There are a number of different classes of data storage available within the CS department. There may be additional UITS storage available, but below is an outline of the offerings for users with CS accounts.

• Home directory - All users will get a home directory on a central CS server. The server and allocated disk quota will depend on which account(s) you have. These home directories are on high performance, high reliability RAID arrays and are backed up nightly. See the account information FAQ entry for information about the specifics of your home directory, including quotas and remote access.

  You should always reference your home directory using the path /u/username. You may see your home directory referenced using paths like /nfs/servername/home but you should never use paths of this type. These types of path reflect the physical location of your home directory and may change over time. If you use such paths, it may break if your home directory is moved to another disk array or server. By using /u/username your references should always work.

• /nobackup space - This space is available to anyone with a Burrow, Sharkestra, or Moose account by simply running the makenobackup command. This provides a larger disk quota than available in your home directory but IT IS NOT BACKED UP. Since it is on redundant, high availability RAID arrays we expect it to be extremely reliable. However, multiple hardware failures could cause loss of data so you are advised to only store data here that has been backed up by other means, is easily recreated, or is non-critical. For example, you might want to use it to archive files from your home directory that have already been backed up, for large experimental data sets that can be recreated, or files that can be downloaded from other sources if lost. This space is available via the path /nobackup/username after you run the makenobackup command.

  If you want to back up files in your nobackup area yourself, you could manually copy files to the UITS MDSS. Please see the associated FAQ entry for more information about accessing this system.

• /scratch space - Scratch space is available from all CS unix accounts by simply running the makescratch command. This provides a relatively large amount of disk space without quotas for temporary storage. Files placed in scratch are not backed up and are auto-deleted after 1 month without being accessed. This is a great place to store large temporary files with the understanding that they will be auto-deleted. This space is available via the path /scratch/username after you run the makescratch command.

  Since there are no quotas on /scratch, please be considerate when using this space. Using multiple GB of space for short periods of time is acceptable but you should never run automatic jobs to access files in your scratch directory to circumvent the 1 month autodeletion.

• Central research space - Additional space is available for research projects under /l/research. This is housed on a RAID disk array and provides large amounts of storage for a variety of projects. Portions of this space are backed up and portions are not so arrangements can be made for backups as needed. In order to get space on this array please contact the CSG with details about your requirements.

• Research group space - Many research groups in the department have their own disk space and servers for support of their research. This storage space is purchased with faculty funds (ie. grants, startup funds, etc) and is maintained by the department. If you need additional disk space for faculty-sponsored research, talk to the faculty member to see if they have additional storage space you can use.

• IU CFS/MDSS space - The IU Common File System (CFS) and Massive Data Storage Service (MDSS) storage systems are also accessible from the CS systems and provide additional large data storage areas. Please see the associated FAQ entry for more information about accessing these systems.

Please see the account information page for details of the specific storage options available to you.

[Return to the FAQ index]