Unity Account Lifecycle Policy

Account Expiration

A Unity account is idle-locked if the user does not log into the account portal for 180 days.

  • Emails and notices upon login that warn users of an impending idle-lock status occur for five weeks
  • Idle-locked accounts cannot log into any part of Unity except the account portal

An idle-locked Unity account is disabled if the user’s account is idle-locked for one year.

  • Disable warning emails are sent for nine weeks.
  • If the user is a member of a PI group, the account is removed from the group, and the PI receives a notification that the account has been disabled.
  • If the user is the owner of a PI group, their home directory is temporarily archived and the group is disabled. Otherwise, the user’s home directory is deleted within 24 hours.
    • With the agreement of the home institution, all data in the PI’s /work, /home, and /project directories are deleted. This data cannot be recovered.
    • The home institution’s point of contact will be allowed the opportunity to retrieve relevant data or have a conversation about extenuating circumstances.
    • The PI’s Slurm account is deleted.

Expiration FAQ

I am a PI, and my /work and /project data was deleted because I left my account idle-locked for a year. Can that data be recovered for any period of time?

Your home institution’s point of contact may have elected to transfer some or all of your data. Any data they did not elect to transfer cannot be recovered. Unity is not intended for long-term storage and does not have backups.

If my PI account was disabled, can I apply for a PI account in the future?

Yes! Log into the portal and request a PI account.

If my PI’s account was disabled and I had data in their /work or /project directories, can I retrieve that data?

  • If the data is still intact, we can work with you to get it back.
  • If the data was transferred to another institution, we can put you in touch with a point of contact from the institution.
  • If the data was deleted, no.

Manual Action

  • A user may disable their account at any time if they are not the owner of an enabled PI group. A PI group owner may disable their group at any time only if the group has no other members.
  • If you would like your information removed from our system, send an email to hpc@umass.edu. We will remove all non-essential data associated with your account from our system within 10 business days.
    • This does not include your username, as usernames cannot be removed from our system.