Overview

(taken from https://ou.edu/oscer/resources/ourrstore--ou---regional-research-store)

The OU & Regional Research Store (OURRstore)...

• is a very large scale tape archive storage instrument being deployed and maintained by the OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER) at the University of Oklahoma (OU).
• will be in production for 8+ years (through at least March 2029), and will have capacity for well over 100 Petabytes of tape (that is, well over 100,000 TB).
• is open to more than just Oklahoma; any non-commercial research/education institution in the Great Plains Network (GPN) or Estab­lished Program to Stim­u­late Com­pet­i­tive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdiction can also use the system.
• is intended for bulk data archiving, meaning small numbers of large files, not for zillions of tiny files.  (how to combine small files into a larger file is found here)
• for ARCHIVING ONLY: “archive” means “Write Once, Read Seldom.”

Researchers buy their own tape cartridges, good for the lifetime of OURRstore (through at least March 2029), and pay zero usage charges (just tape cartridge and shipping costs).

Eligible Data

• Data MUST be related to STEM research. STEM includes the following disciplines (as defined by NSF)
  • Physical sciences
  • Biosciences

  • Geosciences

  • Engineering

  • Mathematics

  • Technology (for example, computer and information sciences)

  • Social sciences.

• Non-STEM data and clinical research data MUST NOT be archived on OURRstore.

• Human subject data MAY be allowed, provided

  • The data doesn't break any of the prior requirements

  • You are permitted to store it on OURRstore by any/all Institutional Review Board (IRB) agreements surrounding it.

Data MUST NOT be legally regulated. These regulations include but are not limited to

• HIPPA

• Controlled Unclassified Information

• ITAR/EAR

• FERPA

File Size Requirement

Must be Between 1GB ~ 1TB. (ideal size: 20 ~200GB).  Refer to Preparing Data for OURRstore for options on preparing data that doesn't fit within these limits.

Replication and Data Resiliency

Choose which of the following replication policies to use, on a per-directory basis:

• tape_2copies: One copy inside OURRstore’s tape library, one copy shipped back to you, using the prepaid shipping label that you provided to OURRstore.

The disadvantage of tape_2copies is, if the primary copy in the OURRstore tape library fails (for example, if the tape breaks), then you’d have to ship your secondary copy to OU, which might be the ONLY REMAINING COPY OF THOSE FILES IN THE WORLD, so you’d be taking a BIG RISK in shipping it back to OURRstore.

• tape_3copies: One copy inside OURRstore’s tape library, one copy shipped back to you, and one copy carried by the OURRstore operators to another OU campus to an environmentally controlled facility for offsite storage.

This costs 50% more than tape_2copies, but if the primary copy inside the OURRstore tape library fails, the operators can quickly restore your files from the tertiary copy located elsewhere at OU, instead of you having to ship them your secondary copy, so your RISK IS REDUCED A LOT.

Considerations for data resiliency

(from https://ou.edu/oscer/resources/ourrstore--ou---regional-research-store#limitations)

tape_2copies: If you upload a file to OURRstore from disk at your local institution (for example, on a PC or on your local supercomputer), and you leave the file on disk at your local institution, then you’ll have one copy on your local institution’s disk, one copy inside OURRstore’s tape library at OU, and one copy shipped back to you at your local institution. So you’ll have 3 copies total, on two different media types (disk, tape), with one copy remote (at OU inside OURRstore). 

tape_3copies: tape_2copies + 1 extra copy at yet another remote location.

Account Creation and Management

See Creating an OURRstore Account

Tape Purchase

• Any vendor will work, but CCS has had success with sending tapes from Midland Information Systems.

  • LTO 7: https://www.midlandinfosys.com/ibm-power/all-categories/lto-7-tape-cartridge-38l7302
  • LTO 8: https://www.midlandinfosys.com/ibm-power/all-categories/lto-8-tape-cartridge-01pl041

• Email OURRStore Support to confirm if the tapes you want to purchase are valid.

Data Preparation

See Preparing Data for OURRstore.

Data Transfer from UK to OURRstore

We recommend using either Rclone or Globus. For more information, see the following documentation.

Transferring Data to OURRstore Using Rclone

Transferring Data to OURRstore Using Globus

Archive file location

• All files MUST be archived into /archive/ourrstore/<your_groupname>/tape_2copies or tape_3copies.
• You can ssh into dtn2.oscer.oh.edu to access the files like a standard LINUX directory.

Support