Research Storage

Research Storage is a scalable storage fabric designed to grow with your research operations. Data set sizes are growing dramatically. Keeping enough storage on hand to manage Big Data is a challenge for everyone. The Research Storage service provides nearly unlimited capacity to hold the data important to your research. The service is built using flexible technologies that can support any research data requirement.

Availability

A 1TB default allocation is available to individual users of the Cheaha HPC system to to help users adhere to cluster storage policies for their scratch and home directories and facilitate analyzing data on cluster. This storage space is available as an internal cluster file system via the standard SSH interface. Data can be transferred to and from the path `/rstore/user/$USER/default`.

IMPORTANT: Data on the cluster is not backed up by default. It is the responsibility of the user to ensure their research data sets are protected against loss. Please see other service offerings below if you are interested in backup services for your data.

Cluster scratch space is designated as a temporary storage location for actively analyzed data sets. Analysis results should be removed from scratch after jobs are completed. Cluster home directory space is designated for use as a workflow support space, holding custom codes and other tools needed to analyze data but not the data itself.

Because many data sets are large, transferring them to and from the cluster can require a significant amount of time. The research storage space now available on the cluster is designated as a place where users can keep data sets over longer periods of time for subsequent analysis and avoid crowding the scratch storage or abusing the home directory space.

Additional research storage space can be allocated for individuals or groups on request according to the rates for Research Storage.

How to Access

• From iMAC desktop running OS X, 10.9.5, use the following steps to mount Cheaha home directory for a BlazerID which has an establish account on Cheaha:
  • Click on "Go" from menu bar at top of screen;
  • New window "Connect to Server" opens;
  • There are two screens within "Connect to Server" window, which are: "Server Address:” and “Favorite Servers:”
  • For example, some possible server addresses within Favorite Servers:
    • smb://uabfile.ad.uab.edu/ShareNAME, where ShareNAME is the name of a share on UABFILE;
    • smb://138.26.XYZ.ABC, where XYZ.ABC is the complete IP address of a server within the UAB domain 138.68...
    • smb://files.uabgrid.uab.edu
  • one can enter a new command in the "connect to Server" window.