Service catalogue

Our Service Catalogue is a list of services provided by IT Services to members of the University of Sussex and certain categories of visitors.

Each service within the catalogue typically includes a brief description of the service and how to access it, who is entitled to use/request the service, details of availability and service maintenance, and links to further information. This is intended to help improve knowledge within the University of the range of services we currently provide and to help users get more out of them. The range of services offered is reviewed annually with the University IT Consultative Group.

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Network and Storage

Research Data

Service ID

29

Summary

Provides facilities for scalable storage solutions and access to large volumes of data to support research within the University

A charge is made for the use of this service.

Permitted users

  1. Staff and Research postgraduate students of the University.
  2. Authorised external research collaborators.
  3. Exceptionally, undergraduates of the University in support of final year project work.              

Gaining access

By application to IT Services for Storage Services.

Hours of operation

The service is available 24 hours a day.

Supported period

Normal working days 0900-1700.

Scheduled maintenance

In rare situations, it may become necessary to perform emergency maintenance to correct or prevent imminent service issues. IT Services  will provide as much advance notice as possible on the ITS Service Status page. Notification of system maintenance will be sent to the user’s e-mailgroup(s). IT Services will restart systems after each of these activities, but it is the responsibility of the user to make sure their data is as they expect after systems have restarted correctly.

Change control

Users are consulted before substantial changes to Research Storage configuration.  Upgrades, additions or decommissioning of storage follow a procedure described here:

Research Data.  Changes will be advertised through normal IT Services channels.

ITS Responsibilities

  1. Monitor data storage usage issues and take appropriate action should problems arise.
  2. Maintain IT Services research storage hardware.
  3. Consult with Research staff and Research students as to data storage requirements.
  4. Manage and support the operation of equipment purchased by research groups.
  5. Manage and support a Research  Data backup system during project lifetime and data archive to tape service after completion of project 

Service user responsibilities

  1. Develop an understanding of the use of Research Data Storage  File Systems.
  2. Use the service responsibly and with consideration for other users of limited shared resources, observing prevailing limits on data storage.
  3. Delete unwanted data from the cluster home file system and scratch file system. 

Expected availability

The service will be available 24/7 barring any unplanned outages and planned system maintenance windows.

Recent performance
Service dependencies

Data Network (#1).

Detailed service description

IT Services supports a High Performance  Research Data Storage Facility, QDR infiniband interconnect and a Lustre high performance (scratch) parallel file system.  The service is managed by the Research Support team within IT Services, who maintain the system and advise on best practice.

A charge is made for the use of this service. 

The Research Data Service can be accessed from both on and off campus

Research teams are encouraged to fund their own Data Storage nodes within this environment, with the resource dedicated to their needs.

The University participates within several national initiatives providing shared HPC substrates and as a GridPP Tier 2 facility within the EGI.

Links to ITS documentation

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/services/research/researchdata

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/help

Definitions

Normal working days
These are defined for all ITS services as Monday – Friday inclusive, but excluding Bank Holidays and University Minimum Service Days.
Scheduled Maintenance
IT username and password
These are the login credentials, issued by IT Services to registered students and current staff of the University of Sussex, enabling access to email, workstations and other services requiring authentication.

New and changed services

Information about changes to services including any scheduled maintenance, are posted on the IT Services website and distributed by the IT Services Facebook, Twitter and RSS feed. Current service status traffic light information is also displayed on the IT Services website.

If the service you are enquiring about is not described below, please get in touch.

User responsibilities

All service users are expected to abide by the rules and regulations described in Regulations for the use of Information and Communication Technology and to report faults, as they arise, to IT Services.

Updated on 17 October 2013