Become a URCF User

Account Types

Faculty Account Requests

Any faculty member of Drexel University may request an account on the URCF computing environment. An account will be granted to a faculty member pursuing active research requiring the use of resources provided by the URCF computing environment. The department chair(s) of the faculty member requesting the account will receive notification of the account request and approval. This notification's purpose is to sustain and grow the facility by raising awareness of its usage among the chairs and, indirectly, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.

The Faculty Account will remain active for the duration of faculty member's association with the University, either through employment or emeritus appointment.

Please fill out the following form to send in an account request.

Staff Account Requests

Any staff member of Drexel University may request an account for use of the URCF computing environment. An account will be granted to a staff member under the following conditions: a) the staff member's department head or supervisor endorses the request for access, b) the staff member will be conducting research on behalf of a faculty member (research associate of any kind) or providing direct support to a faculty member.

The Staff Account is authorized by the supervisor up to 2 years and is renewable every year thereafter.

Please fill out the following form to send in an account request.

Student Account Requests

Any Drexel University student may request an account for use of the URCF computing environment. An account will be granted to a student under the following conditions: a) the student's supervisor endorses the request for access, b) the student will be conducting research on behalf of a faculty member (research associate of any kind) or providing direct support to a faculty member.

The Student Account is authorized by the supervisor for up to 2 years and is renewable every year thereafter.

Please fill out the following form to send in an account request.

External User Account Requests

An account will be granted to a person who is not directly affiliated with Drexel University provided that: a) the person is directly collaborating with a faculty member affiliated with Drexel University, b) the Drexel faculty member has an existing relationship with the URCF computing environment, c) the Drexel faculty member endorses the request for an account. These accounts shall be valid only for the duration of the collaboration with the Drexel faculty member or until the Drexel faculty member no longer is affiliated with the URCF computing environment.

For clarity, an external person shall be defined as someone who has no official, direct relationship (academic or employment) with Drexel University, or Drexel University College of Medicine.

The External User Account is active as authorized by Drexel sponsor up to 1 year and is renewable every year thereafter.

To request an external user account, the faculty sponsor must first request a Drexel visitor account for their collaborators. Once a Drexel account is created, they can fill out the following form to send in an account request.

Account Management

Authorization Requests

Requests for account authorization and group membership shall be submitted through the URCF facility's designated issue tracking system in production at the time of the request.

Group Membership

Each operating system group that is available for assignment to user accounts on the URCF facility has a designated approval authority registered for the group. Each group membership requested for an account shall be approved by that group's designated authority prior to its addition. Because of the delays in communication associated with the designated approval authorities, group membership requests can take several business days to be approved and assigned to an account. In the interests of time, authorization and creation of accounts can be fulfilled without the requested group memberships assigned and, as the group membership requests are approved, can be added at a later date.

Sponsorship and Authorization

In general, authorized accounts in the URCF are governed and protected by the Acceptable Use Policy.

However, conditions unique to the URCF exist and must be emphasized. Specifically, accounts authorized by a sponsor of any kind can be subject to the status, requests, and decisions of the sponsor. The balance between the rights of the account holder and the rights of the account sponsor are difficult to define fairly in a policy. Determination of this balance shall be under the sole discretion of the URCF management, and will be guided by this URCF User Policy, and the Acceptable Use Policy.

With little or no prior notice to the account holder, a person that authorizes or sponsors that account may revoke that authorization at any time and cause the account to undergo the automated revocation process.

Transfer of Account Authorization

Users and their accounts are subject to changes in authorization parties (i.e. 'advisors') during their academic career at Drexel University. Users are required to notify the URCF management through the Authorization Requests process of any changes that would affect an account's authorization status or authority. While not an exhaustive or complete list, such changes include: (a) change of department, (b) change of degree program, (c) change of research group, or (d) change of research advisor.

Failure to provide this advance notification could result in the account becoming subject to the automated account removal process.

Account Termination

Accounts are subject to immediate revocation of their authorization if use of the account has violated the terms of the URCF User Policy or Drexel University’s Acceptable Use Policy.

If an account requiring authorization or renewal is not reauthorized, an automated process is used to expire and remove the account. This process will make a best effort to adhere to the following protocol:

Date Relative to End of Authorization	Action Taken
30 days prior	Email notification of upcoming expiration sent to address on record, and to the PI/supervisor of the user.
Day authorization ends	Account is disabled and logins no longer permitted. Email notification sent to address on record.
30 days after	Account is deleted. All files owned and grouped to the account have their ownership and group membership changed to the registered advisor or supervisor account, if it exists. Email notification sent to advisor or supervisor regarding the change.

The account termination protocol may be abridged or disregarded in cases where authorization must be terminated abruptly or the adherence to the protocol would cause significant risk to the normal operation of the URCF.

Accounts may be reactivated at the discretion of the URCF Governing Board.