Network Storage

Overview of Network Storage

Network Storage to all ITaP research resources comes from a combination of EMC Isilon and Data Direct Networks hardware. These provide multiple tiers of storage for three distinct classes of service:

Persistent Tier:

  • Individual's home directories,
  • Software application space,
  • Shared group space

Scratch Tier:

  • NFS scratch (Steele and Radon)
  • Lustre parallel scratch (Peregrine 1, Coates, Rossmann, Hansen, Carter)

Archive Tier:

All Network Storage combined currently consists of more than 4 PB of redundant, high-availability disk space and is a central component of ITaP's research systems infrastructure.

Detailed Hardware Specification

There are currently three types of network storage used on ITaP research resources:

  • ITaP uses network attached storage (NAS) appliances from EMC Isilon to provide persistent storage space to cluster systems. This storage is reliable, backed-up (via snapshots), and is globally available on all ITaP research systems. Persistent storage is medium-performance, non-purged space suitable for tasks like sharing data, editing files, developing and building software, and many other uses.

    /home, /apps, and /group are examples of persistent storage spaces on ITaP research clusters.

    Important: Persistent storage is not designed nor intended for use as high-performance working space for running jobs.

  • For scratch storage, each cluster is assigned a default Lustre parallel filesystem. The Lustre filesystems provide working storage optimized for a wide variety of job types, and are designed to perform well with data-itensive computations, while scaling well to large numbers of simultaneous connections.

    All scratch tier resources are high-performance, large capacity, and subject to scheduled purging of old files.

  • For information on archive storage, consult the Fortress Archive user guide.

Network Storage Policies

The following ITaP research policies are particularly related to Network Storage:

Photo of Network Storage

Network Storage Info

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