The software installed cluster wide on Helium and Neon is not identical and so two separate lists are maintained. Even in cases where the the same package is installed on the systems the versions may be different due to operating system differences or other factors. We generally recommend that you install special software in your home directory but if you feel a package would be useful for many people then send a request to hpc-sysadmins@iowa.uiowa.edu.
Packages that are installed centrally must be compliant with the University of Iowa policy on software licensing. For open source software there are several licenses that have already been approved for deployment on University computers. See Open Source Licensing - Technology Review | Information Technology Services for the list. If the software package is licensed under one of those licenses then the software is already compliant. If the software is not licensed under one of the approved licenses then it will need to go through the review process. Information on that can be found at Technology Reviews Information | Information Technology Services. There is a form that can be filled out to initiate the review process, Technology Review Process | Information Technology Services.
It is possible that the software has already been reviewed by the purchaser. To verify, see List of Reviewed Agreements | Information Technology Services. However, even if a software title is on that list we still need to verify that it can be installed on a cluster system. There are many cases where a product is licensed, and on the reviewed list, for an individual or group on a limited set of machines but clusters may be excluded from that. At this point it may just be a matter of determining how access controls will be put in place to satisfy the language of the license agreement but that needs to be approved by the University of Iowa General Counsel.
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We are seeing if there is a way to streamline the potential double verification. |
Once the software package has been reviewed and authorized for deployment on a cluster, possibly with an access control scheme, the software can then be deployed centrally on the HPC system. While we can usually work on the mechanics of the deployment in parallel with the review process please plan accordingly for all of the steps to be completed.