FAQs about the FireCloud Free Credits Program

IMPORTANT: This is the legacy GATK documentation. This information is only valid until Dec 31st 2019. For latest documentation and forum click here

created by Geraldine_VdAuwera

on 2018-01-08

What can I do with my free credits in FireCloud?

Your free credit billing project will cover all costs accrued in FireCloud. Usage of the free credits is not restricted to specific pipelines. This includes egress, compute, and storage. Read this blog post for further detail around what costs money. Select the free credit billing project (fccredits-xxx-xxx-xxxx) whenever prompted to clone or create a workspace. You will be notified via email when you have used 50%, 75%, and 90% of your credits to ensure you have time to create your own billing account to further use FireCloud or egress your data files prior to credit expiration.

How long will my free credits be available?

Free credits will begin once you click “Start Trial” in the banner in the FireCloud UI. You will have $300 of credits to use on any egress, compute, and storage costs accrued. Credits will be available for sixty days, or until you have used up all $300 available in your billing project, whichever comes first.

How do I track how much I’ve spent?

Go to the Google console summary page at https://console.cloud.google.com/home/ to view your billing invoice month-to-date for your free credit billing project.

You will also receive a notification via email from Onix once you have used 50%, 75% and 90% of your free credits.

What happens once the credits expire?

Once the credits expire, you will not be able to egress your data files from any of the workspace’s Google buckets that you created. You will be unable to create new workspaces or launch any new analyses using the free credit billing project unless you take action and create a new billing account.

Note: The workspaces you created will remain available, but the files you moved or generated through analysis in the Google buckets will be inaccessible. This is because the credits covered the cost of storage, compute, and egress in the Google Cloud Platform and now this coverage is ending.

How do I create my own billing account?

There are a few options for creating your own billing account and continuing to use FireCloud after your free credits have expired:

• Create a billing account directly with Google by following these instructions
• Individuals located in North America can also leverage Onix as the Google Cloud Platform re-seller. Onix is already distributing the free credits to your FireCloud account, so the set-up to a new billing account is easy. Contact Onix at cloud@onixnet.com or (216) 584-ONIX.

How do I assign my new billing account to my existing workspaces?

After the Google Billing account exists, you can switch payment of your existing FireCloud workspaces to this account. Note: The FireCloud billing project name will stay the same.

1. Go to this and click “Select a project” at the top of the screen. Choose the billing project that starts with “fccredits-xxx-xxx-xxxx.”
2. Click the hamburger menu on the top left (three horizontal lines) and choose Billing. Click “Go to linked billing account”

1. Click the three dots and choose “Change billing account.” The new Google Billing Account should display in the dropdown menu.

1. Click “Set Account.” A Google error may result saying “You don’t have permission to edit the permissions of the selected resource.” Ignore this error. One reason this shows up is because your permissions to the new Google Billing Account may be limited if you are using a reseller. To double check the transition was successful, log back into the console following the steps above and see that the new billing account is listed.

Updated on 2018-04-18