Renewal

Account Renewals

This is a guide to the account renewal process at the Centre for Advanced Computing. It explains what you need to do in order to keep your account active. It also explains details of our present effort to bring our accounts up to date and synchronize the account structure with the one at Compute Canada.

How to renew an account at the Centre for Advanced Computing

Almost all accounts that entitle users to access to our Frontenac cluster require an active Compute Canada Role. The exception are temporary and teaching accounts. If you have a username starting with "hpc", you had to obtain Compute Canada credentials to get it. Compute Canada conducts annual renewals of their accounts/roles and will notify you with a deadline. Please follow those instructions. A separate renewal of your account at the Centre for Advanced Computing is not necessary as long as you keep the associated Compute Canada role active.

If you let your Compute Canada role expire without renewing it, it will be deactivated. The CAC account that is associated with this role will also be de-activated and you will loose access to your CAC account.

Find details about the Compute Canada renewal process at https://www.computecanada.ca/research-portal/account-management/account-renewals

Important: The next deadline for active Compute Canada accounts is April 23, 2018.
CAC accounts whose associated CCRI is not active after that date, will be de-activated.

If your account at the Centre for Advanced Computing is de-activated because you failed to renew or activate the associated Compute Canada role, you can re-activate it by contacting us at cac.admin@queensu.ca with a request for re-activation. However, you must supply us with an active CCRI from Compute Canada, which means that you have to renew your or re-activate your Compute Canada role first.

Account cleanup at CAC

In the spring of 2018, we are conducting a review of our accounts to bring them in line with Compute Canada's practice of regular renewals. We will contact users whose account is associated with inactive CCRI's with a request to participate in the annual Compute Canada account renewal to keep their accounts with us active.

Old accounts

Some of our users have accounts that are associated with Compute Canada roles that are not active anymore. In past years we have kept these accounts active unless a de-activation was requested or became necessary for other reasons. We cannot continue this practise, and will de-activate CAC accounts that are found to be associated with inactive CCRI's after April 23, 2018.

If you are receiving an email to remind you to renew or re-activate your Compute Canada role to maintain an active account with the Centre for Advance Computing, please do so before the deadline set by Compute Canada for account renewal. We cannot make exceptions, as active accounts (roles) with Compute Canada are a pre-condition for an account with the CAC and are essential for proper accounting and usage reporting.

What if I don't have a Compute Canada account ?

In some rare cases, user may not have Compute Canada credentials. We will contact these users and direct them to apply for credentials. This is done through the Compute Canada Database Registration Page. Once you have obtained a CCRI (Compute Canada Role Identifier), please contact us at cac.admin@queensu.ca with that information, and we will link the role to your account. Make sure you apply for the right type of role: if you are a Principal Investigator (PI), apply for a role as faculty or another PI role; if you are "sponsored" by a PI, apply for one of the sponsored roles (student, post-doc, researcher, etc.) and provide the CCRI of your sponsor. It is important that this matches your account with us so we can link it.

What if my CCRI has expired / was de-activated ?

If you have a CCRI with Compute Canada, and it has expired, you will need to re-activate it or get a new one:

• If the role has expired because you failed to renew it, but otherwise still reflects your current status, you need to login to the Compute Canada database and follow the instructions for role renewal there. If you are PI this may require providing a "CCV" (Canadian Curriculum Vitae).
• If your role was de-activated because the account (role) of your "sponsor" (PI) became inactive, you need to ask your sponsor to renew his or her role first.
• If your role was de-activated because your current status changed and is no longer reflected by that role, you need to apply for a new role. If this is the case, once you have this role, you may have to re-apply for a different account with CAC as well, because it is likely that the old account is no longer appropriate for you. If you are in doubt, please contact cac.help@queensu.ca and ask. We will assist you navigate the re-activation or account migration.

Important: Note that we will check the CCRI that we have associated with your account at CAC after the deadline on April 23, 2018. If it is found to be inactive, we will de-activate the CAC account as well. This is done automatically. If your CCRI has changed recently, please contact us at cac.help@queensu.ca so we can reflect the change in our records and avoid de-activation.

Why ?

Regular account renewals are necessary to keep account information up-to-date and to avoid issues with account conditions no longer applying. Since Compute Canada account credentials are a necessary condition for a default CAC account, we are using the renewal cycle of Compute Canada to test for the continued existence of this condition. This also makes it possible to conduct regular "syncs" between the Compute Canada database and ours, which is necessary for proper reporting of usage.