About the Platform¶
Condenser is a private cloud platform for research computing at UCL. It provides a cost-effective, private alternative to public cloud platforms. The platform is developed and maintained by the Advanced Research Computing Centre. All hardware resides in UCL facilities.
Clusters¶
Condenser comprises the following clusters:
| Cluster | Hardware | Description |
|---|---|---|
| sl-p02 | Intel CPU | Workloads that only require CPUs |
| sl-g01 | Intel CPU + Nvidia GPU | Mixed GPU-CPU workloads |
| sl-g02 | Intel CPU + Nvidia GPU | Mixed GPU-CPU workloads |
| sl-g03 | Intel CPU + Nvidia GPU | VAT-exempt, mixed GPU-CPU workloads |
Tenancy¶
Access to Condenser is organised according to tenancies. Users in a tenancy are provided with access to a Kubernetes cluster. Users can deploy virtual machines and related resources with Harvester. Rancher is used to provide access to the cluster.
A tenant consists of one or more projects, with at most one project on each cluster. Each project is provided with one or more namespaces to isolate their resources from neighbor tenants on the same cluster. Each namespace is also provided with an isolated network. Resource quotas (CPU, RAM, and data storage) are applied to the namespace, rather than to individual users. Most tenants have one project with one namespace on one cluster, as shown in the diagram below.
Sensitive data¶
Condenser is not certified for the secure storage and processing of sensitive data. However, it is possible to build a secure platform on Condenser. When planning projects with sensitive data on Condenser, please first discuss your requirements with the Information Governance Advisory Service. Consult with us during onboarding, and plan to collaborate with a Research Data Engineer.