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Filesystems and Quotas

The HPC compute nodes, login nodes and OnDemand all share access to the same filesystems. You may query your actual usage and disk allocations using the following command:

 nn_storage_quota

The values for nn_storage_quota are updated approximately every hour and cached between updates.

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filesystem Specifications

Filesystem /home /nesi/project /nesi/nobackup Freezer
Disk Quota 20 GB 100 [110] GB 10 [12] TB -
Usage User-specific files such as configuration files, environment setup, source code, etc. Persistent project-related data, software, etc. Data created or used by compute jobs that is intended to be temporary Medium- to long-term storage of research data, (past, present or planned projects)
Data retention 180 days after the user ceases to be a member of any active project 90 days after the end of the project's last HPC compute allocation. See also Transparent File Data Compression. Untouched for 90 days, or 90 days after the end of the project's last HPC Compute allocation. See Automatic cleaning of nobackup filesystem for more information. 180 days after the end of the project's Freezer storage allocation
Snapshots Daily
7 days		 Daily
7 days		 - -
Speed Fast Fast Fast Slow
Interfaces
  • Native Mounts
  • SCP
  • Globus
    • Native Mounts
    • SCP
    • Globus
      • Native Mounts
      • SCP
      • Globus
      • s3cmd commands

      Soft and hard quotas

      We use soft and hard quotas for disk space.

      • Once you exceed a fileset's soft quota, a one-week countdown timer starts. When that timer runs out, you will no longer be able to create new files or write more data in that fileset. You can reset the countdown timer by dropping down to under the soft quota limit.
      • You will not be permitted to exceed a fileset's hard quota at all. Any attempt to try will produce an error; the precise error will depend on how your software responds to running out of disk space.

      When quotas are first applied to a fileset, or are reduced, it is possible to end up with more data or files in the fileset than the quota allows for. This outcome does not trigger deletion of any existing data, but will prevent creation of new data or files.

      Note

      • You may request an increase in storage quota if needed by a project. This may in turn be reduced as part of managing overall risk, where large amounts of quota aren't used for a long period (~6 Months).
      • If you need to compile or install a software package that is large or is intended for use by a project team, please build it in /nesi/project/<project_code> rather than /home/<username>.
      • Keep in mind that data on /nesi/nobackup is not backed up, therefore users are advised to move valuable data to /nesi/project/<project_code> or Freezer, or, if the data is seldom used, to other storage such as an institutional storage facility, as soon as batch jobs are completed. Please do not use the touch command to prevent the cleaning policy from removing files, because this behaviour would deprive the community of a shared resource.

      /home

      For storing files that are central for performing your simulations and calculations on Mahuika. This includes program installations, conda environments and other virtual environments. Home directories (folders) are available in the /home volume.

      This filesystem is accessible from login, compute and ancillary nodes. Users should not run jobs from this filesystem. Snapshots are taken of all home directories daily. No cleaning policy will be applied to your home directory as long as your user account is active and you are a member of at least one active project.

      /nesi/project

      For storing files that you want to keep for long periods of time that you access regularly. This includes important research files you do not want deleted and you access regularly, and can include conda environments and other virtual environments that are too large for home. Project space is available as the /nesi/project storage volume.

      This filesystem is accessible from all login, compute and ancillary nodes. Snapshots are taken daily. No cleaning policy is applied.

      It provides storage space for datasets, shared code or configuration scripts that need to be accessed by users within a project, and potentially by other projects. Read and write performance increases using larger files, therefore you should consider archiving small files with an archiving package such as tar .

      Each project receives quota allocations for /nesi/project/<project_code>, based on the requirements you tell us about in your application for a new NeSI project, and separately covering disk space and number of files.

      /nesi/nobackup (scratch)

      For storing raw data and larger files that are needed for short (minutes) to moderate (90 days) periods of time. Scratch space is available as the /nesi/nobackup storage volume.

      This filesystem is accessible from all login, compute and ancillary nodes. No snapshots or backups of this filesystem are guaranteed.

      To prevent project teams from inadvertently bringing the filesystem down for everyone by writing unexpectedly large amounts of data, we apply per-project disk space quotas to projects on this filesystem. The default per-project quotas are as described in the above table; if you require more scratch space for your project than the default quota allows for, you can discuss your requirements with us during the project application process, or Contact our Support Team at any time.

      We also have a regular cleaning policy as described in Automatic cleaning of nobackup filesystem.

      Do not use the touch command or an equivalent to prevent the cleaning policy from removing unused files, because this behaviour would deprive the community of a shared resource.

      The purpose of this policy is to ensure that any user will be able to analyse datasets up to 1 PB in size.

      Freezer

      Freezer is a tape storage system that employs the S3 protocol and is designed to hold large amounts of data that are accessed infrequently. Freezer is a great solution to prevent data being lost by our fortnightly auto-deletion policy or to run those quarterly, semi-annual or annual workflows.

      See Freezer long term storage for more information.

      The Freezer filesystem is a data cache for the Hierarchical Storage Management System, which automatically manages the movement of files between high performance disk storage and magnetic tape storage in an Automatic Tape Library (ATL). Files will remain on Freezer temporarily, typically for hours to days, before being moved to tape. A catalogue of files on tape will remain on the disk for quick access.

      See more information about the long term storage see our documentation about the Freezer storage service.

      Snapshots

      If you have accidentally deleted data you can recover it from a snapshot. Snapshots are taken daily of home/ and project directories If you cannot find it in a snapshot, please ask us to recover it for you by Contact our Support Team

      This page will guide you through best practices for storing your data on Mahuika.

      Temporary Files

      Some programs create files that are not needed after the process has finished. If these are not automatically cleaned up by the program they can take up a large amount of space or just become very numerous, which can be problematic as many of the services running behind the scenes in Mahuika are affected by the number of files on our systems.

      Within batch jobs it is best to place any temporary files into a temporary directory, which can be in memory or in fast storage local to the compute node. These directories are automatically removed at the end of the job.

      On login nodes there is a fast /tmp filesystem for very transient files, and if you need something larger then nobackup (scratch) is the best choice. In either case, please delete all temporary files as soon as is practical.

      Best Practices

      The 3,2,1 Rule

      It is vital that files that are important to your work are backed up after you have processed them and want to move them off Mahuika. The 3,2,1 rule is best practise for storing and backing up files to minimise lose of mission critical data. The rule is:

      • 3 Copies: Keep your original data plus two backups.
      • 2 Media Types: Store backups on different media (e.g., internal hard drive, external hard drives, cloud, network attached storage device, high capacity storage, freezer).
      • 1 Offsite: Keep one copy physically separate (e.g., cloud, freezer, high capacity storage, offsite drive) to survive local disasters.

      Where to run jobs

      It is best practice to perform your calculations/simulations in the following order:

      1. Perform your calculations/simulations in nobackup (scratch) and/or per-job temporary directories.
      2. After analysis, any data you want to keep for further analysis and that you will access regularly should be kept in project.
      3. If you have gigabytes or terabytes of data that you need to keep on Mahuika but don't have enough space on project and do not access regularly, you should consider moving this data onto Freezer. Freezer is designed to keep mass amounts of data on that you will only need to access every few months. See Freezer long term storage for more information.
      4. project is limited in space, so any data you can move off Mahuika should be when you are either done with the data, or you can do analysis of the data on your own computer. See I would like to move data off Mahuika. What are my options?.