Introduction
In our Faculty, different types of data storage are offered:
Storage class | Description | Risk for data loss |
---|---|---|
Home directories | Small (several GB), reliable, backed up storage for individuals | low |
Network shares | Larger (1-200 TB), reliable, backed up storage for individuals or groups | low |
Local storage | Not backed up storage on desktop computers and cluster nodes, likely to be lost in case of a hardware problem or when the machine gets reinstalled | high |
Home directories
Your Science login comes with a home directory of 5GB at no costs. This is a safe place to store you work related documents. Home directories are stored on reliable hardware and backupped automatically. If you need more than 5GB of storage, and you can’t clean up some data, it can be enlarged on request.
Home directory paths
Info
The location of your homedirectory can viewed in DIY.
On C&CZ managed systems, this is where you can find your home directory:
C&CZ systems | Path |
---|---|
Microsoft Windows | U: a.k.a. the U-drive |
Linux | /home/yourscienceloginname a.k.a ~ |
From other systems like your home PC, you can reach your home directory through the paths below:
Own system | Path | Instructions |
---|---|---|
Microsoft Windows | \\home?.science.ru.nl\yourscienceloginname |
connect network share |
macOS | smb://home?.science.ru.nl/yourscienceloginname |
connect network share |
Linux | smb://home?.science.ru.nl/yourscienceloginname |
connect network share |
In case your account has been created recently (see DIY):
Eigen systeem | Path | Instructions |
---|---|---|
Microsoft Windows | \\<hash>.home.science.ru.nl\yourscienceloginnaam |
connect network share |
macOS | smb://<hash>.home.science.ru.nl/yourscienceloginnaam |
connect network share |
Linux | smb://<hash>.home.science.ru.nl/yourscienceloginnaam |
connect network share |
Info
A VPN connection is required when accessing these paths from outside of the RU network.
Access rights
By default, home directories are only accessible to the owners themselves. However, it is possible
to change the access rights (ie. chmod o+rx ~
).
Network shares
For larger storage needs and the ability to share files in your group, there are network shares. Network shares are available as both Samba1 and NFS2 share. As mentioned in the storage overview, network shares are backed up and hosted on reliable servers. The costs involved with network shares depend on the share size and the backup options.
Network share costs
One TB3 (1000 GB) costs € 36 per year. This includes a mandatory backup. (Roughly a backup doubles the amount of data). A share without a backup is possible, but this does not reduce the cost. Only when the storage costs exceed € 1000 per year will your department be charged.
Currently (2024+) the largest volume size is limited to the amount of disks that fit in a server, which is roughtly 200 TB.
All new shares are using ZFS and have local snapshots.
We recommend renting storage instead of buying your own hardware, to prevent paying large upfront sums of money and have continued storage available after a storage server reached end-of-life.
Network share paths
On C&CZ managed systems, this is where you can find a network share. Using sharename
as an example:
C&CZ systems | Path |
---|---|
Microsoft Windows | \\sharename-srv.science.ru.nl\sharename |
Linux | /vol/sharename |
For self managed systems, you can access the following network paths:
Own system | Path | Instructions |
---|---|---|
Microsoft Windows | \\sharename-srv.science.ru.nl\sharename |
connect network share |
macOS | smb://sharename-srv.science.ru.nl/sharename |
connect network share |
Linux | smb://sharename-srv.science.ru.nl/sharename |
connect network share |
Info
A VPN connection is required when accessing these paths from outside of the RU network.
Access rights
The ability to access files on these folders can be limited to a group of logins. Groups can be managed by the group owners on DIY.
Special shares
Some services are built on these specific shares:
Share name | Purpose | Documentation |
---|---|---|
temp |
Temporary storage of files | Temp share |
cursus |
Software for courses | T-schijf |
software |
General (Windows) software | S-schijf |
install |
Installer programs for software | Install share |
Ordering
When ordering a network share, please send us the following details:
Detail | Description |
---|---|
login name | Your Science account |
share name | How the share can be accessed over the network, see paths |
size | size of the partition, see costs |
charge account | a.k.a. kostenplaats or project code |
unix group (optional) | The group that is granted access to the share. If not specified, a new group will be created with the same name as the share |
Local storage
Local storage refers to disk space in or attached to systems like desktop pc’s and cluster nodes.
Usually, local storage consists of single disks. In case of a disk failure, your data is likely te
be lost. Local disks are usually called /scratch
to remind you of the temporary nature of the
storage. Local storage is not backed up. Advantages of local storage are low costs and fast
disk access.
Info
On shared systems, like login servers and cluster nodes, make sure to create a personal directory in
/scratch
first. Ie. mkdir /scratch/$USER
. And don’t forget to let your software actually write
to that directory instead of the default and much smaller /tmp
.
-
Windows file sharing implementation by the Samba project ↩︎
-
Network file system, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_File_System ↩︎
-
1TB is
1.000.000.000.000
bytes, 1 TiB =1.099.511.627.776
bytes ↩︎