ACCESS offers storage to satisfy most users' practical needs. Several ACCESS service providers host storage platforms providing services such as data management, data collection hosting, and large-scale persistent storage. ACCESS provides storage allocations both in support of computing/visualization usage and storage independent of those compute/visualization allocations. Researchers may request data storage allocations for short- and long-term storage and the staging of data collections on disk.

You may request a storage allocation through the ACCESS Resource Allocation System (XRAS), the same service used to request ACCESS compute, visualization and storage resources.

Storage Types

ACCESS users have access to three types of storage.

1. Archival Storage: Archival storage on ACCESS systems is typically used for large-scale persistent storage requested in conjunction with compute and visualization resources. Archival storage is usually not backed up. Users will need to explicitly request these resources in their request as has been done for compute and visualization requests through XRAS.

2. Stand-alone Storage: Stand-alone storage allows storage allocations independent of a compute/visualization allocation. Data hosting and data preservation projects may have stand-alone storage needs. PIs may request stand-alone storage on any of the ACCESS storage systems detailed in Table 1 below.

3. Resource file system storage: All ACCESS compute/visualization allocations include access to limited disk and scratch space on the compute/visualization resource file systems to accomplish project goals.

Archival and Stand-alone Storage

The following table lists ACCESS allocatable archival and stand-alone storage systems available to ACCESS users. Storage on these systems must be requested along with compute and visualization requests through XRAS. Currently, the only stand-alone storage resource is the TACC Ranch storage resource.

As with compute and visualization allocations, storage allocation durations will be one year with the option to renew for subsequent one-year periods. Data will be preserved for at least one quarter beyond the expiration of the storage allocation end date.

Storage allocations will be provided on a per-project basis. PIs will manage their storage allocations via the ACCESS User Portal's account management feature. PIs will receive automatic notifications at pre-determined intervals as their storage usage approaches the awarded amount and as their allocation approaches its expiration date. PIs and users are responsible for correctly managing their storage allocations.

Table 1. ACCESS Archival and Stand-alone Storage

Resource Filesystem Storage

Consult the ACCESS User Guides for information on each resource's associated file systems and associated policies.

Transferring Files

Please refer to each resource's user guide for recommended file transfer methods.

Storage Policies

Quotas

Service providers may place limits on users' disk space and the number of files owned. Any such quotas are noted in Table above as well as in the individual resource user guides.

Users should be aware that attempting to write to a file system while over their quota may cause jobs to fail. Please check your quotas before submitting a job to ensure that the data generated by the job will fit within the quota, or that all job output is written to a file system without quotas.

You may check your quota simply by issuing the eponymous command:

Backups

Most $HOME file systems on ACCESS resources are backed up on a regular schedule, varying from nightly to weekly. For specifics of backup and restore policies and procedures, please consult each resource's user guide for more information. Regardless of backup policies, users are strongly encouraged to create their own backups of all critical data on their own resources and/or on ACCESS Archive resources.

Purge

Many $SCRATCH and other large file systems on ACCESS resources are purged on a regular basis, meaning that older, unused data will be deleted. Most such file systems are not backed up. Please consult site- or system-specific documentation for details on these policies. Users should be aware that data stored on purged resources could be deleted, and should exercise care to ensure that important data is copied or moved to appropriate long-term storage resources promptly.