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Scientific Computing and Data / High Performance Computing / Policies / Acceptable Use Agreement

Policies

Minerva User Responsibilities and Acceptable Usage Policy

When using Minerva HPC resources at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS), you agree to maintain this account in accordance with the following policies consisting of seven sections that align with Mount Sinai’s overarching DTP Policies. All usage of Scientific Computing and Data resources, including the ticket system, is governed by Mount Sinai’s Code of Conduct.

Section 1: Security

  1. You need to protect your account from unauthorized use. Never share your login information. If you believe your account has been compromised, immediately notify us at hpchelp@hpc.mssm.edu 
  2. You need to ensure the security of your programs and data.
  3. Although Minerva has a web server, no PHI data may be shared via this webserver.
  4. You are required to complete training on best practices for file permissions and file copying, for example at Permissions or Video.
  5. All PIs need to ensure that file permissions are set appropriately so that other users on the system cannot view, copy or write to their files.
  6. All PIs need to review and update team member access to their directories and files.
  7. All PIs need to request accounts for external team members in Sailpoint (Mount Sinai’s DTP portal). In accordance with all external accounts throughout Mount Sinai, these accounts need to be renewed through Sailpoint every 120 days.
  8. Minerva HPC resources at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) may only be used by authorized users for the purposes prescribed in the project award. Use of these resources for processing proprietary information, source code or executable code must be disclosed in the award process and is prohibited unless authorized by the project award. Use of ISMMS resources for export-controlled information, source code or executable code is prohibited, without an export license.
  9. To ensure protection of data and resources, user activity may be monitored, intercepted, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorities. We log all commands executed on Minerva. By using this system, the user consents to such at the discretion of authorized site personnel.
  10. Activities in violation of any laws may be reported to the proper authorities for investigation and prosecution. Abusive activity may be reported to your department and Dean for review and action.
  11. Violations of those policies can result in loss of your Minerva account and disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Section 2: Acknowledgement

You need to acknowledge the support from Scientific Computing and Data at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai by including the following acknowledgement in a publication of any material, whether copyrighted or not, based on or developed with Minerva HPC resources. 

If you have NIH-funded projects on Minerva, you MUST include the following acknowledgement in all your publications:

“This work was supported in part through the computational and data resources and staff expertise provided by Scientific Computing and Data at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) grant UL1TR004419 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Research reported in this publication was also supported by the Office of Research Infrastructure of the National Institutes of Health under award number S10OD030463. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”

If you DO NOT have NIH-funded projects on Minerva, you MUST include the following acknowledgement in all your publications:

“This work was supported in part through the computational and data resources and staff expertise provided by Scientific Computing and Data at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) grant UL1TR004419 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.”

Section 3: Compliance

  1. All Minerva Principal Investigators (PIs) and are required to read and sign Minerva HIPAA Agreement Form annually irrespective of individual plans to use Protected Health Information (PHI) on Minerva. Any PI on Minerva who has not signed the form by then will have their projects and accounts locked until the form is signed. Any non-PI user who has not signed the form by then will have their accounts locked until the form is signed. 
  2. All Principal Investigators (PIs) need to follow their Program for the Protection of Human Subjects (PPHS) Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved protocols if human subjects are included in their research. This includes both CITI and PEAK HIPAA training for all internal and external team members.

Section 4: Chargeback & Fees

  1. All PIs need to pay for storage charges by their groups. Monthly storage charges are sent with the balance due every two months. If invoices are not paid within a month, all project files under the PI will be locked. If no arrangements for payment are made within 4 months of the billing cycle, the files will be deleted, and the project will be removed from Minerva.

 Section 5: Data Backup  

  1. You need to backup any files in the ‘work’ or ‘project’ or ‘scratch’ directories. We do not backup any files in ‘work’, ‘project’ or ‘scratch’. All files that you backup will be retained by default for six years on tape. The Minerva file systems are generally reliable; however, data may still be lost or corrupted.

Section 6: Software & Licensing

  1. You need to abide by all licensing agreements, which includes not copying and/or distributing proprietary software without the software owner’s permission. Possession or use of illegally copied software is prohibited; all software must be appropriately acquired and used according to its specific license.
  2. Some software offered on the system is controlled by a license agreement. You are responsible for reviewing the license and familiarizing yourself with any restrictions. Pay particular notice to any requirements for referencing the software in publications or other derived works.

Section 7: Shared Resources

Minerva High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster is a shared environment and the resources available are balanced among all Minerva users. 

  1. You should have a reasonable estimate about the amount of compute resources (i.e., memory, cores, number of nodes, IO etc) that would be needed for your production jobs in advance, and you need to request resources in accordance with your actual usage. If you need help to understand and characterize your job, please reach out to our support team at hpchelp@hpc.mssm.edu immediately.  You can also refer to our LSF documentation at HERE.
  2. We are actively monitoring the resource usage of user jobs on Minerva and contacting the users who are misusing the resources. Please respond to us in time and modify your job submission script as needed. Those who are not respondents will have their jobs removed and their access to Minerva will be limited till the issue is addressed accordingly.

If you have questions, you may contact MSSM Scientific Computing Support during normal working hours, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm ET at hpchelp@hpc.mssm.edu.

 

Mount Sinai Health System Artificial Intelligence (MSHS AI) Implementation and Use Policy.

Guidelines for the responsible, ethical, and effective implementation and use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) within Mount Sinai Health System can be found here.