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EF Portal | Open OnDemand
Which is the enterprise portal for your HPC?
Open OnDemand and EF Portal:
two approaches to HPC access
EF Portal (formerly EnginFrame) is the enterprise HPC portal built for teams that need production-grade reliability, VDI, and support. Open OnDemand works well for simpler setups, but when your environment outgrows it, EF Portal is the professional step up.
- Professional portal: EF Portal is built to scale across large, hybrid HPC production environments; Open OnDemand is better suited to simpler setups.
- User-friendly GUI: EF Portal provides an intuitive interface for job submission and monitoring; Open OnDemand relies on manual scripting.
- Data lifecycle management: EF Portal includes built-in tools for managing data workflows; Open OnDemand offers basic capabilities.
- Granular admin control: EF Portal delivers advanced configuration options and dashboards out of the box; Open OnDemand often requires manual customization.
- Extensibility: EF Portal’s plugin-based architecture makes it very easy to extend functionality.
- Cost & support: EF Portal is available at no cost in AWS environments. Premium support means that you won’t have to rely on community forums.
“I needed a couple of features which I was missing in OpenOnDemand and then I realized I could get much more attractive capabilities directly out of the box in EF Portal – with powerful integrations and support.“
EF Portal user, February 2026
Job submission and control
A crucial function of an HPC portal is to provide users with mechanisms for submitting and managing their jobs on the HPC system. Easiness of use and depth of job management functionalities are key to efficient portal operations.
Only for users familiar with scripting
and SSH functionality
Job logs and history
Built-in SSH terminal
User-friendly GUI
with advanced job control and monitoring
Full-fledged GUI + integrated webterminal
Real-time job & resource monitoring
Estimated job time-to-completion
Data management
HPC portals include features to help users manage the data associated with their computational workloads. These are essential components for user efficiency.
File browsing capabilities,
but integration-dependent streaming
Browser
with file uploads/downloads
Spooler / Preview / Streaming
features depend on implemented integrations
A professional suite of tools
for the whole data lifecycle
Spooler
for centralized job output management
Preview
with visualization apps integration
Streaming
during job execution
HPC capabilities & supported environments
The suitability of an HPC portal depends on its ability to support your own HPC workloads and user environments, including specific software and workflows.
For simpler HPC setups only
Designed for single-host deployments
convenient configuration for simpler environments
Scheduler-dependent cloud connectivity
Wide support for scientific applications
VDI
Supports noVNC and unofficial DCV
The professional solution for complex HPC environments
Multi-host deployments with increased security. DMZ support and built-in load balancing
Cloud connectors
including comprehensive AWS integration
Complex multi-steps workflow support
Integrated VDI
Administration & licensing
The administrative overhead and the licensing model of an HPC portal are important considerations for its implementation and maintenance.
Open-source
Free and open-source
Cluster-level monitoring, expandable through manual integrations
Free on AWS, advanced modular administration, very extensible
Detailed node-level monitoring with graphical real-time resource usage views
Modular administration supporting plug-and-play tool integration
Highly extensible & customizable with plugin architecture and appearance editor
Free on AWS and free evaluation licenses
Fast, responsive support backed by enterprise-grade SLAs
WATCH EF PORTAL IN ACTION
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Both give HPC cluster users a browser-based interface for job submission, file management, and session monitoring.
The core difference is commercial: EF Portal (formerly EnginFrame) ships with a support SLA, a sustained release cadence, and integrations that Open OnDemand doesn’t include out of the box (DCV for remote visualization, AWS Workspaces Core, a real-time notification system, and an operational health dashboard).
Open OnDemand is open source and maintained by a community; EF Portal is the enterprise alternative to Open OnDemand: a professional HPC portal with a dedicated support team and active development.
Yes. The underlying infrastructure can stay the same: EF Portal sits on top of your existing job scheduler (SLURM, PBS, LSF, Altair, Gridware), so there’s no scheduler migration involved. The switch replaces the portal layer, not the cluster underneath it. NI SP’s HPC services team can handle the setup and evaluate your existing Open OnDemand configuration for the transition. A 30-day trial on your live cluster lets you validate before going live.
MORE RESOURCES
- EF Portal: The Enterprise HPC Portal for Research and Engineering Teams
- EnginFrame to EF Portal FAQ
- What’s New in EF Portal
- How to install EF Portal Portal (Guide)
- Video Walkthrough EF HPC Portal – Intuitive HPC Access and Management Portal for End Users
HAVE QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions, comments or are interested in a free trial or a demo just let us know.
