When managing research computing accounts, it’s useful to think of each account like a credit card. These accounts don’t hold money, but they do have a spending limit. Here’s a breakdown of how this analogy works and how different accounts and spending limits are managed.
Understanding the Accounts and Spending Limits
- The <PI>0 Account example: jsonk0
- Spending Limit: $1202.22 per fiscal year
- Funding Source: Paid by ARC’s (Advanced Research Computing) bank account
- The <pi>1 Account example: jsonk1
- Spending Limit: $1000 per month
- Funding Split: 56% paid by you, 44% paid by the College of Engineering (CoE)
- The <pi>98 Account example: jsonk98
- Spending Limit: $12,500 per fiscal year
- Funding Split: 20% paid by you, 80% paid by the CoE
Note: These are analogous to “credit cards” in that they do not contain funds. Instead, they simply allow charges up to a certain limit, while “bank accounts” (like ARC’s or CoE’s funding sources) handle the payments for these charges. For more information on the CoE cost-shareing program visit:
https://caen.engin.umich.edu/rc/account/cost-share/
Interpreting the “Available Balance”
Here is an example of an UMRCP account (the pi0 account) viewed within the portal.arc.umich.edu website. This account has used 99.97% of the 80,000 CPU hour limit place on the account.
In the portal, the “available balance” represents the remaining part of the spending limit for each account. For example, if pi1 has an “available balance” of $969.06, and the limit is $1000 per month, that means your group has already charged about $31 to the account this month.
You can still charge approximately $969 more within that month before reaching the spending limit.
Using the Accounts Efficiently
There are no inherent priorities set for these accounts. However, to maximize efficiency and take full advantage of funds:
- Use pi0 first, as ARC’s bank account fully pays for it.
- Next, utilize pi98, since CoE covers 80% of this account’s costs.
- Lastly, use pi1, because this account involves a higher contribution from your PI.
One practical advantage of the pi1 account is the flexibility to forgo setting a spending limit if needed. This could be beneficial for handling extremely large jobs that cannot be charged to the pi0 account due to its lower limits.
Conclusion
By prioritizing the use of these accounts strategically, you can maximize the external funding you receive, ensuring all projects are completed efficiently within budget constraints. Always remember that “available balance” is not an indication of available funds but rather the remaining portion of the spending limit on each account.
For more guidance on managing research computing resources, feel free to contact the support team or consult additional resources provided by the College of Engineering.