Chameleon User Terms and Conditions

Acceptable Use Policy

Chameleon resources are deployed, configured, and operated by the University of Chicago and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) to serve a large research community. It is important that all users are aware of and abide by this Acceptable Use Policy. Failure to do so may result in suspension or cancellation of the project and associated allocation and closure of all associated logins. Illegal transgressions will be addressed through the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin), the University of Chicago, and/or legal authorities.

Policies

Users agree to abide by the following policies. Failure to do so will lead to disciplinary actions described in the next section.

All Users

• Sharing of User Credentials is strictly prohibited.
• Computing resources may only be used to perform research work consistent with the project’s goals and may not be used for commercial purposes, financial gain, personal gain, any unlawful purpose, or in a way that makes the work of other users difficult.
• Users are only allowed one account per person.
• Never infringe upon someone else's copyright. It is a violation of policy and federal law to participate in copyright infringement.
• Never try to circumvent login procedures or otherwise attempt to gain access where you are not allowed.
• Never deliberately scan or probe any information resource without prior authorization. “With great power comes great responsibility” Users of Chameleon are given much more extensive administrative privileges than they would have on typical resources, and as such must take great care and personal responsibility for the security of their VM’s.

Project Leaders/PI’s

• Project Leads/PI's are responsible for notifying the Chameleon project when project users should be deactivated due to the departure of the user or termination of the project.
• Project Leads/PI’s are responsible for ensuring that users conducting work on the Chameleon testbed as part of their project observe the user terms and conditions described herein.
• Project Leads/PI’s will provide the Chameleon team with progress reports on their use of Chameleon.

Because Chameleon resources are physically located at TACC and the University of Chicago, users are additionally subject to and are agreeing to abide by the following policies:

• TACC usage policy: https://portal.tacc.utexas.edu/tacc-usage-policy
• Univ of Chicago User Policy: https://wiki.ci.uchicago.edu/Resources/UserPolicy
• Univ of Chicago Password Policy: https://wiki.ci.uchicago.edu/Resources/PasswordGuidelines

Cryptocurrencies

Users are prohibited from running applications that mine cryptocurrency and/or use block-chain technology for personal gain. Exceptions must be requested in advance and will be approved at TACC’s discretion. Violations of this policy will result in user's access to TACC resources being terminated.

Disciplinary Actions

Disciplinary actions for infractions includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Written or verbal warnings
• Revocation of access privileges to Chameleon
• Termination of project(s) on Chameleon
• Criminal prosecution

Passwords

Users must choose a strong password that should be unique to your Chameleon username. All passwords are required to meet the following criteria:

• Must not contain your account name or parts of your full name.
• Must be a minimum of 8 characters in length.
• Must contain characters from at least three of the following: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

Account Deactivation Policy

Accounts will be deactivated for any of the following reasons:
PI Request

An account deactivation request by a PI will result in the account being denied access to use the PI's project's allocation, and if the account does not have access to another active project it will be then additionally be deactivated.

Project Expiration

Upon project expiration, all accounts (PI and users) will be immediately denied access to the allocation.

Violation of Policy

Any user account determined to be in violation of this policy will be subject to the Disciplinary Actions described above, and may immediately be denied access to Chameleon without notification depending on the severity of the event.

Account Inactivity

User accounts will be deactivated due to inactivity after 120 calendar days. This will be done automatically and users will have to submit a ticket to have their account reactivated. A successful login to the Chameleon portal, or any TACC resource (including the TACC User Portal) will reset this inactivity timer.

Use of Protected Software and Data

PIs and users agree to NOT install or use any software or data that falls under the following protected categories: International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Export Administration Regulations (EAR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Personally Identifiable Information (PII), or any other protected control without first contacting help@chameleoncloud.org, so that an appropriate agreement such as a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), Technology Control Plan (TCP), Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU), or other relevant agreement between UT-Austin, University of Chicago, and the PI or home intuition will be in place before such software or data can be installed or used on Chameleon. Violations of this policy will result in the immediate removal of said software and/or data and deactivation of related projects, allocations, and user accounts.

Chameleon provides FPGA resources, and the FPGA build environment includes software that is subject to export control regulations resulting in restricted access as follows:

• Access is allowed: if a user is neither a Resident nor a Citizen of a Country of Concern, currently Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.
• Access might be allowed: if a user is a US Resident, but legally residing here on a visa as a Citizen of a Country of Concern. The user will be contacted and asked to send a copy of their current visa and passport, or other acceptable documentation from their institution.
• Access not allowed: if a user is a Resident of a Country of Concern regardless of Country of Citizenship.
• Access not allowed: if a user is a Citizen of a Country of Concern and is not residing in the US.

Data Retention

Upon project expiration or termination of an active project all data will remain on Chameleon resources for thirty (30) days. All data stored in the TACC archival storage system will be maintained for a period of eighteen (18) months and will be read only.

User Support

Chameleon users are encouraged to request assistance when necessary. All requests for support must be submitted through the Chameleon Help System https://www.chameleoncloud.org/user/help/

Refund Requests

Users may submit refund requests for jobs that terminate abnormally that can be attributed to hardware and system software failure. Users should implement safeguards such as snapshotting to minimize the amount of lost time due to job failure.

User News

Information regarding important Chameleon activities, including system availability and upgrades, training classes, allocation renewal notifications, and holiday consulting coverage will be communicated to the user community via User News. Users are automatically subscribed to User News. Users may unsubscribe from User News, but then must assume responsibility and outcomes for not receiving User News via email by finding the information in the appropriate locations on the Chameleon portal.

Acknowledgement of Chameleon in Publications

An acknowledgement of support from the Chameleon project and the National Science Foundation should appear in any publication of material, whether copyrighted or not, that describes work which benefited from access to Chameleon cyberinfrastructure resources. The suggested acknowledgement is as follows: “Results presented in this paper were obtained using the Chameleon testbed supported by the National Science Foundation”.