Rogues Gallery Filesystems

Note: We strongly encourage you to do compilation (especially for FPGAs) using /netscratch and back up your project files to the backed up “nethome” or /home/<username directory. Code should additionally be backed up to a Github repo - remember the policy of keeping two separate copies of all important code/data!

Quotas and Data Retention Policies

Quotas

We have the following quotas for users, subject to future modifications:

• /home - 50 GB is provided to each user and is backed up using ZFS snapshots and RAID.
• /project - Quotas vary but are typically in the 200 GB range depending on how many users are using a shared project.
• /netscratch - no quota limits but please note the lack of backups and data retention policies below. You can find a symlink to netscratch at <user_home>/USERSCRATCH

Data retention policies

• Backups are provided via a standard fileserver with RAID and ZFS snapshot backups. However, we do not guarantee data backups and we recommend you use Github or GT Github for code backups and GT’s Box service or PACE-provided storage for large data backups.
• Deactivated accounts will have their data kept for 180 days (~6 months) and it will then be archived and removed at the discretion of the testbed maintainers.
• Scratch data will be purged after 120 days without user modification from both /localscratch and /netscratch. Note that scratch explicitly is not backed up, and we cannot restore deleted files.

Storage on CRNCH Systems

Shared home

Each user has 50 GB of shared storage space mounted under /nethome/<user> that is backed up via our data server (RAID 10) and that is served up via NFS. This storage is relatively stable and is meant for users to keep files consistent across Rogues Gallery resources. NOTE: We still strongly encourage users to back up their code using a git repo, such as those provided for free via Georgia Tech’s github.gatech.edu.

Shared tools

The Rogues Gallery VMs and physical resources are served by a shared /tools/ directory that contains common tools for each architecture and that is shared via NFS to all available login, development, and experimental nodes.

Shared project space

Individual users may also request joint project space by emailing the admins at crnch-rg-help@cc.gatech.edu. These are served under /projects/ and include space for data sets /projects/bigdata and other lab-based project groups.

Net scratch space

Speedforce.crnch.gatech.edu provides 47 TB of RAID 5 NVMe-backed storage that is mounted at /netscratch on each VM and CRNCH node. Please create a directory for your username and keep your data within this file. Note the data retention policies listed above that is enforced by modification time and cron job scripts. Any unmodified data older than 120 days is subject to deletion, and users with very large data requirements may be asked to help purchase project-specific storage.

Local scratch space

Note that physical resources like flubber typically have their own fast scratch space, usually mounted at /localscratch. These are local scratch storage locations that are not backed up and are meant for temporary output that is then placed under a project or nethome folder. VMs also typically will have a /localscratch that is just using extra HD space in the VM that is a bit faster than the backed up /nethome but that is slower than /netscratch.

We recommend that you use /netscratch instead of local scratch as this is shared across all machines. Both types of scratch have the same data retention policies.