Description:
The Research Data Platform is an highly scalable, condo model storage cluster storage service dedicated to supporting divisional research. It provides a centrally managed location to store research data and associated lab data accessible from the campus network and the campus VPN network. Access permissions can be granted to any user with an active CruzID account and managed with user groups.
The Research Data Platform was built using funding from the Science Dean’s office. There is no current funding model, and the current lifespan of the cluster is 5 years as of June 2023.
Who is eligible:
All Science division faculty are eligible to request space in the Research Data Platform. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows may not request space but can use their PI’s allocation. Each faculty member may request an allocation of 10TB of storage total, including all personal and group research data. In order to not penalize those who pool resources, shared lab instruments are themselves allocated 10TB of storage which does not count against any individual user’s quota.
Data Backups and Redundancy:
Data backups of the initial 10TB allocation are made nightly and are kept for 2 weeks on our backup server. Backups are also shipped offsite and kept for 2 weeks. The cluster is designed for high hardware redundancy and fault tolerance. Because of limited budgets, any additional storage space purchased by faculty is not backed up, and faculty will be required to purchase a backup target. for the additional data.
How to connect:
Mounts are available for Linux, Windows and MacOS. Please contact Science Computing staff to get connected.
What is the cost:
There is no cost to faculty for an initial space allocation of 10TB. If you require additional space, please inquire to Science Computing for purchase. Any additional storage purchase becomes your guaranteed allocation. Because the system is currently unfunded, faculty may be asked to assist with the cost of replacing hard drives and repairs if needed.