Free-Tier Accounts
All academic and research faculty are eligible for free-tier compute and storage accounts on the Phoenix cluster.
- Each month, compute accounts are provided with credits sufficient for 10k CPUh on the base CPU-192GB node class (presently 68.0000 credits/month), although any node class can be used to run jobs; the rates for each node class can be found here. Any unused credits at the end of the month will expire, and the account will be reset to its nominal balance. If additional compute credits are required, an additional paid compute account can be requested, as described below.
- Each month, the first terabyte of each PI's primary project storage is provided as part of the free-tier account. Additional storage credits can be purchased as described below.
For a new free-tier account, or to add users to an existing allocation, please submit your request to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu or submit a help request.
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.
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.
Compute Account Guardrails
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:
- 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.
- 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.
These limits can be adjusted at any time as needed by submitting a request to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.
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 or archive storage) 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.
Paid Accounts
Faculty with a need for additional compute and/or storage resources beyond the free-tier and refresh accounts can request a paid account on Phoenix. To request paid compute or storage accounts, please submit a request to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu or via help request form.
Compute Accounts
Post-paid compute accounts can be provisioned upon request, ensuring PIs only pay for compute cycles actually provisioned during the month prior. These accounts will be established in addition to the free-tier and refresh accounts for easier utilization tracking and reporting. As with refresh accounts, administrative guardrails can be applied to cap expenditures for paid compute accounts:
- 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.
- 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 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.
- Lifetime Soft Limit: An automated warning email will be sent when total expenditures for the account hit this specified threshold.
Pre-paid compute accounts are also available upon request if paid with state funds, including startup funds, or with most GT Foundation/gift funds (Use of Foundation/gift funds for pre-paid compute may require review by the GT Foundation or financial administration). Grant funds cannot be used for pre-paid compute purchases. Compute credits purchased under this option will expire 7.5 years from the date of purchase. PIs may submit a written request with justification for a one-time, no-cost 1 year extension to these pre-paid credits, resulting in an effective lifetime of 8.5 years. The Monthly Hard Limit, Monthly Soft Limit, and Lifetime Soft Limit administrative guardrails can be applied to pre-paid compute accounts.
Storage Accounts
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.
