Glossary
Definitions for Rescale-specific terms and common HPC terms you will see in the platform and docs. Terms below are focused on concepts you encounter while using the platform.
Platform structure
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Organization | The top-level account on Rescale. An organization contains one or more workspaces, members, billing, and policies. |
| Workspace | A team container inside an organization. Workspaces have their own members, policies, software and hardware portfolio, and billing. Every organization has a Default Workspace. |
| Default Workspace | The workspace automatically created with each organization. All members belong to the Default Workspace unless additional workspaces are created. |
| Workspace Folder | A folder structure for organizing jobs and workstations inside a workspace. Folders have three areas: Home, Shared with me, and Workspace. |
| Group | A collection of workspace members managed together. Groups are assigned to projects. |
| Project | A container for jobs. Groups are assigned to projects and budgets are set at the project level. |
| Budget | A spending cap that can be attached to a project or to an individual member. Strict Budgets can terminate running workloads when the limit is reached. |
| Administration Portal | The admin UI for managing members, groups, projects, budgets, software and hardware portfolios, policies, and integrations. Some pages are region-specific. |
Jobs and workflows
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Job | The basic unit of computing on Rescale. A job specifies a software application, a command, input files, and hardware settings. Rescale provisions an HPC cluster for the job, runs the command, and stores output files on the job. |
| Batch Job | A job that runs unattended to completion. Contrast with a workstation, which is interactive. |
| Job Type | The mode a job runs in on the platform, for example Basic, which walks through a linear input, software, hardware, review flow. |
| Command | The shell command Rescale runs on the job's cluster. Each software version ships a default command you can edit. |
| Walltime | The maximum time a job is allowed to run. Rescale stops the cluster when walltime is reached. |
| Coretype | A specific hardware configuration offered by Rescale, typically backed by a particular cloud instance type. You pick a coretype and a core count when setting up a job. |
| Coretype Collection | A curated group of compatible coretypes that appears as a single hardware option, with a name ending in "Plus" (for example, Elm Plus, Emerald Plus). The platform may run your job on any coretype in the Collection that meets or exceeds the baseline, at no additional per-core price. |
| Core | A single CPU or GPU core in a coretype's underlying instance. Jobs are priced and scheduled by core count and hours. |
| Core Hour | One core running for one hour. Used as the primary unit of compute usage and billing in the Admin Dashboard. |
| On-Demand Coretype | A coretype that is priced per hour of use, without a long-term reservation. On-Demand Priority and On-Demand Economy are variations that trade service level against price. |
| Status Stages | The five stages a job passes through: Queued, Validating Input, Starting Cluster, Running Job, Stopping Cluster. |
| Live Tailing | Viewing the contents of an output file in real time from the job's Status page while the job runs. |
process_output.log | The log file Rescale creates for every job that captures the terminal output (stdout) from the job's command. |
| Workflow | A reusable, multi-step simulation pipeline built from connected nodes. |
| Workflow Template | The saved definition of a workflow, configured once and run repeatedly with different inputs. |
| Node | A single step in a workflow. Node types include Job, Workstation, Storage Device, Decision, and Agent. |
| Decision Node | A workflow node that routes execution based on outputs from upstream steps. |
Workstations
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Elastic Cloud Workstation (ECW) | Rescale's managed cloud virtual desktop, usually referred to simply as a Workstation. Used for interactive CAD, simulation setup, and post-processing. |
| Workstation | Short name for an Elastic Cloud Workstation. Also the node type in workflows that launches an interactive session. |
| NiceDCV | The remote display protocol Rescale uses to stream workstation desktops to your browser or a local client. |
| Suspend | Pausing a workstation, similar to powering down a computer. A suspended workstation stops incurring compute charges while preserving its state. |
| End-to-End Desktops | A deprecated capability, superseded by Workstations. It ran desktop visualization on the head node of a batch cluster so you could drive a solver GUI and the solve from one session. Use a Workstation instead. |
Software and licensing
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Software Catalog | The set of applications available for jobs and workstations, including Rescale-provided applications and software self-published by your organization. |
| Software Tile | The record in the software catalog that represents an application. A tile has one or more versions. |
| Software Version | A specific version of a software tile, with its own command defaults and mount base. |
| Rescale Software Publisher | The product that lets organization or workspace admins bring custom, proprietary, commercial, or open-source software into the Rescale catalog. Sometimes called Publisher. |
| Sandbox | A temporary isolated environment used by Software Publisher to install and test a software version before publishing. |
| Mount Base | The path where self-published software is mounted on a job's cluster, always under /software/. |
| On-Demand Licensing (ODL) | A licensing model where Rescale provides the software license as part of a per-use software charge. |
| Bring Your Own License (BYOL) | A licensing model where you use a license you already own, delivered to the job through a Rescale licensing service. |
| License Host | A Rescale-hosted service that serves a BYOL license to running jobs and workstations. |
| Company License Proxy (CLP) | A Rescale-hosted proxy that routes license requests from jobs and workstations to an external license server your organization operates. |
| License Queuing | A feature that queues a job until enough license features are available, based on the license feature usage you specify at submit time. |
| ANSYS Elastic Unit (AEU) | A unit of ANSYS licensing consumed when running ANSYS solvers on Rescale. |
| Hosted Altair Units (HAU) | A licensing unit used for Altair solvers hosted on Rescale. |
Data and metadata
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Input Files | Files you attach to a job that are available on the cluster before the command runs. Compressed archives are extracted automatically. |
| Results | The files produced by a completed job. Available from the Results page with View, Download, reuse-as-input, and Delete actions. |
| Make Available as Input | Action on a job's Results page that promotes a result file to an input for a new job, avoiding re-upload. |
| Cloud Filesystem (CFS) | A centralized, persistent, high-performance filesystem that attaches to jobs and workstations like a network drive. Shared across a workspace. Currently a beta product. |
| Storage Device | A workflow node type that exposes shared storage to other nodes so outputs flow from one step to the next without manual transfer. |
| Resource Tag | A free-form label applied to jobs, files, and workstations for categorization and search. Tags remain active and searchable across Workspace Folders. |
| Custom Field | A structured data field attached to a job. Can be defined at job, template, or workspace level. Workspace-level custom fields require admin permissions. |
| Metadata Management | The set of Rescale features (tags and custom fields) used to capture, organize, and govern simulation context. |
| Checkpoint Restart | Resuming a simulation from a saved intermediate state rather than from the beginning, typically after an intentional stop or a job failure. |
Cloud, networking, and security
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Cloud Service Provider (CSP) | The underlying public cloud that hosts a coretype. Rescale supports AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud. |
| Multi-cloud | The ability to select coretypes and regions across multiple CSPs for jobs and workstations. |
| Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) | A deployment model where Rescale runs jobs inside a cloud account that your organization owns. |
| Compute Network Application Firewall (CNAF) | A Rescale-hosted firewall service that restricts network traffic between compute regions and the outside world while still allowing jobs to reach Rescale storage and licensing services. |
| In-browser SSH | A built-in Rescale feature that opens a terminal to a running job's cluster directly from the platform UI. |
| SSH Key | The public/private key pair used to authenticate when connecting to a job cluster from a local terminal. Public keys are registered with Rescale. |
| Job-ID | The identifier Rescale assigns to each job. Used when connecting to the cluster or querying through the API. |
| Single Sign-On (SSO) | Authentication integration that lets your organization's identity provider sign users in to Rescale. |
Billing and administration
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Admin Dashboard | The admin page that summarizes monthly core utilization, hardware usage, software charges, and storage and transfer usage for an organization. Region-specific. |
| Core Utilization | Dashboard chart showing total daily core-hour usage or instantaneous core utilization for a selected month. |
| Hardware Usage | Dashboard chart showing total hardware use by coretype, in either core-hours or charges. |
| Software Charges | Dashboard chart showing total on-demand license charges for a selected month. |
| Strict Budget | A budget mode that terminates running jobs, workstations, or HPC systems when the limit is reached. |
| Deposit | A prepaid balance used to pay for usage. Jobs fail the billing precondition if credit, deposit, and a valid credit card are all absent. |
| Template Dry Run | A feature that validates a job template by simulating the submit flow without actually running the job on hardware. |
Where to go next
- New to the platform? Start with the Overview.
- Need the concept map behind these terms? See Core concepts.
- Ready to submit something? See Your first job.