Service Description
NCSA assesses a standard Infrastructure Support Fee to provide advanced technology services, and support computing infrastructure and networking services conducive to the needs of employees working in a high-performance computing environment that the NCSA facility provides. Services include project software support, ticketing systems, email services, wiki services, backup services, cybersecurity services, machine room support, advanced interaction space, and high-speed networking outside the specific needs of the high-performance computing systems. A complete Service Listing is available upon request.
Charging Policy
Internal Users
- Users are assessed the ISF on a monthly basis at $194.54* automatically broken out over all the funds a staff member is paid on, based on their % FTE on the specific fund. These ISF charges are assessed “one month in arrears” so actual labor charges are used as the allocation basis.
- Internal user is defined as the ultimate source of funds within the University of Illinois System, or whose funds flow through the U of I system through sponsored programs. These include academic, research, administrative and auxiliary areas which purchase the service to support their work at the system. Federal grants administered by the universities are considered internal customers.
- All NCSA technical employees, faculty, students, as well as non-NCSA technical employees located within NCSA facilities utilize and should be assessed these NCSA ISF charges.
- However, we have historically forced some fees to be paid with an ICR for grants that didn’t have the ISF language included in the budget. Although in more recent times, we have been including the ISF fee in all submitted proposals.
- The groups under the Administration Directorate within NCSA are exempt, as these people do not require access to the high-performance computing systems provided in the Service Listing to do their jobs.
- Business Office
- Administrative Support Office
- Public Affairs
- Human Resources
- For graduate or undergraduate technical students with less than $500 of labor charges in a given month, the fee is waived for that month, to prevent ISF charges from exceeding their labor charges for that month, with the additional basis that if their labor charges were that low for the month, there is a presumption that they did not utilize the ISF services very much in that month. With this in mind, waivers can be granted for these students, faculty, and staff that are not using the high-performance computing system services.
- External Users
- NCSA does not offer the Infrastructure Support Fee to external users.
- External user is defined as an organization or individual whose ultimate source of funds is outside of the U of I System. External users include students and any members of faculty or staff acting in a personal capacity, and the general public. Affiliated hospitals or other universities are considered external users unless the System has subcontracted with them as part of a grant or contract.
Biennially, the ISF service rate is reviewed and recalculated to ensure that customers are provided with the tools and infrastructure to allow employees to stay efficient and effective in their roles. If there is a reason to exempt an employee, a justification needs to be provided and a waiver can be generated by the approving officer.
Billing
The NCSA Accountant will run the ISF Tool around the middle of the month, after the monthly financial statements release. The processed ISF charges are assessed for the previous month and considers all PZAREDS transactions that occurred. This process results in 1 month in arrears (e.g. April 2021 ISF charges will be posted in May 2021).
For non-NCSA departments, ISF Invoices will be sent out to the applicable contact person on file.
Contacts
For Technical Questions, please reach out to Douglas Fein (genius@illinois.edu)
For Waiver Applications, please reach out to Angela Douglas (ajdougla@illinois.edu)
For Financial and Billing Concerns, please reach out to the NCSA Business Office (faaccount@ncsa.illinois.edu) or Richelle Lu (rlu@illinois.edu)
For Proposal Inclusions, please reach out to the Proposal Development Staff (NCSA-proposals@lists.ncsa.illinois.edu)
Service Listing as of July 1, 2019
Service Area | Current Service Name | Current Service Level |
Data Services | Sympa/Proxmail/LDAP lists | 24x7 for mail delivery subsystem, 8-5 for list management related questions. Lists supported in ncsa.illinois.edu domain only. New mailing lists setup in the lists.ncsa.illinois.edu space. |
Data Services | SMTP AUTH/relaying, forwarding | 24x7, moving forwarding to outside relay hosts in HA/failover configuration. Allowing forwarding for 1 year for exited employees. |
Data Services | Ticket Tracking | Jira is used as the NCSA ticketing environment. All activities and support go through the Jira processes. |
Data Services | Web Services | 24x7 support for Web server subsystem with minimal downtime -- keeping server and Apache running. 8-5 for user support. Public www and internal sites are supported 24x7. Special services are supported for the NCSA www site. Allow sites in ncsa.illinois.edu domain with wordpress standard setup. Provide all webstats for standard setup web servers. No script debugging. |
Data Services | AFS Services | 24x7 for all data subsystem, 8-5 for user support Create space in the ncsa.uiuc.edu cell for projects, Web/FTP sites, etc. All storage provided to core NCSA activities. AFS is now mirrored to the crashplan environment as quickly as it can backup. |
Data Services | Public Linux system | 8-5 access to the running public linux, for basic linux tools and operation |
Data Services | Version Control Servers | New server is running latest svn with web interface. Access to groups now in ldap. GitLab is also in place to operate all the GIT operations for internal NCSA projects. |
Data Services | Wiki Services | Confluence Wiki for NCSA staff use with LDAP integration, will start with NCSA Staff Kerberos users only. 24x7 support for wiki server with minimal downtime -- keeping server and confluence running. 8x5 for user support and site setup. Spaces can be setup for NCSA projects and teams. |
Data Services | Kerberos Support | 24x7 authentication subsystem support 8x5 for user questions/issues including setup on NCSA workstations and servers. |
Data Services | LDAP Services | Provide LDAP directory with kerberos auth or OTP. |
Data Services | Identity support | Operation of the identity website and full support for password changes and group management for all NCSA projects. |
Data Services | OTP Support | RSA SecurID, funded by Blue Waters. Token distribution through helpdesk for critical staff and cluster users. Now running in Security VM infrastructure DUO support via the identity system. With full support for all external users. |
Data Services | Slack Services | slack.com service with persistent chat rooms. With 8x5 support for user issues. Hosted under the name ncsa-at-illinois.slack.com |
Data Services | Virtual Machines | VMFarm hosting infrastructure to support across-the-board services No Support for user created or operated VMs under ISF. |
Data Services | MySQL services | 24x7, minimal downtime for servicing. Databases can be setup for NCSA projects and teams. |
Data Services | Linux Software & Licensing | Running services off of free CentOS with no licensing costs. |
Data Services | Backup Services | Crashplan Pro E support for desktop and server systems up to 50GB per machine. Larger machines may be supported as "business case" is made. Server supported 24x7, User backup and restore 8x5 |
Security | Incident Response | IRST provides 24x7 incident response. Alerts are actively reviewed during regular business hours, and the IRST team is on-call 24x7. |
Security | Network Monitoring and Response | IRST monitors all NCSA networks. Bro NSM monitoring is 24x7 and alerts are configured to notify IRST. Netflow monitoring is also provided and also is configured to notify IRST of anomalous activity 24x7. Create and maintain systems that automatically respond to high confidence attacks. |
Security | Host Monitoring | IRST collects syslogs from any host that wishes to send us their traffic, and requires this of critical servers. OSSEC is used to monitor for system changes, and MONIT is used to monitor system resources. |
Security | Security Consulting | IRST provides security consulting as needed for NCSA infrastructure changes and projects. This also includes risk assessment and reviews. |
Security | Vulnerability Assessment | IRST provides weekly scans of NCSA public IP space and works with admins of exposed systems to resolution. |
Security | Security Mitigation | Keeps abreast of security news and alerts appropriate parties of potential for exposure, mitigation methods and upgrade paths. 8x5 for non-emergencies. 24x7 as needed. |
Security | Security Policy and Audits | IRST develops department level security policy for NCSA and meets with campus to make sure these are congruent with campus’ policies, requesting formal exceptions as needed. IRST further audits NCSA to ensure compliance with departmental and University policy. |
Security | Security Training | IRST provides regular security training events for new staff and promotes important security news and information in NCSA staff newsletters. |
Security | Certificate Service | Generate and Manage Certificates for NCSA and project related domains. |
Security | Bastion Hosts | Provide multi-factor bastions hosts for all NCSA users |
Networking | Wired Networking | Up to (3) 10/100/1000Mbps PoE ports per user for office systems. Default is only (1) Center-wide IPv6 available. UPS mitigated and generator supported connectivity to withstand power outages. Wired network ports user-configurable to provide direct, un-firewalled access to NCSA HPC resources (as well as offsite systems). Network ports activated by request Multiple optional firewalled networks for user workstations to meet various degrees of protection. Network connectivity for NCSA projectors, AV and Teleconferencing systems, and meeting rooms. Printers isolate onto private networks. Full lifecycle management to meet the network needs of ISF-funded services located in NCSA data centers. Local on-site / hands-on troubleshooting for all services provided |
Networking | Wireless Networking | Center-wide NCSA-net wireless network access provided to all staff on NCSA IP space for access restrictions and more synchronized authentication Troubleshooting provided for client wireless, as well as interfacing with CITES on behalf of users. |
Networking | IPAM, DNS and DHCP | Manage departmental IP address allocations and ARIN AS for all systems covered by ISF DHCP address assignment for all systems covered by ISF DNS resolution for all systems covered by ISF DNS management, including domain setup and subdomain delegation from campus as needed Process DNS/DHCP changes either manually or via the self-service web-based activation process Maintain patch mapping databases to assist in tracking down hosts for security and E911. |
Networking | External Connectivity | Provide external network connectivity to UIUC networks/services, as well as robust access to R&E commodity networks, such as dedicated Internet2, ESnet, MREN, and OmniPoP at over 440Gbps of WAN connectivity Provide remote access VPN connectivity into the NCSA network via IPSec and SSL VPN clients for staff. |
Networking | Network Monitoring and analytics. | Rich end extensive network monitoring for quick identification and resolution to connectivity and performance problems. |
Database Services | Identity Data Hosting and Support | 8x5 support of database and processes used to support NCSA employee identity services. |