AUGUST 26 ACCESS NEWS

Next week, XSEDE will formally conclude operations, making way for ACCESS. There are exciting changes coming and the ACCESS team is working behind the scenes to prepare for the official launch on...

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AUGUST 19 ACCESS NEWS

When XSEDE ends on August 31, 2022, the following services will be shut down and will no longer be available: The XSEDE-CILogon integration Authentication with CILogon after September 1 will work...

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AUGUST 12 ACCESS NEWS

The ACCESS allocations team is preparing for our September start date, maybe you've seen us at one of our presentations to the community: Campus Champions meeting, the Service Provider Forum,...

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News You Need to Know

In a few short weeks, XSEDE will formally conclude operations, making way for ACCESS. There are exciting changes coming and the ACCESS team is working behind the scenes to prepare for the official...

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News You Need to Know

In a few short weeks, XSEDE will formally conclude operations, making way for ACCESS. There are exciting changes coming and the ACCESS team is working behind the scenes to prepare for the official launch on September 1, 2022.

Over the next few weeks, we will share important updates with you via this Advance to ACCESS weekly newsletter, which is a companion to the Advance to ACCESS website. The Advance to ACCESS website will always have the most current information: https://www.xsede.org/advancetoaccess.

Here are the important updates for this week:

General News

A pre-launch ACCESS website will be available in the coming days and will serve as the launch point for all ACCESS services that go live on September 1. The website will be served by the domain access-ci.org. We previously advertised access.org as the main ACCESS website and we anticipate also having this available as a redirect, but to ensure long-term continuity and avoid issues with domain ownership, we are making this important update.

Allocations News

Please note the following key dates in the transition from XSEDE to ACCESS. Except for a short break in the second half of August, researchers will be able to submit allocation requests following a familiar process for the largest allocations or using new, easier routes for smaller resource needs.

August 16: The Resource Allocation Service (RAS) will stop accepting allocation requests and management actions to allow time for them to be reviewed and resolved by August 30. This includes Startup and Education requests as well as Extensions, Transfers, Supplements, Advances, and Add User requests.

August 22: The final XSEDE Resource Allocation Committee (XRAC) meeting will be held. As before, researchers will be notified of outcomes prior to September 15.

September 1: The ACCESS Resource Allocations Marketplace and Platform Services (RAMPS) team will assume management of the allocations process.

Researchers who have current project allocations that were awarded via XSEDE –including projects awarded at the August 22 XRAC meeting – should notice no changes to their resource access after August 31. For projects that expire on December 31, the ACCESS team recommends planning to submit a proposal during the usual September 15 to October 15 submission window under the existing XRAC guidelines.

Researchers whose needs are at the smaller end of the scale should review the new ACCESS Allocations Marketplace information that is previewed on the XSEDE site pending the launch of the ACCESS site.

Support News

The goal of the MATCH program is to provide cost-effective scaled support to the broad scientific community using national cyberinfrastructure. You'll find all our important announcements available at the central hub located here. On this note, we wanted to bring a few important pieces of information to your attention:

The XSEDE User Portal (XUP) is retiring, and the new ACCESS Support Portal will be live on September 1. Please note that, initially, our goal will be to transition basic XUP functionality to enable the research community to continue to use ACCESS resources (previously known as XSEDE resources). Existing content will be moved over, upcoming outages will be displayed, there will be links to request allocations, create/manage ACCESS accounts, and view ACCESS usage metrics.
We are actively seeking ACCESS Support Portal "beta" testers for a pre-launch testing period from August 15-19. Please use the contact form here to let us know if you are interested in being a beta tester (and getting a sneak peek of the portal in the process!). Please include "I'm interested in beta testing the ACCESS Support Portal" in your message.
ACCESS will not provide an equivalent service to help@xsede.org. ACCESS is investing in tools and resources to make it easier to find the information you need, and you can always submit a helpdesk ticket via the user support web form if you cannot find what you're looking for.
General XSEDE helpdesk tickets still open on September 1 will be automatically closed, requiring that you resubmit your request when the ACCESS Support portal becomes active on September 1. We encourage you to work with the XSEDE helpdesk to close out any open tickets you have. Tickets assigned to Resource Providers directly will remain open so no action is required for these, although we encourage you to close out those you can.

Operations News

The Single Sign-On Hub (SSO) will be retired on August 31. If you use SSO to login into remote systems, such as XSEDE Resource Providers like Bridges 2, Expanse, and others, you should contact the helpdesk staff for the specific system you have accounts on for information on how to log in directly. We will also be providing that information on the Advance to ACCESS website.

Final Note

On behalf of the XSEDE and ACCESS teams, thank you for your support. We understand that changes for a program of this size and scope are of great interest and concern to the community and we hope by providing this information you will be ready for the transition and ready to take advantage of the many opportunities ACCESS has to offer. Please reach out to us using this form if you have any questions.