User Services
New User Information
The New User Information page is intended to quickly guide new users to:
- Learn about our resources
- Request an account on our resources
- Consult the quick start guides for the Grace and Launch clusters
- Know where to find documentation and other information about our resources
- Find out about training available for our resources
- Contact our helpdesk for assistance
User Consulting
The High Performance Research Computing (HPRC) helpdesk provides assistance (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) with regards to, among other things: debugging, code optimization and parallelization, and batch processing.
HPRC also provides technical assistance beyond general consulting under the Advanced Support Program.
Accounts
The computer systems managed by HPRC are available for use free of charge to university faculty, staff, and students who require large-scale computing capabilities. Access to and use of such systems is permitted only for academic research and instructional activity. All other use is strictly prohibited without the approval of the High Performance Research Computing Resource Allocation Committee.
All HPRC users are responsible for knowing and following our policies.
Please visit our account applications page to apply for or renew an account on our resources. Account applications may be submitted at any time. Users working on medium or high intensity projects should also have their principal investigator request a research allocation.
For External Users
HPRC resources are available for use to external users who are actively collaborating with TAMU faculty or staff. HPRC supports TAMU researchers to stimulate the formation of collaborations with outside entities.
Accounts for users at not-for-profit external entities are not charged for usage, but may be added as sub-accounts under a TAMU faculty or staff Principal Investigator (PI).
Accounts for users at commercial for-profit entities are offered at commercial cost recovery rates (Five cents per CPU core hour). TAMU faculty or staff who are collaborating with and supported by external for-profit entities are NOT subject to the commercial rate schedule, however, charges are made for usage by their external collaborators. Industry users will have to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with HPRC to use HPRC resources. Users must apply for and receive their own accounts and may NOT be added as sub-accounts under a TAMU faculty or staff PI.
Determination of active collaboration with external entities and persons will be made annually, and when the TAMU collaborating PI asserts that a collaboration has ended. External users are expected to follow HPRC guidelines with respect to acknowledgement of support for their work.
NOTE: External users must provide their own licenses to use any licensed software on HPRC resources.
For Visiting Scholars, Affiliates, and Collaborators
At a bare minimum, you will need a TAMU assigned NetID which can provide login access to the TAMU campus resources and the HPRC clusters. The issuance of NetIDs is controlled by the TAMU Identity Management Office. A full-time TAMU System faculty or staff employee must sponsor the NetID account request. In addition to a sponsor (PI), the Division of Research requires that collaborators using HPRC resources file a visiting scholars report. Users will need to apply for a Basic account to get started on (using) HPRC resources. From there, their sponsoring PI can provide them "Service Units" (SUs=CPUs x hours) for use.
Training
HPRC offers a variety of short courses covering a range of topics for beginning, intermediate, and advanced users each semester.
We also offer or sponsor workshops on selective subjects with more in depth training conducted by industry vendors and research institutes.

Documentation
The HPRC Knowledge Base includes:
- Our FAQ: A guide for quick solutions to common problems
- Quick start guides on our systems
- User guides on our systems
- Information for the commonly used software packages on our systems