File storage for computation
At PDC there are two types of storage for data that is being used in calculations or simulations.
PDC has two file systems available for storing files of data for calculations that are being performed on PDC’s systems:
- AFS , which is based on the Andrew File System, and
- Lustre , a parallel file system that satisfies the requirements for leadership class high performance computing (HPC) simulations.
Which system you should use to store your files depends on
- the amount of data you need to store, and
- how you will be using or accessing the data.
Basically AFS storage is for home directories with small amounts of data and is always backed up. Lustre is for fast parallel access to large amounts of data for HPC simulations and is never backed up. Further information about storing data files can be found on the data management page in the Support section of the PDC website .
