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CUNY HPCC runs a small team with a clear support chain. Following it gets you help faster than routing around it.
Don’t email HPC staff directly about job problems. E-mails asking for help with jobs that are addressed to staff by name will not be answered, and the issue won’t get resolved. Use the ticket system or helpline first.

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Support chain

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Where to send what

Staff phone numbers, office locations, and helpdesk appointment hours change over time. Confirm current specifics on the CUNY HPCC page before distributing them; don’t copy numbers from secondary sources.

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How to write a useful support request

Tickets that include the right information are resolved faster. Include:
  • Your username and the system you’re on (arrow, penzias, etc.).
  • The job ID if the issue is job-related (squeue -u $USER or sacct to find it).
  • Exactly what you ran: the sbatch command or SLURM script, not a summary.
  • Exactly what happened: error output, screenshots, or the content of slurm-<jobid>.out / .err.
  • When it happened: timestamp or “submitted ~14:30 today”.
  • What you’ve already tried.
A good first message saves a round-trip.

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When to escalate

If your ticket or email has gone ~2 business days without a response or resolution:
  1. Reply to your existing thread and note that you’d like to escalate. Don’t open a new ticket; it splits the history.
  2. If the issue is urgent (e.g., a cluster is down and your research deadline is blocked), say so explicitly in the reply.
  3. Only after that, if still no movement, contact the Director.

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Support hours

The HPC Helpline monitors email during normal business hours. After-hours email is still answered but response is slower. For urgent issues (outage, security incident) mark your subject line with URGENT or SECURITY.
Confirm current support hours and any drop-in helpdesk appointments on the HPCC Wiki’s training page before publishing specific times.

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Training and learning resources

See Training & events for workshops, seminars, and one-on-one help options.