Data Storage
============

This is departmentally managed storage for use by research groups and for teaching.

Storage areas
-------------

There are two types of storage area:

Home directories
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is a personal storage area for each user. By default, there is a *soft* quota of 100 GB. You may exceed the soft quota for a grace period of 7 days. When above the soft quota, you will receive reminder emails to bring your usage under the 100 GB limit. After 7 days, if the usage is still above the quota, write access will be blocked by the system; this may prevent you from logging into Linux systems.

.. note::
    These are distinct from a user's OneDrive or (formally) H: drive.

Group storage
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
These provide shared storage for research groups. Each group storage is managed by a permanent staff member for their research group. Initial quotas are generally 4 TB, but can be increased as required.

Access to the group storage is controlled by an access control list. To request changes to who can access the group storage, please email aero.computing@imperial.ac.uk. Additional access lists can be created on request to restrict access to specific directories within the group storage to subsets of users.


Access
------

Linux
^^^^^
In the :doc:`departmental Linux environment <introduction>`, home directories are the default location used when logging into the system and are located in ``/home/<username>``.

The group storage is available under ``/storage/group``.

To transfer files to/from departmental storage using a third-party Linux device, use software such as `scp`_ or `rsync`_, or using `SSHFS`_ to mount a location on another system, by logging into one of:

- ``spitfire.ae.ic.ac.uk``
- ``hurricane.ae.ic.ac.uk``
- ``typhoon.ae.ic.ac.uk``

.. _`SSHFS`: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-sshfs-to-mount-remote-file-systems-over-ssh
.. _`scp`: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_copy_protocol
.. _`rsync`: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync

Windows
^^^^^^^
.. important::
    Before connecting to the Windows network share service for the first time, you must first log into the Linux remote desktop system. Doing so will ensure your home directory has been created and automatically provisions a user account for you on the service.

    **This only needs to be done once, and after changing your University password.**

To access the storage areas from Windows, enter

.. code:: console
    
    \\files.ae.ic.ac.uk

in the Windows Explorer address bar. If prompted enter your username (short code), and your College password. If you connect from a College Windows machine, you should not need to enter your credentials.

You can also map specific shares to drives on your computer, using the *Map Network Drive...* option.

.. note::
    The username should be just the short code. Do not add the ``@ic.ac.uk`` suffix.

File transfer can also be completed using programs such as `WinSCP`_.

OSX
^^^

To transfer files between a Mac and the Linux environment, the program `Cyberduck`_ can be used, which is a graphical program, similar to `WinSCP`_.

.. _`WinSCP`: https://winscp.net/eng/download.php
.. _`Cyberduck`: https://cyberduck.io/