Project Lifecycle¶
Last changed: 2024-05-22
All NREC projects have a life span determined by the date of the creation and the expiration date, sometimes referred to as “end date”. This document outlines what happens to a project
before it reaches its expiration date
when it reaches its expiration date
after the expiration date
The figure below is a graphical representation of the life cycle of a project. The project is created and enters normal operation. At the end of its lifetime it enters quarantine status for 90 days and is then deleted.
The main motivation for enforcing a limited life span for projects is to make sure that projects are deleted when they are no longer in use. This mitigates security issues that would otherwise arise as the result of unmaintained instances (servers), and frees up resources for other users.
Policy¶
A new project is created with a maximum expiration date of 2 years, except vGPU projects which is 6 months. Before a project reaches its expiration date, the administrator of the project, as well as the contact if it exists, will be notified by email. When a project reaches expiration date, it is put into quarantine for 90 days and then deleted. When a project is deleted, all of its resources (instances, volumes, snapshots etc.) and all data contained within those resources are deleted forever. There are no backups.
Detailed description of the policy:
60 days before expiration date: An email is sent to the project admin (and contact, if it exists) warning about pending quarantine
30 days before expiration date: An email is sent to the project admin (and contact, if it exists) warning about pending quarantine
7 days before expiration date: An email is sent to the project admin (and contact, if it exists) warning about pending quarantine
At expiration date: The project is put into quarantine. The following happens to a project that enters quarantine:
All instances are shut off
The project is disabled. Disabled projects can not be interacted with, and they are not visible in the dashboard
The project is tagged as being in quarantine
30 days after entering quarantine: An email is sent to the project admin (and contact, if it exists) warning about pending deletion
60 days after entering quarantine: An email is sent to the project admin (and contact, if it exists) warning about pending deletion
90 days after entering quarantine: The project is deleted
This process may be interrupted at any time. See Expiration Date Extension below. If a project is enabled from quarantine, the project’s administrator and members are responsible for activating instances that were shut off when the project entered quarantine.
Mailing lists¶
If you share responsibilities in administering a project, we recommend creating a mailing list and include this list in the ‘Optional contact’ field when applying for a project. The list will then be used for automatic E-mails from support@nrec.no, such as project changes, maintenance and security issues.
For UiO-users, the instructions for creating a mailing list can be found here: https://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/e-post-kalender/e-postlister/hjelp/administrere/nyliste.html. We recommend choosing the following options when creating a mailing list for use in the contact field on your UiO NREC project: - List type: Hotline mailing list - Audience: Forskningsgrupper - Registrer listens formål: Liste med ansatte og eksterne, knyttet til UiO sitt formål, der eksterne kan være upersonlige adresser. Listen er eid av en eller flere ansatte.
Expiration Date Extension¶
A project’s expiration date can be extended at any time. The maximum allowed lifetime for a project is two years from today. Extending the lifetime is an administrative task and must be performed by the NREC team. To change the expiration date for a project, please contact NREC support by sending an email to
In normal circumstances, expiration date extension is merely a formality and is granted without question. Do not hesitate to ask for an extension if needed.