Research Data Archives
BC has an archive system for research data. The system has a capacity of 50 TB. It is a Hierarchical Storage Management system (HSM). HSM uses a combination of disk and tape. Data is stored first on disk, and as the disk fills up, files that haven't been recently accessed are automatically migrated to tape, a less expensive storage media. You will see a listing of files regardless of them being stored on disk or tape, and you can access them. When you access a file stored on tape, there will be a short delay while the tape is being loaded and moved to disk.
The archive allows you to use a secure copy (scp) or secure ftp (sftp) client to transfer files the archive. This is a manual system and requires you to copy files to and from the archive yourself. For automatic backup of your BC owned Windows computer, see: www.bc.edu/helpdocs/SW-iron-mtn-backup.shtml.
Getting an Account
The data archive is available to all faculty research groups at Boston College. It
is for research data. Faculty members may request an account by sending email to researchservices@bc.edu. Faculty members may ask that accounts be created for students or other members in their research group. Research Services can talk to you about your needs and set up the account accordingly. For example, if you have archive data that you want all members of your research group to be able to access.
Using the Data Archive
Data is stored and retreived using a secure copy (scp) or a secure ftp (sftp) client. Clients are available for all platforms. For the Mac, fugu is available, or you can open a terminal and use scp from the command line. For Windows, WinSCP works well, as does SSH Secure Client. You can also use the Unix scp and sftp commands from a Unix system or from a Mac.
If you are using a client, connect to acadhsm.bc.edu and enter your username and password(this is not your BC password, but the one given to you when the account was created.) You will then be able to drag-and-drop files to and from your computer.
Note: You need to store your files in a subfolder of /data. First change to the /data folder and then create a folder for yourself or your group in /data.
If you are using the command line, then to store a file on the data archive,
scp file-name acadhsm.bc.edu:/data/your-folder-name
You can transfer files and entire folders.
Sharing
There is limited sharing that can be set up. For those familiar with Unix permissions, the sharing is the basic Unix file sharing. Files can be stored with read/write access to the user, read/write access to members of the group who have accounts on the system, and/or read/write access to everyone with an account on the system.
Backup
Files stored on the archive are backed up nightly and copies are stored off-site.
Details
The name of the system acadhsm is taken from "Academic Hierarchical Storage Management"
There is a 1 TB quota. If you need more space, send email to researchservices@bc.edu.