Overview

The DoIT Research Computing team offers RT-help ticket support, weekly in-person office hours, virtual office hours, and drop-in office hours to support UMBC researchers and students using the chip HPC cluster. Bring your questions about jobs, workflows, and your computing environment—no appointment is required for our drop-in office hours on Fridays, 1:30–2:30 PM (first-come, first-served). Submitting a help ticket in advance helps us troubleshoot more efficiently during your visit.

Before You Come for Office Hours (Strongly Recommended):

To help us help you faster, please submit a help ticket in advance and include:

  • A clear description of the issue and what you’ve already tried
  • Your username, relevant job IDs, and relevant paths (e.g., /home/…, /scratch/…)
  • Any error messages or logs (copy/paste or attach)
  • The command(s) you ran and a minimal example, if possible

If you already have a ticket, bring the ticket number, and we’ll reference it during your visit.

For drop-in office hours: 

  • When: Fridays, 1:30–2:30 PM (first-come, first-served), no appointment needed.
  • Don’t forget to send the help tickets beforehand.
  • Where: ENG 102

Who: UMBC researchers and students using the chip HPC cluster

What to expect in office hours and user support:

  • Walk-in, help ticket recommended. We’ll see visitors in arrival order; quick triage first, deeper dives as time allows.
  • Hands-on troubleshooting. Bring a laptop with SSH access so we can reproduce issues together. Please make sure you log in and connect to the VPN ahead of the meeting so we can save time. If you need help with the login and how to connect with vpn, or how to log in to chip then please check our wiki page first before making an appointment. Here’s the link on how to get started on chip: https://umbc.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/faq/pages/1112506439/Getting+Started+on+chip
  • Right help, right channel. Some items may require follow-up by an additional ticket or a scheduled screen share, so please have patience while we document the next steps. It’s recommended that you start your work earlier so you have enough time to finish your project on time. Sometimes help takes time to resolve the issues, so planning ahead of time will help both you and us to guide you better.

What We Do Not Provide: 

During drop-in office hours, we do not:

  • Debug or rewrite user code for you
  • Perform research analysis on your behalf

We can guide you, explain tools and best practices, and help you diagnose issues, but the actual coding and analysis remains your responsibility.

HPCF provided support: 

HPCF offers several support channels for users:

Research Projects @ HPCF