Disk space policy

This is the lab disk space policy and applies to those with ssh access to our cluster only. This policy applies to cluster 2 and will be applied to cluster 0 and cluster 1 as soon as we can manage it.

Home, Work, Db, Store

You have an account on the cluster. We ask you to observe the following disk usage policy. We think this policy will cover 90% of the users, 90% of the time. We do understand that research can have unanticipated needs, and we are willing to work with you to create a plan that works for everyone.

When you log in to a cluster machine, you are in your home directory. This would normally be /nfs/home/<userid>. Lab tradition is to have a ~/code/ directory for all software and a ~/work/ directory for all of your research. Your home directory is backed up weekly, and has a quota of 500 GB. Keeping the quota at this level will allow us to provide a high performance backup system that runs regularly and completes in a timely fashion.

If you require more than your quota for ~/work/, we will create a special directory for you, e.g. /nfs/work/<userid>, which we suggest you symlink to ~/work/. /nfs/work will never be backed up. We recommend you repatriate key files from time to time from /nfs/work/<userid> to e.g. ~/worksave/. We can help you write scripts to automate this.

If you create database files that persist and are larger than your quota, ask us to create dedicated space for you, e.g. /nfs/db/<userid>. Database files are backed up quarterly beginning on the first day of the quarter.

If you have large files from the synchrotron, ask us to create dedicated space for you, e.g. /nfs/store/<userid>. Storage files are backed up quarterly beginning on the first day of the quarter.

If after using /nfs/db, /nfs/work and /nfs/store to offload from /nfs/home/ you still need more space, please work with the sysadmins to help you.

When you log in to your workstation, you may be in a local directory on the workstation. Our policy is to never back up workstations. You may back up your own workstation, and you may make additional backups of your data on the cluster by writing to USB disks mounted on your desktop or laptop. We offer as a parting gift from the lab two multi-TB drives to which you may copy your files. Make one copy to take with you and one copy for us to keep safe for you. Then, delete the files from the server as you leave the lab, provided the project has been published.

Summary

We back up home directories weekly, and selected database, crystallography and other archived files quarterly. We do not back up /nfs/work files and we do not back up workstations or laptops. To backup work files, you must repatriate the key files to your home directory whence they will be backed up as part of normal procedures. To backup laptop and desktop, use USB disks, which we can give you.

Our backup systems cannot keep up with the growth in disk space and the voracious appetite for disk of group members. This is a pragmatic policy that, while requiring a little organization, is more likely to deliver restored files you can actually rely on.

As always, we welcome feedback.

Name	Location	Quota	Backup?	Usage
Home	/nfs/home/<userid>	500 GB	Weekly	General use - not large database and not docking runs.
Work	/nfs/work/<userid>	2TB*	Never	Docking runs or calculations that produce large output
DB	/nfs/db/<userid>	2TB*	Quarterly	Database files, often persistent, rarely modifed
Store	/nfs/store/<userid>	2TB*	Quarterly	Crystallography files or other archived files, rarely modified.
Desktop	/home/<userid>	N/A	Never	Copy critical files from desktop to home directory on server.
Laptop	/	N/A	Never	Copy critical files from laptop to home directory on server.

• More space may be requested from the sysadmins.

See Also

• Backups