National Servers Program

The National Servers Program (NSP) is intended to host eResearch services of national breadth that are typically used by multiple researchers, research groups or research institutions.

The NSP virtual machines are distributed over two separate data centres in two virtual 'pools', ensuring high availability through the ability to automatically transfer virtual machines between physical servers within the same pool.

VM types

  

Three basic types of VMs are available:

 
Type CPUs RAM Storage
Small 1 2GB 10 GB to 40 GB
Medium 2 4GB 10 GB to 40 GB
Large 4 8GB 10 GB to 40 GB

It is better to request a small VM and then have the configuration increased as required than to over-allocate the initial configuration.

Operating systems

The following operating system images are available by default:

  • Ubuntu Server 10.04 (64-bit)
  • Ubuntu Precise
  • Centos 5.5 (32- or 64- bit)

The following operating systems are available when you bring your own license:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 (64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2008 R2, Standard Edition

Storage

More storage (from gigabytes to terabytes) is available separate to the standard VM offerings, please get in touch with us to discuss options.

Support

There is a dedicated team of systems administrators, storage and network architects and operational staff available to assist with queries on the NSP. Please get in touch via the help desk and we'll endeavour to assist you.

Cost

The NSP is available free of charge to Australian researchers until at least mid 2014. Other costs that should be accounted for include network charges and licensing.

Networking charges

The NSP is connected to AARNet. OnNet traffic is not charged, however the OffNet traffic (traffic to sites not connected to AARNet in Australia, or the research and education networks in other countries) is billed to the University of Melbourne. Subject to appropriate use, the University of Melbourne will be absorbing this cost for the duration of the NSP Basic Access Phase.

Software licensing

Where a guest operating system or hosted application is a commercial product, the appropriate license will need to be negotiated and purchased by the service user.

Application

You can apply to use the NSP by submitting an application to the NSP Allocation Committee. The NSP Allocation Committee meets on the first Tuesday of every month. If successful, VMs can be deployed within 48 hours.