Names, Terms, and Acronyms

A data transfer node (DTN) is a special node that Compute Canada has exposed to the Internet in order to enable the transfer of large amounts of data. Transferring data using login nodes can trigger limits that will prevent the successful transfer of large amounts data. Data transfer nodes are configured differently so large amounts of data can be transferred successfully. Every cluster typically has at least one data transfer node.

A login node is a special node that a cluster has exposed to the Internet in order to allow external access to that cluster in order to submit jobs on that cluster.

The national systems are systems funded and supported nationally through the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, its members, and partners. Important national systems include these clusters: Cedar, Graham, Narval, Niagara, and Béluga; and these clouds: Arbutus (West Cloud), East Cloud, and Graham Cloud.

Arbutus is a cloud managed by BC DRI Group, located at the University of Victoria, and is a national system. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cloud for more information.

Béluga is a compute cluster located at l'École de technologie supérieure, Université du Québec and is one of the national systems. Its login nodes can be accessed via SSH by connecting to beluga.computecanada.ca. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Beluga for more information.

Cedar cloud is managed by BC DRI Group, located at Simon Fraser University, and is a national system. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cloud for more information.

Cedar is a compute cluster located at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, or,  and is one of the national systems. Its login nodes can be accessed via SSH by connecting to cedar.computecanada.ca. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cedar for more information.

NOTE: Depending on context, "cedar" might be intended to refer to Cedar Cloud.

East Cloud is a cloud managed by Calcul Québec, located at the Université de Sherbrooke, and is a national system. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cloud for more information.

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system, storage, and networking resources and services in a way that does not necessarily always require the active management by a person. Typically a cloud will provide the ability to create one or more virtual machines located within a virtual network with appropriate amounts of disk space. Each virtual machine may or may not be mapped to an externally accessible Internet address. (If not, then such machines must be accessed through the cloud management interface.)

NOTE: Access to our clusters' clouds is via OpenStack web interfaces, however, before one can log in and use such, one must request access. See: https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cloud for more details.