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.


  1. Windows file sharing implementation by the Samba project ↩︎

  2. Network file system, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_File_System ↩︎

  3. 1TB is 1.000.000.000.000 bytes, 1 TiB = 1.099.511.627.776 bytes ↩︎