Storage Option Summary
Purpose | Capacity | Cost | Restricted data? | Access | Duration | Backup | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Primary Storage | Research data. Supports compute. Directly attached to HPC | /home 50GB /groups 500GB /xdisk 20TB | Free | Not for restricted data | Directly mounted to HPC. Also uses Globus and DTNs | Long term. Aligns with HPC purchase cycle | No |
Rental Storage | Research data. Large datasets. Typically for staging to HPC | Rented per Terabyte per year | Rental rate: $47.35 per TB per year | Not for restricted data | Uses Globus and DTNs. Copy data to Primary | Long term. Aligns with HPC purchase cycle | No |
Tier 2 | Typically research data. Unused data is archived | 15GB to TB's | Tier-based system. First 1TB of active data and archival data are free. Active data > 1TB is paid. | Not for restricted data | Uses Globus and AWS command line interface | Typically long term since use of Glacier is free and slow | Archival |
ReData | Research data. Managed by UA Libraries | Quota system | Free | Not for restricted data | Login and fill out fields, then upload | Longer than 10 years | No |
Soteria | Secure data enclave | Individual requests | Free upon qualification | Restricted data; HIPAA, ePHI | HIPAA training required, followed by request process | Long term | No |
Box | General data | 50GB | Free | Not for restricted data | Browser | Long term | No |
Google Drive | General data | 15GB | Free. Google rates for amounts > 15GB | Not for restricted data | Browser | Unlimited usage expires March 1, 2023 | No |
HPC High Performance Storage (Tier 1)
Data stored on HPC are not backed up! All data on this storage should be backed up elsewhere by UA researchers, preferably in three places and two formats.
We strongly recommend that you do some regular housekeeping of your allocated space. Millions of files are hard to keep organized and even more difficult to migrate. Archiving or using a tool like tar will help keep our disk arrays efficient and potentially free up more space for you to use.
Summary
Every user has access to individual and group storage on the system where they can store data for active analyses as summarized below:
Path | Description | Quota | Duration |
---|---|---|---|
/home/uxx/netid | An individual storage allocation provided for every HPC user | 50GB | |
/groups/pi_netid | A communal storage allocation provided for every research group | 500GB | |
/xdisk/pi_netid | Temporary communal storage provided for every group. | 200GB-20TB | Up to 300 days |
/tmp | Local storage available on individual compute nodes. | < 800GB to 1.4TB | Only accessible for the duration of a job's run. |
Checking your Storage Quota and Usage
Command Line
To check your storage usage, use the command uquota
. For example:
(puma) [netid@junonia ~]$ uquota used soft limit hard limit /groups/pi_netid 6.6G 500.0G 500.0G /home 37.1G 50.0G 50.0G /xdisk/pi_netid 12.9G 9.8T 9.8T
You can check your storage allocation through our online user portal by navigating to the Storage tab and clicking Check Disk Quotas:
xdisk
Overview
Important /xdisk Basics
- xdisks are temporary storage allocations available to each research group. No storage on HPC is designed to archive or persist data.
- Only faculty members (PIs) may request, alter, or delete an allocation from the command line. Members of their research group may be given management rights allowing them to manage their xdisk through our web portal.
- The maximum lifespan of an xdisk is 300 days. Allocations cannot be extended past the 300 day maximum.
- Groups may only have one active xdisk at a time.
- When an xdisk expires, the contents are deleted.
- Once an xdisk is deleted or expires, a new one may be immediately requested.
- xdisks are not backed up.
- Users must remove their data from HPC before their xdisk expires. We strongly recommend starting the backup process early.
xdisk allocations are not backed up. It is the user's responsibility to save files stored in xdisk to alternate storage locations for backup and archive purposes. See Tier 2 Storage for more information on options for backing up your data.
What is xdisk?
xdisk is a temporary storage allocation available to all PIs and offers up to 20 TB of usable space for their group for up to 300 days. A PI can request an allocation either via the command line or through our web portal (no paperwork necessary!). Once an xdisk allocation is created, it is immediately available for use.
Because xdisk allocations are temporary, they will expire as soon as their time limit is reached. Warnings will be sent to every group member at their netid@arizona.edu addresses beginning one week before the expiration. It is the group's responsibility to renew xdisk allocations or copy files to an alternate storage location prior to the expiration date. Once an xdisk allocation expires, everything in it is permanently deleted. PI's may request a new xdisk allocation immediately after their previous one has expired.
Requesting an xdisk Space
Faculty members (PIs) or their designated xdisk delegates are able to request, alter, extend, and delete an xdisk allocation from the web portal under the storage tab: https://portal.hpc.arizona.edu/portal/
To request a new allocation, select Manage XDISK, fill in the form, and submit.
Modifying an Existing Allocation
Faculty members (PIs) or their designated storage delegates are able to modify existing xdisk allocations through the web portal: https://portal.hpc.arizona.edu/portal/
To do this, navigate to the Storage tab and select Manage XDISK
In the web form, enter the new size and time allocations needed for your allocation. The maximum size (in GB) allowed is 20000 and the maximum time limit is 300 days.
To save the changes, click Ok.
xdisk CLI
xdisk is a locally written utility for PI's to create, delete, resize, and expire (renew) xdisk allocations. This functionality is usable by PIs only.
Xdisk Function | Information | Command | Examples |
---|---|---|---|
Display xdisk help | Commands given in brackets are optional. If left blank, you will get system defaults. |
|
|
View current information | Check current allocation size, location, and expiration date. |
|
|
Create an xdisk | Grants an xdisk allocation. Max Size: 20000 GB Max Days: 300 |
|
|
Extend the xdisk time | Prior to its expiration, if your xdisk's time is under the 300 days, you may increase it until the 300 day limit is reached. |
|
|
Resize an xdisk allocation | You may resize your allocation by specifying the increase/decrease in gb. To reduce the size, use a negative sign, " |
|
|
Delete an xdisk allocation | Permanently deletes your current xdisk allocation. Be sure to remove any important data before deleting. |
|
|
Delegating xdisk Management Rights
When a user is added as a delegate, it allows them to manage group storage on their PI's behalf through the user portal. It will still not be possible for the delegate to manage storage via the CLI interface.
PIs can delegate xdisk management rights. To add a group member as a delegate, the PI needs to click on Manage Delegates link on the home page of the portal:
Once a group member has been added, they can manage their group's xdisk through the web portal. To do this, they should log into our web portal, click the Switch User link, and enter their PI's NetID. They can then manage their group's space under the Storage tab.
Rental Storage
This service enables researchers to rent storage on an on-site data array located in the UITS research data center and networked near our HPC systems to enable efficient data transfer to/from the HPC.
Funded by RII, this new service is immediately available to any faculty researcher and can be accessed through the HPC user portal.
Details on the service:
- The first-year rate is $94.50 per TB, and RII will provide matching funds for first-year allocations to make the actual first-year cost to researchers $47.35. These matching funds will be applied automatically.
- The ongoing rate after year one is $47.35 per TB per year.
- Researchers must provide a KFS account for this service, which will be charged at the end of the academic year (June 2023)
- Your space will be mounted as /rental/netid and is mounted on the data transfer nodes
- You can use Globus to move data that is external to the data center
- You can use scp, sftp or Globus to move data to and from HPC resources
More information especially on Getting Started is found at this page
This service is not intended for controlled or regulated research data, such as HIPAA/ePHI, ITAR, or CUI
Rental storage is not backed up. It is the user's responsibility to save files stored in xdisk to alternate storage locations for backup and archive purposes. See Tier 2 Storage for more information on options for backing up your data.
Once you have a rental storage allocation, it is accessible from the file transfer nodes and not from the HPC environment. If you get "no such file or directory", ensure you are connected to filexfer.hpc.arizona.edu.
General Research Data Storage (Tier 2)
Google Drive Storage Notice
Research Technologies in partnership with UITS is implementing an Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 rental storage solution. This service provides researchers with an S3 account which is managed by AWS Intelligent Tiering. After 90 days of nonuse, data will be moved to Glacier. After 90 additional days, it will be moved to Deep Glacier. There will be no charge for data stored at either Glacier level, nor for any transfer charges. The data can be retrieved at any time, although it will take a while.
For information on setting up and using an S3 account, see: Tier 2 Storage
For information on Google Drive, see: Google Drive
Long term Research Storage (Tier 3)
Individual groups are responsible for managing and archiving their data. Some options for data archival include:
Archival Service | Link |
---|---|
AWS Glacier | |
Dryad | |
Zenodo | |
Figshare | |
GenBank | |
TreeBASE | |
NCBI |
NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy
The NIH has issued a new data management and sharing policy, effective January 25, 2023. The university libraries now offers a comprehensive guide for how to navigate these policies and what they mean for you.
What's new about the 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy?
Previously, the NIH only required grants with $500,000 per year or more in direct costs to provide a brief explanation of how and when data resulting from the grant would be shared.
The 2023 policy is entirely new. Beginning in 2023, ALL grant applications or renewals that generate Scientific Data must now include a robust and detailed plan for how you will manage and share data during the entire funded period. This includes information on data storage, access policies/procedures, preservation, metadata standards, distribution approaches, and more. You must provide this information in a data management and sharing plan (DMSP). The DMSP is similar to what other funders call a data management plan (DMP).
The DMSP will be assessed by NIH Program Staff (though peer reviewers will be able to comment on the proposed data management budget). The Institute, Center, or Office (ICO)-approved plan becomes a Term and Condition of the Notice of Award.