Nimbus Cloud changes: Information for users

Modified on Wed, 2 Apr at 3:45 PM

The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre's Nimbus Cloud is being decommissioned on 31 March 2025, and is no longer taking allocation requests. The ARDC Nectar Research Cloud is the suggested option for Nimbus users or researchers who require research cloud access. Interim support is being provided to Nimbus users, as outlined below.

The following options apply both to current Nimbus and to researchers interested in using the ARDC Nectar Research Cloud for the first time. Advice and instructions on migrating from Nimbus to Nectar (for users with existing Nimbus projects) are also provided on this page.

Eligibility

Whether you have an existing project on Nimbus or were planning to create one, to get started on Nectar you will need to apply for a project allocation. This can be done via our allocation form on the Nectar Dashboard. When you log into the Dashboard for the first time, this will create a project trial for you to try out Nectar with a small amount of resources.

Eligibility criteria

If you fulfil at least one of these criteria, you will be eligible for a national project allocation (which means you can launch resources in any of our zones):

Your research is currently funded through a national or international research grant.
Your research is funded by, or supports, a National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) capability, including the ARDC (for example an ARDC Research Data Commons project).
You have a grant from a federal or state government department or agency for research projects that supports industry, or university research that is directly or jointly funded by industry.
You have been approved by the Nectar Allocation Committee as warranting a nationally prioritised allocation.

You may also be eligible for local allocation if collaborating with members of one of our node partners.

Interim Support Nimbus users will be provided with interim resource support on Nectar, even if the project does not fulfil the standard Nectar eligibility criteria outlined above. Interim support projects, and WA-based projects will be allocated to the National ARDC-AARNet Nectar node (please note this node does not have GPUs available, and only projects meeting the national merit criteria will be able to access these resources through other nodes during the interim support period). When the WA node is commissioned at Pawsey, projects provided with interim support will be moved onto this node.

Managed Services

If you do not fulfil the criteria, and do not have an existing project on Nimbus, you are not eligible to use the ARDC Nectar Research Cloud via the Dashboard at this time.*

However, there are managed services with limited resources available to use, for anyone with an AAF (University/Institutional) login. These include:

Useful support resources for Nectar

ARDC Nectar Research Cloud website.
Support Centre (submit help desk tickets, view knowledge base articles).
Online Tutorials (practical how-to tutorials).

Migrating from Nimbus to Nectar (for users with existing Nimbus projects)

If you apply for a Nectar project allocation and receive approval for a project for testing, you can begin to try Nectar.

For migration timelines, those projects that have been allowed to test Nectar will be individually contacted when the supporting infrastructure is ready for migration.

Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre have published user documentation on Migrating a Nimbus Instance to Another Cloud Platform. You can follow the instructions provided to export a root disk From Nimbus and then once you have a Nectar project allocation, import the root disk into Nectar.

For more detail and technical support with the transition, please contact the Pawsey Helpdesk.

*There may be support available in early 2025 for non-national projects when there is further capacity on ARDC infrastructure.

Timelines are subject to change.