User support

Each of the major VSC-institutions has its own user support:

• KU Leuven/Hasselt University: hpcinfo@kuleuven.be

• Ghent University: hpc@ugent.be, for further info, see the web site

• University of Antwerp: hpc@uantwerpen.be, for further info on the CalcUA Core Facility web page

• Vrije Universiteit Brussel: hpc@vub.be, see also our website for VUB-HPC specific info.

• Tier-1 compute: compute@vscentrum.be, Tier-1 cloud: cloud@vscentrum.be, Tier-1 data: data@vscentrum.be.

What information should I provide when contacting user support?

When you submit a support request, it helps if you always provide:

1. your VSC user ID (or VUB netID),

2. contact information - it helps to specify your preferred mail address and phone number for contact,

3. an informative subject line for your request,

4. the time the problem occurred,

5. the steps you took to resolve the problem.

Warning

If you are working in a terminal, please do not provide a screenshot, simply copy/paste the text in your terminal. This is easier to read for support staff, and allows them to copy/paste information, rather than having to retype, e.g., paths.

Below, you will find more useful information you can provide for various categories of problems you may encounter. Although it may seem like more work to you, it will often save a few iterations and get your problem solved faster.

If you have problems logging in to the system

Please provide the following information:

1. your operating system (e.g., Linux, Windows, macOS, …),

2. your client software (e.g., PuTTY, OpenSSH, …),

3. your location (e.g., on campus, at home, abroad),

4. whether the problem is systematic (how many times did you try, over which period) or intermittent,

5. any error messages shown by the client software, or an error log if it is available.

Logging information can easily be obtained from the OpenSSH client, PuTTY and MobaXTerm.

If installed software malfunctions/crashes

Please provide the following information:

1. the name of the cluster your are working on,

2. the name of the application (e.g., Ansys, Matlab, R, …),

3. the module(s) you load to use the software (e.g., R/3.1.2-intel-2015a),

4. the error message the application produces, as well as the location of the output and error files if this ran as a job,

5. whether the error is reproducible,

6. if possible, a procedure and data to reproduce the problem,

7. if the application was run as a job, the jobID(s) of (un)successful runs.

If your own software malfunctions/crashes

Please provide the following information:

1. the location of the source code,

2. the error message produced at build time or runtime, as well as the location of the output and error files if this ran as a job,

3. the toolchain and other module(s) you load to build the software (e.g., intel/2015a with HDF5/1.8.4-intel-2015a),

4. if possible and applicable, a procedure and data to reproduce the problem,

5. if the software was run as a job, the jobID(s) of (un)successful runs.