Project Allocation Expiry and Renewal

This article explains the timeline and process for expiry of Project Trials and Project Allocations, and the options available to you. We also explain what happens when your individual account becomes inactive.

Project Trial

The project trial (pt-____) is designed to help users quickly get started using the ARDC Nectar Research Cloud before a project allocation has been submitted and approved. It is a fixed term trial which will expire when the quota has been reached or after 6 months. When you receive warning emails from Nectar about impending project trial expiry, it is time to:

1. Apply for a project allocation. This is done in the allocations tab of the Nectar dashboard. Nectar will check whether an extension request has been submitted before starting the expiry process.
   In your allocation request, there is an option to convert your project trial into the project allocation, or to create a fresh project. Converting your project trial allows you to keep the instances and snapshots you have created. If the allocation request is successful, the content of your project trial will be moved to your new project, and your project trial quotas reduce to zero.
   

2. OR, if you do not wish to continue with your project allocation, terminate your running instances and delete stored data. Information to help you transfer data from your instance prior to deletion can be found in our support article on transferring your data.

The expiry process for project trials is as follows:

Project Allocation

Project allocations on the Nectar Research Cloud are created for a fixed term to ensure fair access to resources for all users of the cloud. When a project allocation nears the end, project manager/s and members are notified via email. The email presents the following options for managing their allocation. The primary responsibility for dealing with this rests on the project manager(s). Similarly to the Project Trial, you can:

1. Extend the project allocation. If the project managers would like the project allocation to continue, they need to apply for an extension of the allocation. Please refer to the section "Submit a Request for More Resources" in Managing an Allocationfor instructions on how to apply for an allocation extension.  
   • Note that this application can be made by the contact for the project; i.e. the person who made the original allocation request or the most recent (approved) amendment. The contact person can see the allocation on the Allocations > My Requests page on the Nectar Dashboard.  
   • Other project managers for the allocation can also amend or renew the allocation but they need to manually select the project in the dashboard to get it to show up in their Allocation > My Requests tab.
   • If you do not know who the contact for a project is, please contact Nectar Support.
   • Nectar will check whether an extension request has been submitted before starting the expiry process. If expiry has already started, submission of an amendment request suspends it until the request is approved or declined.
2. OR, if you do not need to continue using your project allocation, manually terminate your running instances and delete data. Information to help you transfer data from your instance prior to deletion can be found in the "transferring data" and "Back up and Restore" articles.

The expiry and renewal process for project allocations is as follows:

*See the article on Managing an Allocation for more information.

What about my individual account?

Your individual account will become inactive if you haven't logged into the Nectar Dashboard for 6 months. You can reactivate it at any time by simply logging in to the Nectar Dashboard. Note: this is only in relation to your individual account, your project and resources expiry process is outlined above.