A key property of LAP is scalability, i.e. the ability to transparently submit jobs on the Norwegian national high-performance computing cluster ABEL (which is operated at the University of Oslo). Through the standard Galaxy in-browser user interface, tools and workflows can be configured to execute on ABEL compute nodes; this tight integration, as well as general principles for the allocation of compute resources, follows the model of the LifePortal computing services.

LAP developers have met with members of the LifePortal community and the Notur Resource Allocation Committee (RFK) to understand the parameters of existing usage constraints and policies and to design a LAP-specific allocation policy. For the LAP prototype in the 2014 and 2015 allocation periods, we will ‘borrow’ core hours from the pre-existing Notur projects nn9106k (and maybe xa9910k), which are managed by StephanOepen. Starting with the allocation period 2016.1, LAP will apply for a dedicated Notur project.

While we are working to establish the service, LAP will experiment with a generous adaptation of the LifePortal model, where (a) individual users (including non-Norwegian ones) with a CLARIN association are granted a standard quota of 10,000 cpu hours per six-month period; (b) users or groups of users can apply for LAP projects, where a project typically can receive an allocation of up to 200,000 cpu hours per period; (c) users or groups of users can independently acquire Notur allocations, which they can transparently use for LAP computation. In the 2014 start-up phase, project requests of type (b) are evaluated by a (preliminary) LAP Resource Allocation Committee, comprised of StephanOepen and ErikVelldal.

From the very beginning, it will be important to account accurately for resource usage on ABEL: While jobs submitted through LAP will run as the laportal system user on ABEL, their resource consumption must be traced back to Galaxy users and LAP tools or workflows. For this purpose, LAP will maintain its own GOLD accounting database, just like the LifePortal, and also expects to make use of the same reporting mechanisms.