About data storage

Data is most of the time stored in files and those files are organised in a hierarchy of directories in a filesystem. Although many filesystems exist in the clusters, they are not meant for long-term storage of large amounts of data.

The CISM hosts two types of file storage systems that fullfil that purpose:

mass storage: accessible via ssh with the CISM account at storage.cism.ucl.ac.be on port 22 from withing the university network, billable by the volume and organised by Pôle.

common CÉCI storage: accessible from the CÉCI clusters and Manneback, free but with limited available space and time and organised by Project.

Besides those storage systems, users also have access to a home directory on each cluster or interactive server where space is free but limited. Each cluster furthermore offers various filesystems specific to the clusters, but those are not meant for long-term storage of large amounts of data. They are rather meant for temporary storage of data during computations. For more information about those filesystems, see the documentation of the clusters.

Warning

Organising backups and/or encryption of the data is the responsibility of the user. The CISM team can help setup procedures, only upon request.