Charges against allocations for the use of some NCAR computing resources are assessed in General Accounting Units (GAUs).

Click here to learn about charges in the new Yellowstone environment

How charges accrue varies depending on which resources are used. In most cases, they accrue for use of HPC and archival systems. There are two ways to monitor charges against your allocations.

• Once you have an NCAR project and authentication token, you can track charges by checking the GAU tab in the CISL Portal. (No longer available since Bluefire decommissioning.)
• For CSL and NCAR projects, you can also track GAU usage via Database Services Reports.

Systems for which charges accrue

• Bluefire – NCAR's 4,096-processor IBM Power6 cluster. GAU charges reflect processor-hours used by jobs, modified by queue priority and other system factors. Batch jobs on HPC systems are run in queues that have unique characteristics and that may accumulate charges at different rates.
• High-Performance Storage System (HPSS) – Charges accrue based on file access and creation rates as well as total data stored. On HPSS, your account will be charged for files stored even if those files were created on a system for which you are not charged.
• Janus – Allocations and charges for use of this Dell Linux cluster at the University of Colorado, Boulder, are assessed in Service Units (SUs), which are equivalent to Janus core-hours. There are currently no queue priority factors that modify job charges.

NCAR systems for which no charges accrue

Use of these systems does not accrue GAU charges:

• Mirage – Data analysis cluster (Nodes: mirage0 - mirage5)
• Storm – Visualization cluster (Nodes: storm0 - storm5)
• Lynx – No job charges accrue to NCAR users