We have a new user interface

We released a new version of our user interface, Bryn (https://bryn.climb.ac.uk/). This update contains a lot of new features and gives users more information and control about what’s in their group accounts.

Licence renewal

From now on, licence renewal will be managed directly from Bryn. For this reason, we have extended the current licence until 27th May 2021 so we all have time to familiarise ourselves with the new interface. Users will receive automatic reminders to renew the licence, and, for the Primary Users, it will be as simple as clicking a link.

Lease system on individual VMs

There is a lease system visible on Bryn: it is not enforced yet, but for now we ask Primary Users to assign a “responsible person” (called “assigned user” on Bryn) to each VM in their group.

When the lease system is enforced, the “assigned user” will be responsible for renewing the lease of the VM(s) under their responsibility every two weeks. They will receive an automatic email requiring a simple click. Of course, we will send a notification when the lease system will be officially enforced, but it would be great if the Primary User can assign the “responsible person” to the VMs now.

Why a lease system? Idle/unused VMs are taking up resources that would otherwise be available for the community. A lease system will allow the active VMs to be kept active and to automatically terminate the unused ones, thus releasing unused capacity.

Moreover, CLIMB-BIG-DATA has to become self-sufficient in 4 years and to do so, we are transitioning to a user-pays model with the new usage model being based on this lease system.

To confirm, the lease is not enforced yet. You will receive all further information about when it will be, and we will allow enough time to adjust to the new model.

Moving towards self-sustainability

Concerning the user-pays model, in order for CLIMB-BIG-DATA to continue existing, we are now recovering money from users. If you are submitting a grant and plan to use CLIMB-BIG-DATA for your data analysis, it is important that you get in touch with us to cost the resource into the application. Depending on your needs, we will provide you with a quote and with all the information about your access to the infrastructure. You can read more about the user-pays system here.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.