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Appropriate Use
There's been some off-list discussion of quotas and what constitutes proper use of the storage resources available in the BCBLab.
As to the question of what type of data should be stored on the systems: Although the client machines were bought with CAC funds and will not be appropriate storage sites for research files, the server was bought with NSF training grant money and so is an appropriate system on which to store data associated with graduate-level research.
Quota Limits and Policy
Regarding how to manage storage space among various users, there are several constraints. First, this is a shared resource and so various uses must be balanced. Although there is a generous amount of storage available on the server (200GB) no resource is unlimited and immune to being abused by those either either ignorant of indifferent to the mission of the BCB program and of other users' needs. In addition to course-related and research-related file storage, some shared files (such as mirrors of freely available online databases and software) and system related files will be stored on this device.
And so, after the discussions mentioned above, as soon as the server is in production use (which may be at the end of the semester) we'll have the following quota policy:
- 200MB per user "birthright"
- 500MB per user next step
- ?GB third step
- 2 GB per class/PI (Principle Investigator) birthright
- 5 GB per class/PI next step
- ??GB per class/PI next step
For now, this is going to be a self-enforcing quota, with users asked to stick within these limits. Users needing to move up from their birthright quota should simply communicate their need for more space to me.
If this policy doesn't work--that is, if excessive unplanned disk space usage interferes with use of the system, or it becomes more of an administrative burden than implementing hard quotas--then I'll implement hard quotas and users may face administrative delays for even small temporary increases of disk usage that may go unnoticed under a voluntary system.
(In case someone wants to get picky, I'll use MB=10e6 bytes and GB=10e9 bytes rather than some multiple of a power-of-two but let's hope it doesn't get to that ;-)
Per-user and per-class/PI quotas are differentiated to encourage users operating on the same data sets or working with user-installed software to maintain a single, shared copy with others in their group rather than multiple copies. The types of quotas are also differentiated and to facilitate the development of some continuity in maintainance of data as students, post-docs, faculty, and staff come and go from the university and as classes begin and end. That is to say, if data owned by PostDoc A is affiliated the storage space of Principle Investigator B, then it will be easier to handle the transfer of that data when PostDoc A moves on from ISU to other opportunities.
Time-to-Live of Stored Data
We will remove at our discretion course-related user files 30 calendar days after the end of the term in which the course was held, unless prior arrangements have been made.
By infusing training in the biological sciences with the analytic perspective of mathematics and computer science, we have created an exciting learning environment in which to prepare students for the challenges and opportunities presented by the post-genomics era.
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