[Hosting HPC in Azure] 5.0 -- Control User Access

How to Add Users?

CycleCloud manages users through the CycleCloud Wizard portal, but it only determines whether the user can access (ssh) into the cluster. We still need to set up the Slurm account (Slurm Accounting) and usage quota for the NFS server (either through NetApp or Self-Host NFS).

1. CycleCloud Wizard topper right Configuration -> Users -> Create

   • This step allows user to sign in to CycleCloud Wizard, even though we generally don’t need that.

   • Roles: For logging in to the cluster, User role should be sufficient.

   • Node Settings:

     Form	How to
     Node Access	V
     Node user name	The user account to log in to the cluster.
     SSH public key	Generate a new SSH key or Use existing SSH key, then put the public key here. We should never share the private key to anyone.

     CycleCloud uses SSH public key authentication. It is crucial to set the public key here, so that it will copy the public keys to the cluster where user has permission to log in.

2. Go to the cluster’s main page in CycleCloud Wizard Access -> Add User:

   • This step allows user to SSH into the cluster.

   • For general user:

     Form	How to
     Node Login	Log in as regular user
     Cluster permissions	None

3. For now, user should have access to the cluster and have /shared/home/<user-account> created.

   • Check user doesn’t have sudo permission:

       sudo -v
     

   • Check user UUID:

       id -u
     

4. Set up the /work folder for user and set up quota:

   • NetApp: Set Up User Quota
   • Self-Host NFS Server: Set Up User Quota using xfs_quota

5. Set up Slurm account for user:

   • Slurm Job Accounting