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JASMIN support is provided by a dedicated team within STFC who work closely together to provide the service:

Users of JASMIN should seek support in the following order:

  1. Consulting our extensive documentation and training materials.
  2. Following status updates on our status page, news items and email announcements.
  3. Contacting the JASMIN Helpdesk using either the Help Beacon, below (preferred) or by email to support@jasmin.ac.uk.

Support will be provided during normal working hours, defined as between 0900 and 1700 on Monday to Thursday and between 0900 and 1630 on Friday, excluding Public Holidays and STFC Privilege Days. Times are given in UK time.

The JASMIN team undertakes to:

  1. Attempt to provide an initial response to all support queries within one working day.
    • When responding to support queries, the JASMIN Team will take reasonable steps to ensure that the information we provide is accurate and useful, but we can't guarantee this. You are responsible for your use of any advice or information we may give you.
  2. Be proactive in communicating important service updates and issues to users via the status page, news channels and JASMIN mailing lists. Advance warning of known service interruptions will be made where possible.
    • Users are encouraged to remain signed up to these services to stay informed.
  3. Maintain online help documentation to aid users to find answers to common queries ahead of contacting the helpdesk for further assistance.
    • Online documentation is a “best efforts” activity. Users are encouraged to provide positive suggestions which will improve documentation.

The scope of support provided differs depending on which part of the JASMIN infrastructure the query relates to.

Managed Infrastructure

This is the Platform-as-a-Service offering, which includes the shared Login, Scientific Analysis and Transfer services, and the LOTUS batch cluster, where users make use of centrally-provided services with their JASMIN account, for which access roles are managed via the JASMIN Accounts Portal.
Users do not have root access (limited exceptions exist for specific VM Administrators' access as detailed in the Terms and Conditions of Access).
  1. Support queries are accepted for all aspects of running software on JASMIN. However, it should be understood that the CEDA and JASMIN teams may not have enough knowledge of the software in question to resolve all queries.

JASMIN Cloud

This is the Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering, otherwise known as the JASMIN Cloud. A self-service portal is provided for users to provision their own VMs, on which they get root access. This infrastructure is operated on a distinct part of the network from the Managed Infrasructure and key services such as user management are responsibility of the tenant. As such, direct access to protected resources within the managed environment is not available (e.g. disk mounts of CEDA Archive or Group Workspaces), though these services are available through the usual public interfaces.

NB: As of the move of the JASMIN Cloud to a new platform in summer 2024, the previous "managed tenancies" are discontinued as a service. The only service available in the JASMIN Cloud is now the formerly-named "external tenancies", but since this distinction no longer exists, we now refer simply to "tenanies in the JASMIN Cloud".

Support queries are subject to the following constraints:

  1. Support queries are only accepted from a tenancy administrator, not from end users of any of the tenant’s services.
  2. Support is only provided for the cloud infrastructure - no support is provided for software on VMs, including the OS, system libraries, installed packages and bespoke software deployments.
  3. Support is limited to those aspects of cloud infrastructure functionality and configuration which are available in the JASMIN Cloud Portal and covered in the JASMIN Cloud documentation.
  4. Please note in particular that:
    • Machines should be deployed from the templates available in the tenancy. Deploying from other sources is not supported.
    • Outbound NAT must be IP-­masqueraded (i.e. all machines in a tenancy appear to the outside as a single IP address).
    • Inbound NAT rules must be set with a one-to-one mapping between public IP and internal IP.
    • The public IP address used for outbound NAT IP-masquerading should not be used in inbound NAT rules.
    • The edge device firewall is initially closed to inbound traffic and tenants are responsible for setting rules to enable external connectivity where required.
    • No support will be provided if the JASMIN Team deems that fundamental tenancy configuration has been modified outside of the scope of the baseline provided.
    • Tenants must keep VMs and other resources in their tenancy up-to-date with security patches at all times. Failure to update tenancy VMs or other components within agreed timescales in response to vulnerability scans and/or requests from the JASMIN and STFC Cloud teams may result in termination of the tenancy. Any consequential effects on the operation of service(s) in a tenancy resulting from the requirement to adhere to this policy is the responsibility of the tenant.