MedicineBow Filesystem and Directories
MedicineBow uses the Data (VAST) filesystem configured with a 3 petabytes NVMe system, including advanced block-based data deduplication which will give an expected 6 PB of overall capacity. The cluster has several storage locations available for users and allocated for specific purposes. These storage spaces are described in the table below.
Global Filesystem Directories
| Directory Name | Quota (GB) | Directory Path | Directory Alias | Snapshots | Backups | Purge Policy | Additional Info |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | See ARCC Storage Policies | /home/$USER | $HOME |
Yes | No | No | Always on SSD |
| Project | /project/project_name | N/A | Aging Data will be moved to HDD | ||||
| GScratch | /gscratch/$USER | $SCRATCH |
Yes | Aging Data will be moved to HDD |
Snapshots vs Backups
- Snapshots are a point in time reference of a specific filesystem, that can be referenced after changes are made. The data stays on the same storage system. This data would not be recoverable if there is an issue with the storage system.
- Backups are the act of transporting data to another storage system for safe-keeping, recoverable if an issue occurs with the source file system.
Purge Policy
- File spaces within the MedicineBow cluster filesystem may be subject to a purge policy. ARCC reserves the right to purge data subject to purge policy. Before performing an actual purge event, the owner of the file(s) will be notified by email for files that are subject to being purged.
- See ARCC's Purge Policy Information
Specialty FileSystems
Certain filesystems exist on different nodes of the cluster where specialized requirements apply. The table below summarizes these specialized directories
| Directory Name | Mount Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Data | /data | Only on Login Nodes |
| Local Scratch | /lscratch | Only on compute nodes and varies based on compute node disk size. The localized node scratch system is purged at the end of each job. | Memory Filesystem | /dev/shm | RAM-based tmpfs available as part of RAM for very rapid IO operations; small capacity. Memory filesystems can enhance performance on smaller I/O operations. If you have localized single node I/O jobs that have very intensive random access patterns, this filesystem may improve performance for your compute job. |