Overview of the Free-Tier vs. Paid Compute and Storage Accounts on the Phoenix Cluster
Free-Tier Accounts (Default)
All academic and research faculty are eligible for free-tier compute and storage accounts on the Phoenix cluster.
| Included in Free-tier Compute (Monthly Basis) | Included in Free-tier Storage (Monthly Basis) |
|---|---|
| • Research groups are provided with $68 worth of computational credits per month. This is equivalent to running 10,000 CPUh on the base CPU-192GB node class, although jobs can be submitted to any node class. ↳ Any unused credits at the end of the month will roll over toward the next month, with the rollover amount not exceeding $204 (4 months) • Ability to submit short jobs to backfill quality-of-service (embers) free of charge | Access to: • 20 GB home directory per user • 1 TB of shared project storage per research group • 15 TB, 1 million files per-user scratch space |
Paid Compute and Storage Accounts (Opt-in)
Faculty with a need for additional compute and/or storage resources can request paid account(s) on Phoenix. Importantly, research groups that opt-into purchasing additional credits will still be provided with all of the compute and storage resources in the free-tier. Credits that are purchased will be in addition to all free-tier benefits.
Principal investigators will receive automatic emails containing the monthly charges, worktags to be billed, and a PDF statement explaining the charges. See this article for the detailed description of the monthly statements.
Paid Compute Account Options
For research groups wanting more compute credits than those provided in the free-tier, PACE offers two accounting models to help PIs purchase additional credits.
| Option 1 Post-paid Compute Accounts | Option 2 Pre-paid Compute Accounts | |
|---|---|---|
| Model Highlights | • “Pay-as-you-go” model • Billed monthly | • “Pay ahead” model • 7.5 years to use credits purchased, with a 1 year extension available upon request |
| Overview | PIs only pay for compute cycles provisioned the month prior | PI pays a lump-sum to purchase credits that can be used as-needed |
| Allowed Worktags | All valid Workday worktags | All valid Workday worktags, except federal grants (GR) |
Paid Storage Account Options
Paid storage accounts function very similarly to paid compute accounts with post-paid or prepaid models.
| Option 1 Post-paid Compute Accounts | Option 2 Pre-paid Compute Accounts | |
|---|---|---|
| Model Highlights | • “Pay-as-you-go” model • Billed monthly | • “Pay ahead” model • 7.5 years to use credits purchased |
Additional storage credits can be purchased in advance or post-paid on a monthly basis. These additional storage credits can be used to supplement a PI’s primary project storage, or to fund additional project storage volumes. Credits are consumed based on requested quotas, which are in integer multiples of 1 TB, regardless of storage utilization. PIs will receive warning emails as the availability of storage credits is reduced below the quota, before which time, PIs can elect to purchase additional credits or reduce their quota accordingly.
Next Steps
If you are interested in an account on Phoenix, visit our Get Started on PACE page to learn how to request access to this system. By default, all new research groups have will be created with free-tier accounts.
If you are interested in pursuing a paid account (pre-paid or postpaid), email pace-support@oit.gatech.edu. PACE staff will ask if you are interested in purchasing compute vs. storage credits, how many credits, if you would to set up a pre- vs. post-paid account, and will require worktag information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hard/Soft Account Limits
For paid accounts, PIs can request to have monthly hard/soft and lifetime hard/soft limits set to avoid unexpected expenses
• Monthly Hard Limit: This is the maximum a PI is willing to spend in a given month; once this limit is reached, no new jobs will run, until the start of the next month.
• Lifetime Hard Limit: This is the maximum a PI wishes to spend over the lifetime of the account; once this limit is reached, the account cannot be used anymore unless the PI requests an update to this limit.
• Monthly Soft limit: Intended to be a target expenditure, but doesn’t prevent new jobs from starting. When this limit is reached, the PI receives an automated warning email.
• Lifetime Soft Limit: An automated warning email will be sent when total expenditures for the account hit this specified threshold.
Pooling and Transferring Credits
PIs can request that refresh credits be pooled together, or transferred to another PI as necessary. These credits may not, however, be combined or moved to other types of allocations such as those associated with free-tier or paid accounts.
2020 Coda Refresh and FY20 Purchase Accounts
PIs who previously had purchased hardware in the Rich datacenter were provided with refresh compute and storage accounts on Phoenix based on their Rich resources. PIs who purchased compute nodes during FY20 were provided with compute accounts on Phoenix based on their purchased resources. In both cases, the credits provided incur no additional cost to the PIs and have a lifetime of 7.5 years (expiring on October 1, 2028), per an agreement between the PACE Advisory Committee (PAC) and PACE. PIs may submit a written request with justification for a one-time, no-cost 1 year extension to these refresh credits, resulting in an effective lifetime of 8.5 years.
Special Case: Exchange Between Refresh Storage and Compute Accounts
As recommended by the PACE Advisory Committee on May 27, 2021, and adopted by PACE, PIs may elect to convert credits between storage and compute (i.e., CODA20) refresh or FY20 accounts by submitting a request to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu or via help request form. Please note that the storage and compute refresh accounts credits are determined by the rate study at the time of the 2020 Coda Refresh, and conversion request(s) will be subject to the exchange rate of $6.67 per TB*month in place at that point, regardless of the timing of the conversion request. Exchange to other types of accounts (e.g. free-tier/paid compute) cannot be accommodated. Storage balances transitioned from Rich to Coda are eligible for this conversion, but new storage credits purchased in 2021 or after are not.
Hard/Soft Limits for 2020 Refresh or FY20 Compute Account
PIs who wish to apply administrative limits to cap the monthly expenditure rate from their 2020 refresh or FY20 compute accounts can request the implementation of monthly hard and/or soft limits:
Soft limit: Intended to be a target expenditure, but doesn’t prevent new jobs from starting. When this limit is reached, the PI receives an automated warning email.
Hard limit: This is the maximum a PI is willing to spend in a given month; once this limit is reached, no new jobs will run, until the start of the next month.