Research Data Storage: Active Data Repository

Research Data Storage is a service designed to house:

• research-oriented data sets
• lab workbook data
• research group papers and similarly-related research data that does not contain healthcare data or protected health information (PHI).

Groups can use Research Data Storage to store data sets during phases of the research lifecycle where data will be accessed (read, edited, created) frequently.

In this article:

• Requesting a Share
• Moving Files into Research Data Storage 
• File Limitations
• Accessing Your Data
• Additional Information

Requesting a Share

1. Prepare what's needed for the storage request form.
   1. Ensure your department has been on-boarded to Customer Experience Standardization for Infrastructure (CESI) as a storage consumer. 
      • See the Customer Unit Map spreadsheet for a list of current storage consumer departments.
      • Note: if you are not an authorized requestor, your request will go to your unit's authorized requestor first.
   2. Ensure that you have the ability to access a share over the NFS protocol or SMB protocol. 
   3. Estimate the amount of space your data will likely consume. 
   4. Identify systems that will need access to the export or share. 
2. Fill out the storage request form.

Note: Once you submit the storage request form, a share will be configured for you. Approval typically takes 2 business days. Once you gain access to a share, you will get a notification that your share is ready. 

Moving Files into Research Data Storage

Important: Command line utilities like Rsync and Robocopy are examples of processes available for copying data to your share. With any command line utility, there is some risk of data loss. Make sure you understand the syntax to use these tools, so you don't inadvertently overwrite existing data.

1. SMB (Windows)
   • Robocopy to Large Scale Storage
2. NFS (Linux)
   • Move or Copy Data with Rsync

File Limitations

Note: If you have

• Files that are multiple Tb in size
• Extremely large file count directories

These files are allowed by the storage frame; however, they may not be practical for normal use and performance cannot be guaranteed.

Accessing Your Data

• Connect to a Shared Drive or Network Folder
• Mount NFS Share on Windows
• Mount an NFS Share on Linux
• Use Group Manager to Give Access to Others

Note: Make sure data retention complies with the Retention of University Records Policy where applicable. 

Additional Information

Research Data Storage is one of seven new storage service offerings for the University community rolling out in 2020. For more information about the storage services provided by the Office of Information Technology, please see the Storage Portfolio Restructuring Initiative.