Get Help
We hope that you can have a trouble-free research computing experience with no system or application issues that allows you to make the most efficient use of computing resources. However, with the complexity of using a supercomputer and thousands of applications that are in constant use issues or questions may arise. If you are a UFIT Research Computing client using HiPerGator and related infrastructure sometimes you may not be sure what step to take next or how some part of the system works, ran into a problem, have a question, or would like to improve your workflow here are the steps you can take. Here's the order of actions we recommend taking to find the information you need or to get more direct and personalized help.
Documentation
This help documentation website is the main information hub for all things related to UFIT Research Computing, HiPerGator, and related infrastructure and services beside general overview, news, policies, and resource purchase forms, which you can find on our main website. Browse through the site using links and categories menu on the left side, try a search whether using the search field in the top-right corner, or with a search engine by entering e.g. site:help.rc.ufl.edu with your search term, check the Applications help pages for help with running specific apps on HiPerGator.
Support System
If you don't find what you are looking for on this help site please open a support request. Requests are usually triaged quickly, but since there are few support staff members who all have many additional duties it may be a while before work on new requests can begin in earnest. The requests are usually fulfilled on the first come, first serve basis, but the priorities depend on the scope, complexity, and availability of particular staff members, so requests may get resolved out of order. Requests may take anywhere from hours to days to resolve. If a request requires more than few hours of work and/or multiple staff members and significant effort to resolve you will be expected to purchase consulting hours.
Chat Support
If you think that a question you have may not warrant a full support request you can try reaching us through Slack as described on the Remote Support page. Note that the chat #support channel does not guarantee immediate staff availability. We cannot constantly monitor the support channel and may take time to reply. We usually reply 'in a thread', so the messages will not overwhelm the channel.
Direct Support
If you would like to describe the issue in a face-to-face conversation or it may be necessary for you or for a UFRC support staff member to share computer screen to achieve the best outcome use the booking form linked from the Remote Support page to schedule an appointment. Since we work in a hybrid model a visit can be scheduled either in-office or on zoom depending on your preferences, urgency, and staff schedule and availability.
Training
The last but definitely not least approach to making sure your Research Computing experience is successful and efficient is to peruse our Training options and avail yourself of the numerous pre-recorded sessions, virtual live sessions, workshops, birds-of-feather, or even an in-person training sessions that can be scheduled for a research group or a class with sufficient lead time.