We are pleased to offer two research computing resources: a cloud-hosted, research virtual lab and two nodes in the Auburn University Easley Cluster. These options provide faculty and PhD students with the tools they need to support their research and drive innovation.

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Research Virtual Lab

The Research Virtual Lab is a cloud-hosted solution in Azure, providing researchers with access to powerful Windows-based virtual computers from anywhere with an internet connection. This virtual lab offers a suite of common research software used in the Harbert College of Business, as well as limited cloud storage for ongoing research data. This solution enables faculty and PhD students to focus on their work without being hindered by the limitations of their personal computers.

• How do I log into the research virtual lab?

  To access this lab, follow the same instructions as you would to connect to the main virtual lab and launch the "Windows Desktop" from under the "Harbert College of Business - Research Virtual Lab" heading.

  Virtual Lab Instructions

• How do I access my research data?
  • OneDrive - Data stored in OneDrive can be accessed from the research virtual lab. However, the amount of data that can be stored and transfered this way is limited.
  • R: Drive share - Data stored on the R: drive can be accessed from the reaerch virtual lab. This storage is hosted on campus and offeres a large amount of storage, but accessing it from the Research VLab may be slow.
    • This drive is mapped automatically on most HCOB computers
    • For other systems it can be accessed (from on Campus or via VPN) at:
      • Windows: \\ressmb.auburn.edu\hcob
      • MacOS: smb://ressmb.auburn.edu/hcob
  • Q: Drive share - Data stored in the Q: drive is hosted in the same cloud as the research virtual lab, providing fast data access speeds. However, the space is limited. Please contact ITS if you will need additional space on this share.
    
    • This drive is automatically mapped in the research virtual lab
    • For other systems it can be accessed from on campus or vpn at:
      • Windows: \\cobpremiumsa.file.core.windows.net\vlab-research-share
      • MacOS: smb://cobpremiumsa.file.core.windows.net/vlab-research-share
  • Local Virtual Disk - The research virtual machines themselves have a limited amount of storage locally. This storage offers the highest performance but is limited. Please use this storage only for data that is actively being used.
• Who can access the research virtual lab?
  Harbert College of Business research faculty and PhD candidates have access to this lab. If you believe you should have access to the lab but do not see it available when attempting to log in, please reach out to ITS for support.
• Are there any usage limits for the lab?"
  Yes. When you first log in to the  lab, a timer window will appear. When the timer expires, you will be logged out and any unsaved work may be lost.
  

  • Clicking "Add Time" will allow you to extend the session timer up to 72 hours at a time. You can return at any time within that window to extend it again.
  • You will receive an email before the timer expires reminding you to log back in and extend the timer if necessary.
• What software is available in the research virtual lab?
  • Microsoft Office 365 (Access, Excel, One Note, PowerPoint, Publisher, & Word)
  • Anaconda Navigator
  • EndNote
  • IBM SPSS Statistics
  • JMP Pro
  • Jupyter Notebook
  • MATLAB
  • Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
  • Minitab
  • Mplus
  • MySQL Workbench
  • Power BI
  • Python
  • R
  • RStudio
  • Rtools43
  • SAS
  • SAS Enterprise Guide
  • SAS Enterprise Miner
  • Spyder
  • StataMP
  • Tableau
  • Visual Studio Code

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Easley Research Cluster

This Easley Research Cluster is a centrally managed, high-performance computing system. As an investor in the program, the Harbert College of Business is able to offer our faculty and other researchers access to this valuable resource and priority usage of our nodes within the system.

• How do I access the cluster?

  To login the cluster you will first need to request access.
  After that you will need to be on campus or connected by VPN and use a terminal program to login.

  For more information and detailed steps click here.

• How do I access the college's nodes?

  Our research nodes are in a partiton named "williaa_bg4" you will need to specify this partition in your commands and job scripts to use our nodes.

  See the official documentation about job scheduling for more information.

• What is the capacity of the college's nodes?
  Our nodes each offer Intel Xeon Gold 6248R processors with 48 cores at 3.00GHz and 768 GB of memory.
• How do I use the cluster? How do I get support?

  Please review the offical documentation for imformation on how to use the cluster.

  If you need additional assistance, ITS will be happy to assist in anyway we can. However, HPC specific questions may need to be referred to the Easley support team at hpcadmin@auburn.edu