Storage Allocations Introduced for Klemming

The Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) has recently introduced a uniform system for storage allocations at all SNIC sites. This will make it easier to keep track of what the storage resources are used for, as required by the Swedish Research Council (VR). This applies, for example, to both storage at individual SNIC centres and to Swestore. The allocations are handled in the SNIC User and Project Repository (SUPR) in a manner very similar to allocations for computing time. For projects only needing small amounts of storage at PDC, there will be a default storage allocation that can be accepted directly within the application for computing time. Projects with larger storage needs will have to submit one or more separate storage applications in the corresponding round of calls. Coupled with this is a more unified way of handling project directories, including naming and access control.

For PDC, this means moving away from personal user directories in the Klemming file system to project directories – which are owned by the Principal Investigator (PI) of each project – for the majority of the data. One major difference with this approach is that the PI of the storage allocation will have full access to all the data in the project directory. That means PIs will be able to change or delete any data stored there, if they need to. Individual users will still be allowed to store a very limited amount of data in their personal directories in Klemming, as a complement to the storage in their normal home directories in AFS. More information about these changes can be found at www.snic.se/allocations/storage  and will soon be available on the PDC web site.