SciStor

Tools

What is it?

The storage service SciStor is intended for cheaply storing large amounts of research data.

SciStor is hosted by IT for Research (ITvO) on the VU campus enabling a high-speed connection to lab equipment, laptops and workstations, the ADA HPC cluster and SciCloud. It can also be accessed off-campus.

Your data is stored in a share, basically a folder with group-based access rights (read/write or read-only). Access rights can be set one level deep, so one share could be used to host data from different projects.

What can it be used for?

Networked Drive

Because SciStor is connected to the VU on-campus network you can directly mount (map a network drive) SciStor shares on your laptop and work as if the data is on a local disk.

Access off-campus

Although SciStor is most useful on campus you can also access your shares off-campus.

Warning

Due to Vu policy, this method will be deprecated in the near future.

Lab instruments

In many cases lab equipment can write data directly to SciStor. IT for Research can help you setup an automated and secure connection.

Storage space for SciCloud servers

SciCloud virtual servers are provisioned with a 20 to 50GB local disk. A SciStor share can be directly mounted on the server to increase storage for your application or directly access your source data for analysis.

ADA

The ADA HPC cluster is connected to SciStor via a high speed netwodrk. You can run your analysis software directly on your data and easily access the results on your laptop.

Sharing data

Because SciStor is mainly intended for high performance, on-campus use, access is only possible with a VUnetId. If you need to share data with non-VU researchers you could register them as an external employee or host a copy of the data on another storage platform like Research Drive or Yoda

Data life-cycle

SciStor is meant for data you are actively working with. We recommend archiving datasets that are no langer actively used, but can’t be deleted, in Yoda. This ensures SciStor is used optimally and costs are kept down for your research group and the VU.

How to request access

Requesting a new share

SciStor is available for all VU research groups. You can find the request form on 🔒 ServiceNow, go to: IT > My work field > Research > SciStor > Realisation of new storage for research (SciStor)

Minimum storage space that can be requested is 100 GB, for a minimum of three months. The capacity can be increased or decreased in units of 100 GB if needed.

After submitting the application, IT for Research will contact you to schedule an interview to discuss naming the SciStor share, how the backups work, who should have access, etc.

Most SciStor configurations can be delivered within one or two days. More complex configurations may take a little longer.

Adding a colleague to an existing share

The owner of a SciStor share can request to add or remove access to the share via 🔒 ServiceNow, go to: IT > My work field > Research > SciStor > Change SciStor access rights

Are there costs involved?

You pay for the amount of space reserved for your share: €0,16 per GB per year. The owner of the SciStor share receives monthly usage reports. The report provides insight on used and available space.

Data Recovery

SciStor offers a snapshot-based data protection mechanism. There are several types of snapshot policies available:

Snapshot Type Description
Daily Snapshots Automatically taken every day and retained for 1 week (1d:1w)
Weekly Snapshots Taken once a week and retained for 4 weeks (1w:4w)
Custom Policies Available upon request via ITvO
Storage Location Snapshots are stored within the same scistor share, allowing quick recovery
Caution

Snapshots take space within the share, if you delete large amount of data, be mindful that snapshots will occupy the space of the deleted data until they are expired.

Snapshots act like “photo moments” of your data, enabling you to restore previous versions. Users can recover their own data by following this instructions.

Getting started

The RDM Handbook has practical manuals for users starting with SciStor.

Contact

Wondering if SciStor fits your research needs? Please contact IT for Research