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Argonne Leadership Computing Facility

Account Sponsorship & Retention Policy

This page is designed to help you understand the different types of accounts that you will encounter at the ALCF. The policy outlined reviews the responsibilities of an account holder, an account sponsor, and those of a foreign national.

ALCF Account Types

Annual: This account applies to users who are not ALCF Regular Employees. The default renewal date (account deactivation date) for the account is a year from the day the account was requested. These accounts are renewed annually and must be approved by an ALCF Staff member or a Project PI (also known as the “approver”). Users are required to update their account information and agree to the Terms of Use each year. Users need to be a part of an active project for their account to be renewed.

Permanent: This account applies to individuals who are Regular Employees within the ALCF and CPS Divisions. If you hold this type of account, periodic renewal is not necessary.

Note: Foreign Nationals have a second date (apart from their account deactivation date) that controls their account access. Accounts held by foreign nationals require paperwork referred to as an ANL-593 (or just 593 for shorthand). This paperwork is also required for any on-site access, and also applies to computer accounts. DOE requirements state that the ALCF is to disable any account with expired 593 paperwork.

A notification system has been established that issues a warning notice to users when expiration approaches and requests action to ensure that accounts are not needlessly turned off. An approval from the project PI is required to renew ANL 593 for project members that are foreign nationals.

Your responsibilities as an account approver

If you approve any accounts, please take note of the following roles and responsibilities:

By approving someone for an account at the ALCF, you are accepting responsibility for the account applicant and confirming that this individual is who they claim to be and is thus entitled to work on our computers. Do not simply "rubber stamp" any account application that claims you as an account approver/project PI.

You are also responsible for approving account renewal requests. When an account is about to expire, we send a warning notification to the account holder. Among other things, the account holder is asked to contact the approver (the PI of any of the active projects the account holder is associated with) if they wish to renew their account. We cannot and will not extend someone's account without an approval. An important aspect of this process to note is that inaction will result in the account becoming deactivated on the expiration date.

You are also responsible for approving ANL 593 renewals requests. When an account’s 593 is about to expire, we send a warning notification to the account holder. Among other things, the account holder is asked to contact the approver (the PI of any of the active projects the account holder is associated with) if they wish to renew their 593. We cannot and will not extend someone's 593 without an approval. An important aspect of this process to note is that inaction will result in the account becoming deactivated at the expiration date.

Account Retention Policy

Accounts can exist in one of three states:

  • Active: The active state is normal for an account.
  • Inactive: The inactive state occurs when an account expires, and the ability to use ALCF resources is removed by changing the active status of the account to inactive. All files continue to exist in the user's home directory. An account will remain in the inactive state for at least 90 days before moving to the next state.
  • Deleted: After 90 days, an inactive account will be deleted. This removes all references to the account from the system (except the accounts database), including any files and home directories.

Users with inactive or deleted accounts can request a reactivation visiting https://my.alcf.anl.gov/accounts/#/accountReactivate and clicking on the “Reactivate An Account” link.