Integrating the University’s Research Data Store and Hawk services to support researchers
1 March 2021
Last year the University launched a new storage service specifically for live research data that is now available on the Hawk Supercomputer.
The Research Data Store (RDS) is a relatively new service provided by University IT and is suitable for a wide variety of data classifications, including highly confidential C1 classification information. A brief overview of the RDS is provided below, but for more information on this service please contact University IT service desk.
The RDS has been designed to have no single point of failure and is a highly available solution, accessible through the University IT networks and mountable across a variety of interfaces including research workstations and the Hawk supercomputer service. Copies of any changes to the data ("snapshots") are kept for the preceding 20 days in case of data loss or corruption.
Hawk users are now able to connect directly and securely to the RDS. Ensuring that the RDS service is accessible on Hawk is an essential part of delivering an integrated approach to e-infrastructure at the University and compliments the existing scalable researcher-funded storage partitions that are available to specific Hawk projects. Mounting the RDS on Hawk provides opportunities for researchers to improve and automate workflow processes by enabling integrated, fast and reliable access to their live research data in close proximity to the supercomputer resources.
For researchers wishing to access their RDS storage on Hawk, instructions and how to request help can be found on the Supercomputing Wales portal site.
RDS service overview
Applications for storage on the RDS can be made by University staff and postgraduate research students using the Research Portal.
A default allocation of 1TByte per research project is available on request as part of the University's account provision. In general, requests exceeding this default may incur charges while larger allocation requests are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Data will be stored at least throughout the lifetime of the project to complement the University's strategy and policy for longer-term research data retention (currently under development).
Principal Investigators applying for RDS storage allocations must be from Cardiff University, with an eligible, active project.
More information on the RDS is available on the University’s intranet for staff and students.