NeSI Application Support Model

The NeSI policy for management of scientific application software is based on the following principles:

• NeSI will install and maintain software in a central location if it will be useful to a number of users, or if the effort to install it is small.
• Users may install software in their /home or /nesi/project/ directories, provided that they have a license for the software (if needed) that permits the software to be used on NeSI systems.
• NeSI will provide users with a reasonable amount of help when they are installing their own software.

In more detail: Application software will be supported using a three-tier model.

Tier 1

Includes applications (meaning tools, libraries and science applications) which:

1. Have a wide user base among users of the NeSI Compute and Analytics Service, either because they are used by many users within one or many Projects or are easy to install.
2. Are centrally installed, tested (including scaling), optimised, documented and upgraded as new versions become available.
3. The NeSI Applications and/or Computational Science Team staff often (but not always) have in-depth knowledge of the application science – in which case they can provide specialist support to researchers. However, if no in-depth knowledge is available in the team(s), this does not prevent an application from being in Tier 1.
4. Support documentation will be provided, including licensing information and scaling data etc.

Tier 2

Includes applications (meaning tools, libraries and science applications) which:

1. Have a small but important user base, meaning they are used by several users and 1 or several projects.
2. Are centrally installed, standard regression tests are applied (if provided/available) and will be upgraded upon user request and as time permits.
3. NeSI Applications and/or Computational Science Team staff have no “in depth” knowledge of the application.
4. The support documentation provides basic information on how to use the software.

Tier 3

Includes applications (meaning tools, libraries and science applications) that are required by one user, or have very limited use, in which case:

1. NeSI will (if required) provide limited guidance to the user so that they can install the software in their home directory.
2. The user will be responsible for managing this software
3. No support documentation will be provided by NeSI
4. The software will not be listed in the software catalogue

NeSI will publish the current list of software (including all versions), with links to the Support documentation.