From MCS IT Wiki

Contents 1 Account Sponsorship in MCS 1.1 MCS account types 1.2 Your responsibilities as an account sponsor 1.3 Account retention and deactivation policies

Account Sponsorship in MCS

This page is designed to help you understand the different account types you'll encounter in MCS. It covers your responsibility as an account holder, an account sponsor, or a foreign national. Accounts that exist solely on Jazz are LCRC accounts and have their own policy and lifecycle. See the LCRC pages for more info.

MCS account types

There are three common types of accounts in MCS.

• Quarterly: This account is for anyone who requires short-term access to MCS resources. The account must be sponsored by an MCS Regular Employee, and has a 90 day renewal cycle. This is the typical summer account.
• Annual: This account is for users who are not MCS Regular Employees and require a long-term account. These accounts are typically renewed annually on September 15th, and must be sponsored by an MCS Regular Employee.
• Permanent: This account is for people who are Regular Employees in the MCS Division. If your account is this type, your account is not subject to periodic renewal and you are able to sponsor other accounts. MCS accounts are not sponsored.

When a Quarterly or Annual account is created, one of two default renewal dates is chosen. For Quarterly, it is the 15th of the month that is 90 days from creation time. For Annual accounts, it is the following September 15th that is 90 days from account creation date. This allows for the accounts of summer visitors to have a reasonable expiration date, as their accounts will be created in May and expire in mid-September by default.

Account sponsors can set any deactivation date they would like for their accounts, though we ask that they not exceed one year.

Foreign Nationals have a second date that relates to 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, but also applies to computer accounts. By DOE regulations, we are required to disable any account that has an expired 593. We have set up a warning system to inform the Administrative Assistants who handle that sort of thing in a timely manner to ensure that accounts are not needlessly turned off.

Your responsibilities as an account sponsor

If you sponsor any accounts, please take note of the following:

• You are responsible for the accounts you sponsor. By sponsoring someone for an account in MCS, you are telling us you know that the account applicant is who he/she claims to be and are entitled to work on our computers. Do not simply "rubber stamp" any account application that claims you as a sponsor.
• You are responsible for the level of account access. Aside from "public" resources, any resource request by a sponsored account requires approval from both the sponsor of the account and the resource owner/approver. Please consider the reasons for your guest's account/resource request before approving.
• You are responsible for renewing the account. When an account is about to expire, we send a warning to the account holder. Among other things, the account holder is told that if he or she wishes to keep the account, s/he must contact the sponsor of the account to renew it. As a sponsor, you can renew it from the Personal Account web page (near the bottom of the page) or by sending email to accounts@mcs.anl.gov with a note approving the extension. We cannot and will not extend someone's account without sponsor approval. The important thing to note is that inaction will result in the account becoming deactivated at the expiration date.

Also, please check your "notification style" at the Personal Account web page. The three types are:

• Once (default): The Accounts system will notify you when action is required on your part, then will mark a flag on your account that you've been notified. Further notifications will not be sent until you login to the page specified in the notification e-mail.
• Always: This is recommended for people who prefer to manage their accounts via e-mail. You will be notified of every action requiring your input, and will receive as many details as possible in the notification.
• Never: You will not receive any notifications. This is not recommended, as it could lead to accounts you sponsor becoming disabled.

Account retention and deactivation policies

Accounts can exist in one of three states.

• Active: This is the usual state for an account.
• Inactive: When an account expires, the ability to use MCS resources is removed by moving the account to this state. Any e-mail sent to that account will either be forwarded to the user-provided e-mail address or bounced to the sender with a note saying the user no longer has an e-mail address at MCS. All files continue to exist in the user's home directory. An account will remain in this state for at least 90 days before moving to the next state. To remove an account from this state, the sponsor must send mail to accounts@mcs.anl.gov approving the status change.
• Deleted: After 90 days as an inactive account, an account will be deleted. This removes all references to the account from the system (except the accounts database), including any files and home directories, email forwarding, etc. To remove an account from this state, the sponsor must send mail to accounts@mcs.anl.gov approving the status change.

Users with Inactive or Deleted accounts can request a reactivation from the Accounts page, which will result in an e-mail going to the sponsor to approve the reactivation.