Storage

The Q&CE IT infrastructure provides file storage for use with the Q&CE servers and cluster. There are four types of storage available with different characteristics and purposes

Personal Storage

Personal storage, also known as your home directory, is used to store your personal files and settings and is available on all Q&CE servers. A home directory is created for every user. A daily backup will protect your files from hardware failure or accidental removal. The available space is limited by a disk quota.

path	/home/<username>
backup	yes, daily
quota	yes, 4GB or 8GB (*)
type	network share (GlusterFS)

(*) quota sizes can be increased on request (only for good reasons)

You can use the following command to check your home storage usage:

df -h /home/<username>

Group Storage

Group storage is used to share files between users within the same project. A group share for a project can be created on request and is available on all Q&CE servers. A daily backup will protect the project files from hardware failure or accidental removal. The available project space is limited by a disk quota.

path	/shares/group/<groupname>
backup	yes, daily
quota	yes, to be determined by project size (*)
type	network share (GlusterFS)

(*) quota sizes can be increased on request

Bulk Storage

Bulk storage can be used to store large sets of research data and is available on all Q&CE servers. A bulk directory is created for every user. There is no backup of the bulk storage, but there is protection against hardware failure. There is a limitation of 1TB per user. This quota can be increased on request for good reasons.

path	/shares/bulk/<username>
backup	no, only hardware failure protection
quota	yes, 1TB (*)
type	network share (GlusterFS)

(*) quota sizes can be increased on request (only for good reasons)

You can use the following command to check your bulk storage usage:

df -h /shares/bulk/<username>

Local Storage

Local storage, also called ‘work’ directory, can be used to speed up read or write operations locally on the server. Reading or writing large datasets is slower from the ‘home’ or ‘bulk’ network shares. You can create a personal directory on the local storage when needed. You can only use this storage space temporary, so please cleanup after you use it. There is usually enough local storage available, but a fair-use policy is in order. There is no backup of local storage, but there is protection against hardware failure. Be aware that not all Q&CE servers have local storage available.

path	/work
backup	no, only hardware failure protection
quota	no, fair-use policy
type	local disk volume