The CHPC Cloud System is a CentOS-based cloud computing infrastructure powered by Openstack and open source storage software Ceph. Openstack provide services like server virtualization, block & object storage systems, software defined networking, an image repository, a web based dashboard and authentication.You can read more about Openstack and its various projects.

The Centre for high performance Computing (CHPC) hosts an OpenStack cloud with more than 2592 CPU cores and over 4.4PB of storage, offering resources such as:

• Compute Resource: provides you with access to a large set of CPU & RAM and are provisioned on a per Instance basis.

• Storage Resource: Block & Object storage functionality based on the open source software 'Ceph'. Ceph provides a scalable and highly available storage solution across many commodity servers.

• Networking Resource: provides 10Gbps Internet connectivity, 10Gbps inter-host and 240Gbps inter-rack network connectivity using Openstack's Software Defined Networking (SDN).

Fees for using the CHPC cloud system

The cloud resources are allocated on per project basis, then several instances are provisioned based on the available resources allocated to the project. The billing is calculated by allocation not by percentage of utilization. The current billing fees are calculated as follows:

• R0.23 per vCPU hour.

• R0.14 per GB hour of vMemory(vRAM).

• R0.0017 per GB hour of storage (volumes, images and object storage).

The Cloud is now open to a broader community of researchers. Apply today and start using our resources. A new project account creation on the Cloud user database can be requested through the application process. Upon acquiring cloud user account and submitting a project on our cloud user database, we will send you an email with further instructions.

Cloud users are expected to:

• Make appropriate use of Cloud resources and use good social behavior.

• Do not share private ssh keys or login information.

• Cite the Cloud in any papers describing research.

• Submit tickets to the CHPC support ticketing system when encountering technical issues not covered by the Cloud support documentation.

Already a Cloud user? Login to the Cloud Console and get started with running your analysis.

As an OpenStack cloud end user, you can provision your own resources within the limits set by cloud administrators.

The examples in this guide show you how to perform tasks by using the following methods:

• OpenStack dashboard: Use this web-based graphical interface, code named horizon, to view, create, and manage resources.

• OpenStack command-line clients: Each core OpenStack project has a command-line client that you can use to run simple commands to view, create, and manage resources in a cloud and automate tasks by using scripts.

As a cloud end user, you can use the OpenStack dashboard to provision your own resources within the limits set by administrators. You can modify the examples provided in this section to create other types and sizes of server instances.

Access this link https://openstack.chpc.ac.za in your browser and login using the credentials provided.

Projects are organizational units in the cloud and are also known as tenants or accounts. Each user is a member of one or more projects. Within a project, a user creates and manages instances.

From the Project tab, you can view and manage the resources in a selected project, including instances and images. You can select the project from the drop-down menu at the top left. If the cloud supports multi-domain model, you can also select the domain from this menu.