Help, Support, and Training

How can I get Help and Support?

Please check the MPCDF documentation and FAQ first if they can already give you some advice or answer. In case a question could not be answered there, please send an email to support@mpcdf.mpg.de. This will open a ticket in the helpdesk system at https://helpdesk.mpcdf.mpg.de where MPCDF staff will be notified and look into the issue.

Follow these points to get your issue resolved as quickly as possible:

  • Choose a short but descriptive subject for your email

  • Use your work email address when submitting the ticket, and not private email addresses.

  • Include all the relevant information and steps to reproduce the problem. Depending on the issue this can be

    • The name of the cluster/machine you are using

    • Loaded modules and their version (the output of the module list command)

    • Data/input files for your software

    • Job submission script

    • Job ID of the failing job

    • Complete error message

    • (for web-based services) The name of your web browser and its version

    • If your issue is related to inability to log into a particular machine or cluster, then copy-and-paste your login attempt; include the commands you ran, the output you received and even the shell prompts!

Are you offering trainings on how to use MPCDF resources?

Introductory online tutorials on how to use the MPCDF services are given twice per year. The date and connection details of the next issue are provided here.

Advanced courses (e.g. HPC workshops, Python for HPC) are given regularly and are announced on the training web page, or upon request.

How to acknowledge MPCDF?

Acknowledging the use of MPCDF services or resources in publications is highly appreciated. However, there is no standard or mandatory template. Typical statements read like:

  • Computations were performed on the HPC system Raven at the Max Planck Computing and Data Facility

  • We acknowledge project/application support by the Max Planck Computing and Data Facility

  • …

In case of substantial or extensive support, one might consider acknowledging the contribution of individuals by their name(s).