While getting access to the RWTH High Performance Computing is easy for RWTH members and for members of the Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) in the context of Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), it is more complicated for external scientists (e.g., NHR projects).

In order to use the RWTH High Performance Computing you need

1. to register in the RWTH Identity Management System (IDM) in order to receive your username (ab123456) and then
2. receive your personal HPC user account.

RWTH members, students and employees, are already registered and have their username (ab123456), with which they can provide their personal HPC account by registering the "RWTH High Performance Computing" service via RegApp.

Members of Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) can use the Identity Provider of FZJ, see Coupon Procedure to receive their User-Id and then provide their personal HPC account by using the SelfService capabilities of the RWTH Identity Management System, see https://rwth-aachen.de/selfservice. Please note that the account life time is not necessarily coupled with a project time. Thus, it might be required to renew the account with the same coupon procedure during a running computing project.

External scientists can get access to the RWTH High Performance Computing only in the context of a computing project that has to be approved by technical and scientific reviewers. External scientists from any German university can write an application, identified by an automatically generated unique application-id, and once reviewers have approved this application, a project-id is assigned and a HPC project account is generated. Alternatively, principle investigators (PI) or persons of contact (PC) can invite externals, also from other countries - as long as the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) has no objection, to participate in an approved computing project as project members. In both cases, externals will receive their username (e.g., ab123456) and their HPC user account as part of a related coupon process. Please consider the following instructions depending on your affiliation and role:

• Getting access as RWTH / FJZ external principle investigator (PI) or person of contact (PC)

• Adding external project members (PM) as RWTH internal PI / PC

• Getting access as RWTH / FZJ external project member (PM)

After receiving the account credentials, you can connect to the cluster.

Getting access as RWTH / FZJ external PI or PC (e.g., NHR projects):

1. Apply for computing time (approval will take some time due to scientific reviewing process). After the approval of the Resource Allocation Board (RAB) you will receive an email with a coupon.

2. Please accept the terms of use and redeem your coupon by following this link:
    
https://idm.rwth-aachen.de/connectMe/redeemcoupon

3. If the entry field for the coupon is empty, please enter your verification code. The verification code will be invalid after successfully completing the process. It might be that you have to redeem an second coupon, if you change your email during the process.

4. Wait for at least 30 minutes in order to get your RWTH account (not the HPC account) deployed / upgraded for the current project

5a. (optional) If you do not have a HPC account already, you can create one with your new RWTH account (e.g., ab123456) in our selfservice (select Hochleistungsrechnen RWTH Aachen).

5b. (optional) If you need to add further project members (PM) without an active HPC account, use the following link to add further members to this project:
    
https://jards.itc.rwth-aachen.de/cluster-access
    
The project members will receive his/her own coupon now in order to create an account in our selfservices (see steps (i.) and (ii.) below).

6. After the PMs have created an HPC account, add the project members to your computing time project in the HPC system.

7. Further actions that the manager (PI / PC) of a HPC project has to take are described in here. 

Further information can be found here.

Getting access as RWTH / FZJ external project member (PM) (e.g., NHR projects):

(i). Wait for your coupon to be triggered by the PI / PC in step (5b.) (see above).

(ii). Follow the steps (2.) to (5a.) (see above).

Adding external project members (PM) as RWTH internal PI / PC:

A PI/PC who is a RWTH employee can use the RWTH IdM partner mechanism to register additional external project members. The PI / PC acts as a sponsor for the external partner and is responsible for this partner. The PI / PC generates a coupon code which the external PM can use to get a RWTH TIM-Id (see below). After the PMs have created an HPC account, add the project members to your computing time project in the HPC system. Further actions that the manager (PI / PC) of a HPC project has to take are described in here. 

Getting access as external PI, PC or PM from FZJ (e.g., JARA / RWTH projects) :Employees of Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) can use the coupon procedure for Forschungszentrum Jülich to access the Identity Management of RWTH Aachen University. In order to set up an access or to extend an existing access, please contact it-services@fz-juelich.de with the subject line "RWTH Couponverfahren". If required, the coupon will be issued by the Forschungszentrum Jülich and can be redeemed here. Please note: This coupon procedure is completely independend to any project period. It might be that you have to extend your account before your project ends. You will receive an email before your account expires. Find more information about the Coupon Procedure here.