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 it up, it can be made bigger on request.

Home directory paths

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	\\home1.science.ru.nl\yourscienceloginname	connect network share
macOS	smb://home1.science.ru.nl/yourscienceloginname	connect network share
Linux	smb://home1.science.ru.nl/yourscienceloginname	connect network share

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

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 the following details to Postmaster:

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.