Managing Cluster User Groups
Users on the compute clusters can be affiliated with a PI, faculty member, institution or work unit in two ways:
- groups that manage/influence SLURM job submission (e.g., rc_piname_pi)
- groups that control access to shared file spaces (e.g., rc_pilab_psx)
Determining permissions on shared spaces
Slurm user groups
All cluster users are members of at least one SLURM group (known as an account in SLURM). Generally, when a user requests an account on a cluster, they specify the name of a faculty member with whom to be affiliated.
Membership in these Slurm groups DOES NOT control or grant access to any shared file spaces; these groups affiliate the user with a group's Slurm record keeping and job resources. These SLURM groups have a _pi suffix.
To view a PI's Slurm user group's membership, use the sacctmgr command:
$ sacctmgr show associations where account=rc_piname_pi format=user%20,account%20
User Account
-------------------- --------------------
rc_piname_pi
user1 rc_piname_pi
user2 rc_piname_pi
PIs are notified by email when a user requests their jobs to be affiliated with said PI. To request additions to, or deletions from an access group please email research@unc.edu
Slurm shared lab space groups
Shared file space for labs, certain high-level projects and PIs are often located in the /proj or /hickory/proj mounts (e.g., /hickory/proj/pinamelab). Access is restricted, and controlled through user membership in a group named with a _psx suffix (e.g., rc_pinamelab_psx).
$ getent group rc_pinamelab_psx
rc_pinamelab_psx:*:5555:user1,user2
Membership in these access groups requires permission from the PI or entity head. To request additions to, or deletions from an access group please email research@unc.edu
Determining permissions on shared spaces
Checking and maintaining appropriate permissions on shared file spaces is the responsibilty of the PI. A PI or person designated by the PI can check directory permissions at the command line. For example
$ ls -la /hickory/proj/pinamelab
total 200
drwxrwsr-t 4 piname rc_pinamelab_psx 49 May 10 2018 .
drwxr-xr-x 649 root root 17116 Jun 3 14:01 ..
drwxrwsr-t 36 piname rc_pinamelab_psx 1661 Jun 4 10:03 projects
drwxrwsr-t 4 piname rc_pinamelab_psx 50 Jan 10 2024 users
In this case, the PI's shared lab space access is limited to members of rc_pinamelab_psx, although other cluster users can list directory contents. The subdirectories projects and users can be further restricted to individual users or sub-groups as appropriate.