NERSCPowering Scientific Discovery Since 1974
Login
My NERSC | Site Map
For Users

Passwords &
Account Support

https://nim.nersc.gov
accounts@nersc.gov
1-800-66-NERSC,  option 2
or 510 486-8612

Consulting

http://help.nersc.gov
consult@nersc.gov
1-800-66-NERSC, option 3
or 510 486-8611

Off-Hours Status &
Passwords

1-800-66-NERSC, option 1

Managing Your Allocation and Your Users

Managing Your Users

For information on managing your users see the NIM Guide for PIs.  This guide explains how to check account usage, how to add and delete users from your project account (repo), how to change users quotas and user contact information.

Requesting a Supplemental Award  

If your project runs out of time the PI or Project Manager may request additional time by sending an email to the DOE Allocations Manager responsible for NERSC Allocations in your DOE Science Office and Program.

  • Your DOE Office and Program are displayed in the Project Information tab in NIM's Repository display area. To see this information, type your repo name in the Repository Quick Search box in the NIM main menu and click Go.
  • For contact information for DOE Allocations Managers see: DOE Science Offices, Programs and Allocation Managers.

Schedule of Time Decrements for Under-utilized Repos

MPP (or computational) repositories  that haven't used significant amounts of time are adjusted at certain times by transferring a part of the unused balance to the corresponding DOE Office reserve.

The following schedule will be used for allocation year 2012 (which runs 10 January 2012 through 7 January 2013).

  • On April 9:
    • if usage is less than 10% remove 25% of the unused balance
  • On July 9:
    • if usage is less than 25% remove 25% of the unused balance
    • if usage is less than 10% remove 50% of the unused balance
  • On October 8:
    • if usage is less than 50% remove 25% of the unused balance
    • if usage is less than 25% remove 75% of the unused balance
    • if usage is less than 10% remove 90% of the unused balance
  • On November 5:
    • if no usage close the repo and transfer balance to the reserve

What happens if a repo or user balance is negative

Accounting information is sent from the computational machines and HPSS to NIM once daily (in the early morning, Pacific Time). At this time actions are taken if a repo or user balance is negative.  If a repo runs out of time (or Storage Resource Units) all login names which are not associated with another active repository are restricted:

  • On computational machines restricted users are able to log in, but cannot submit batch jobs, or run parallel jobs, or run lengthly interactive programs.
  • For HPSS restricted users are able to read data from HPSS and delete files but cannot write any data to HPSS.

Login names that are associated with more than one repo (for a given resource -- MPP or HPSS) are checked to see if the user has a positive balance in any of her or his repos (for that resource). If he or she does have a positive balance in some repo (for that resource) s/he will not be restricted and the following will happen:

  • On computational machines the user will not be able to charge to the restricted repo. If the restricted repo had been the user's default repo, a new (temporary) default repo is assigned to the user (it can be any one of the user's remaining repos).
  • For HPSS, repos that are negative continue to incur SRU charges every day for each member that has HPSS files. This is because there is a daily charge for files stored within HPSS. Also, HPSS project percents are not adjusted when a repo goes negative. Users control their HPSS project percents (these percents tell NIM how to distribute HPSS user charges to the user's HPSS repos), although a PI or Project Manger can ask the user to adjust them. For more information see HPSS Charging.

The PI and project managers receive an email notifying them that the repo is negative. They should send an email to their NERSC Allocations Manager stating how much time (or SRUs) the repo needs for the rest of the allocation year.

If and when the repo receives additional time (or SRUs), any users that have been restricted will be unrestricted within two hours of transferring new time to the repo.

Likewise, when a user goes over her/his individual user quota in a given repo, that user is restricted if s/he has no other repo to charge to. A PI or Project Manager can change the user's quota. See the NIM Guide for PIs for instructions for changing user quotas.

User Deletion Process

When a user is removed from a computational system

When a user is removed from one of the NERSC computational systems (but still remains authorized to use other NERSC resources) the following happens:

  1. The user is placed in Limited statuson the system and is notified by email about the removal process. The user retains the Limited status for one month. While in Limited status the user can still login to the system but cannot submit batch jobs or run long interactive jobs. While in Limited status the user is responsible for:
    • Deleting files that are no longer needed.
    • Moving personal files (not needed by any NERSC project) to their home site, to HPSS, or to some other NERSC computational system where the user is still active.
    • Ensuring that files needed by any project of which s/he has been a member are retained by the project.
  2. After one month in Limited status the user is Disabled (can no longer login) and retains the Disabled Status for at least five months. During this time the user can be easily re-activated.
  3. After five months of Disabled status the user's permanent files are eligible to be archived to HPSS, after which the username may be removed from the system.

When a user is removed from a project

PIs and Project Managers decide when a user should be removed from a project. Users who are removed from a project receive an email to that effect. If the user is still a member of other projects, the user is simply removed from the departed project repositories (and can no longer charge to them) but otherwise remains active at NERSC.

When a user is removed from their last project at NERSC the following happens:

  1. The user goes through the user deletion process on each computational system for which they have an account. The user remains active on HPSS during the month of limited status on the computational systems.
  2. After one month the user is placed in Limited Status on HPSS and has read/delete access there. The user retains Limited status on HPSS for 5 months. While in Limited status the user is responsible for:
    • Deleting files that are no longer needed.
    • Moving personal files (not needed by any NERSC project) to their home site.
    • Ensuring that files needed by any project of which s/he has been a member are retained by the project.
  3. After 5 months of Limited Status on HPSS the user is disabled on HPSS. The user's files are now eligible to be moved to the HPSS crpt where they will remain for at least 18 months before being deleted. This step has not yet been implemented.

User Activity Statuses in NIM

A user on a given host can be in one of the states decribed below. These states are registered in NIM and displayed on NIM's Logins by Host page.

Active
The usual state for active users in repos with a positive balance.
Active - to be removed
The user is still active on HPSS but is scheduled to be deleted from their last project at NERSC (HPSS staus only). 
Restricted - negative
This happens if either the user cannot charge to any repo. When a (login, repo) pair runs out of time:
  • If the the user can still charge to some repo, the depleted repo is removed from the list the user can charge to (and the user remains active).
  • If the user has no repo to charge the user is restricted. This means that the user's interactive computing is limited and no batch computing is allowed.
If more allocation is added to the repo, the user is unrestricted.
Limited - to be removed
The user has been restricted (the user's interactive computing is limited and no batch computing is allowed) in preparation for removal. 
Disabled - no Form
The user's account (username) has been created in a disabled state because the user has not yet faxed to NERSC the Computer Use Policies Form.
Disabled - not authorized
The user has no allocation on this machine (but has been registered with than machine so that the NERSC Global Filesystem can display user names and group names rather than uids and gids).
Disabled - to be removed
The user has been disabled in preparation for removal. 
Disabled
The user has been temprarily disabled. The user can no longer login to a system, but the user's account and files remain intact. NERSC Account Support staff will contact disabled users to re-enable them.
Archived
The user's permanent data has been archived to HPSS.
Deleted
The username has been removed from the host.
Last edited: 2012-10-05 13:53:54

Send us feedback about this page

Logged in users can use our feedback form.You can log in here.

Or you can send email to consult@nersc.gov (click here send).