees) run jobs to their contributed nodes.
  • Contributors agree to give Research Computing “right of refusal” before surplussing or otherwise disposing of any Blanca contributions. Such contributions are transferred to Research Computing’s custodianship at no cost to Research Computing, and continue to be operated as part of the aggregate Blanca environment for use by all active Blanca contributors (and their appointees). This agreement does not restrict the contributor’s right to remove their Blanca contributions for re-use outside of Blanca.
  • Research Computing reserves the right to update this MOU over time. Any change to the MOU that is found unacceptable by a contributor will not restrict the contributor’s right to remove their Blanca contributions for re-use outside of Blanca.