SCINet Policy

Accounts

Account Request:

To obtain a SCINet account, a SCINet Account Request must be submitted. The approval process depends on the affiliation of the requester.

• ARS: SCINet Account Request
• Other: Non-ARS SCINet Account Request

Terms and Conditions:

All SCINet Users must agree to the Terms and Conditions.

You can review more about SCINet Policies here.

Password Expiration:

SCINet passwords do not expire.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

SCINet users are required to use second factor when authenticating to SCINet resources.

Security Awareness Training:

Each Non-USDA SCINet account user will atttest to taking Annual Security Awareness Training.

Account Deactivation:

SCINet accounts are subject to deactivation. Collaborator (Non-ARS) accounts expire.

Re-establishing account:

SCINet users whose account has been deactivated for any reason will need to submit a new account request.

Storage

Home Directories:

Home directory quota on all HPC clusters is automatically granted to all SCINet user accounts. You have space by default as a user, but you can request Project Allocation.

• Project Allocation Request: A SCINet Project Allocation Request form must be submitted by the project’s Principal Investigator (PI).

Job Queues

Job queue policies are described in the User Guide for each of the clusters.

Queue policies are subject to periodic change.

• Ceres User Guide
• Atlas User Guide

Software

SCINet is a community resource.

Thus, all SCINet users have a responsibility to the other users on the system. There are restrictions on what software you can install.

Data Management

Users are responsible for securing their data.

Certain public datasets are made available to all SCINet users.

• A Galaxy web-based graphical workflow management system is available to all SCINet users. This is accessible via SCINet login credentials at https://galaxy.scinet.usda.gov.
• Public-facing websites are currently not available from SCINet.

Data Retention: Upon SCINet account deactivation (see Accounts section), the following data retention policies go into effect for files owned by the deactivated SCINet user:

• Home directory: supervisor (non-ARS: ARS sponsor) will be given access by the VRSC and required to take action within 90 days to preserve any files
• Project directories:
  • If there are no other active users on the project, the supervisor will be required to take action within 90 days
  • If there are active users on the project, and the deactivated user was the project PI (requestor), then the supervisor must select another PI
  • If there are active users on the project, and the deactivated user was not the project PI, then no further action need be taken