New Scratch Filesystem – Jan/Feb 2021

Introduction

A new scratch filesystem has been installed in the CSF3. This is now the default (and only) scratch area on the CSF.

To access your scratch area please use the familiar paths:

~/scratch

or

/scratch/$USER         # $USER will expand to your username

Access to the old scratch filesystem has been removed, on schedule, on 17th February 2021. The hardware is being sent for secure destruction.

# It is NO LONGER POSSIBLE TO ACCESS OLD SCRATCH (this shortcut will be removed automatically)
~/scratch-old-readonly

Why was the old scratch replaced?

  • The old scratch filesystem was 5 years old and going off maintenance / support. We would be unable to repair it if the hardware failed, resulting in a higher risk of data loss (remember, we can’t back up such a large filesystem).
  • The old scratch filesystem was too small (692TB) to meet the needs of CSF3. The new one is 1.2PB in size.
  • Replacing this critical infrastructure will extend the life of CSF3 by approx. 5 more years
  • The HPC Pool will see a performance improvement due to direct Infiniband connectivity with the new scratch storage.

Last modified on February 17, 2021 at 11:20 am by George Leaver