Offboarding Policies and Procedures

This document outlines FAS Research Computing’s policies and procedures related to the offboarding of researchers and PIs. The document is structured as a checklist, to be utilized by researchers and PIs prior to their departure, to ensure a seamless transition. The document also notates differences between the offboarding of researchers and faculty (PIs).  

Offboarding Checklist: Leaving Harvard University

Researchers: 

1. General: 
   1. Inform FASRC via email prior to leaving the university, and provide us with an estimated departure date. 
2. Storage: 
   1. Please review all research data prior to your departure (FAS Storage, Google Drive, Dropbox etc.). Confirm with your PI and department what data can be deleted or moved to long-term storage. 
      1. Review and receive approval from your PI what data can be removed. 
         1. Delete any data approved by your PI. 
         2. Please ensure a record of what data was deleted is available to your PI, if needed.
         3. For protected data (Level 3), PIs are responsible for informing FAS RC if and when the data requires disposal. Please email FAS RC to discuss destruction options.
      2. If research data stored on FASRC storage is ready to be moved to long-term storage, work with FASRC’s Research Data Manager and your PI to migrate the data. 
         1. An FASRC account is required to access FASRC storage; please ensure you have an account prior to moving data via rclone or Globus. 
      3. Ensure your research data is available to your PI and other collaborators, moving all research data to a shared storage location prior to your departure. Please ensure a record of what data was migrated is available to your PI, if needed.
      4. If you would like to take data with you following your departure from the university, you will need approval from your PI and department. Research data generated at the university is owned and maintained by the university. 
3. Accounts 
   1. We will be closing your FASRC account when your appointment ends and your Harvard email account is closed. 
   2. If you need to maintain a FASRC account, please have your PI or authorized lab member (general manager or access manager) email us directly, prior to your departure, so we can convert the account to an external account and extend it by 90 days. 
      1. If you require an extension longer than 90 days, your PI will need to email us again prior to the end of the 90 day extension. We will also need an external email address for the account, as your Harvard email will be disabled automatically. 
   3. Disabling the account will automatically remove you from associated groups, including secure groups (FASSE), administrative groups, and project groups. 

Faculty/PIs: 

1. General: 
   1. Inform FASRC via email when you will be leaving the university. 
   2. Please inform FASRC if you will be returning or compensating FASRC for any physical resources (compute notes and storage servers).  
2. Software: 
   1. All purchased software will remain on the cluster. Please delegate the software license responsibility to another entity (lab or department) or inform FASRC when the license will expire. 
3. Storage: 
   1. Please review all research data prior to your departure. Confirm what data can be deleted or moved to long-term storage.
      1. Collaborate with FASRC’s Research Data Manager to migrate remaining data to long-term storage. 
   2. If you would like to take data with you following your departure from the university, you will need approval from your lab or department; research data generated at the university is owned and maintained by the university. 
4. Accounts 
   1. Inform FASRC via email when you will be leaving the university so they can disable your account. Your FASRC account will be closed when your appointment ends and your Harvard email account is closed. If you attain a different appointment at Harvard after your primary appointment ends, please notify FASRC as soon as possible.
   2. All lab members will need a new sponsor for their accounts. Please inform FASRC who the new sponsor will be for any remaining lab members. 
   3. Disabling your account will automatically remove you from associated groups, including secure groups (FASSE),  administrative groups, and project groups. 
5. Virtual Machines 
   1. Remove any data you would like to retain from virtual machines prior to your departure; please inform FASRC once the data has been removed 
   2. Virtual Machines will be decommissioned shortly after your departure, once it is no longer aligned with an active account.

Offboarding Checklist: Changing Labs/Groups

Researchers:

1. Request to be added to the new group using Portal. Your PI can also utilize Coldfront to add users to their group. 
2. Review your research data to determine what data will need to remain in your previous lab folder(s) and what data needs to be migrated to your new lab folder. 
   1. Discuss the data migration with your former PI and get approval for the move.
   2. If you plan to continue to store research data in your previous lab folder, confirm this with your former PI, as there will be associated storage costs. 
   3. Delete any research data that will not be useful to either lab. Confirm with your former PI what data can be removed.
   4. Ensure your research data is available to your former PI and other collaborators, moving your research data to a shared storage location prior to your departure. Please ensure a record of what data was migrated is available, if needed.
   5. Review data in your group’s Scratch environment, as the data will be removed.
3. Your new PI must inform FASRC via email that they will be sponsoring your account, so they can be assigned as your primary group. Provide the date of transition. 
4. FASRC will then modify your FASRC account information.
   1. Add you to the new lab group/department
   2. Add your new PI as your manager
   3. Modify your Slurm group to be associated with the new lab
   4. Remove you from your previous lab and Slurm group. 
      1. If you require access to your previous lab, your former PI can re-add you to their group using the Coldfront application. 
5. Storage
   1. Home directory data will always remain with the user account. The data will not need to be transferred. 

Additional information: 

1. Harvard Human Resources Offboarding Information 
2. Harvard IT Offboarding Information 

Contact:

If you have questions regarding the offboarding process, please email the FAS Research Data Manager at rdm@rc.fas.harvard.edu.