Center for Computational Research

How to Check your Quota

How to Purchase More Storage

Backup Policy

How to Request the Restore of Data

Data Retention Policy

CCR provides a wide variety of options for researchers to store their data.  See below for a comparison of the various options.  If you are unsure what option works best for your group, please contact CCR Help.

1.  Vast Data Network-Attached Storage (NAS) - CCR provides a total of 2 PB of available disk storage to all the clusters in the Center for user home directories and group shared project directories.  This is an enterprise-level, highly redundant storage solution designed for 99% uptime.  All directories are backed up off-site nightly by UBIT for disaster recovery purposes.

Home Directories:

• Directories are available on the clusters and accessible from all compute nodes.
• Default user quota is 10GB.
• To protect the file system, user home directories are limited to 10 million files.  
• Backed up by UB's Central Computing Enterprise Infrastructure Services department

Home directory location:  /user/UBIT_username
Example: /user/ccrguest

Project Directories:

• Additional disk space is available for research groups in the project directories.  PIs should request an allocation for 'Project Storage' to have a directory created for their group.
• The default project directory quota is 1TB.
• To protect the file system, project directories are limited to 200 million files.  Any directory containing over 50 million files IS NOT BACKED UP.
• Backed up by UB's Central Computing Enterprise Infrastructure Services department
• If you require more than 1TB of storage, additional space can be purchased at the current approved rate.  Please see this document for more information

Projects directory location - depends on your affiliation:

• /projects/academic/group_name - for all faculty of UB
• /projects/industry/group_name - for all industry partners (could be project name, company name, or other group name - if you're not sure, ask CCR staff)
• /projects/rpci  - for all Roswell Park affiliated users

2.  Global Scratch Space - Panasas

• CCR provides 1.4PB of high performance global scratch space.
• Accessible from all front end servers and compute nodes.
• Available to all users for temporary use.  PIs should request an allocation for 'Global Scratch Storage' to have a directory created for their group.
• To protect the file system, users are limited to 2 million files and groups limited to 4 million files.
• Designed for high speed, parallel computing, large datasets, with the fastest I/O at the Center
• Data that has not been accessed in more than 60 days is subject to removal by an automated scrubber script.  Please remove all data promptly after your job completes.
• There is NO backup of data in /panasas/scratch
• There is no guarantee of uptime
  
  

Global scratch location:  /panasas/scratch/grp-PIusername or company name

NOTE: It is an outright violation of University at Buffalo computing policy to attempt to circumvent this policy.  Anyone found attempting to modify file dates to get around the scrubber will have their data removed without notice and their account deactivated.  We actively monitor for this!

3.  Local Scratch Space:

• All servers and compute nodes in all the clusters have local disk space (/scratch).
• This scratch space is available to batch jobs running on the clusters.
• Data on local scratch may be subject to removal as soon as the job completes
• There is NO backup of data in /scratch.

More details about scratch usage at CCR and policies

4. Cloud storage:

• Accessible only from cloud instances
• Cost is $100/TB PER YEAR
• There is NO backup of data for the research cloud
• There is no guarantee of uptime or performance on cloud storage
• Available only to research groups with active cloud subscriptions
• More details about the cloud cost structure

Comparison of CCR Storage Options

*Price for groups paying with UB funds (State, RF, UBF, etc).  For all others, please contact CCR Help for a quote