PSD has several storage solutions for your research or lab. All solutions employ a cost-sharing model. PSD IT will support the underlying hardware including patching, security, and maintenance. Research groups will be able to purchase specific components for their lab that will be delivered to PSD IT and utilized in the storage solution. All components purchased for a group will be allocated only to that group and not be placed in a shared pool unless otherwise agreed upon.

If you are interested in any of the solutions below, please email psdsupport@uchicago.edu.

PSD IT has purchased a QNAP TS-h3087XU-RP NAS. The NAS has 24 hard drive bays but is expandable to 288 bays.

PSD IT has purchased and will maintain NAS including patching and security. Labs can purchase drives which will be mounted in the NAS and dedicated to their lab.

The NAS is connected to our 25 GbE switch. This will allow for faster transfer rates inside of the Hinds datacenter but transfer rates between buildings will be slower.

Your data on the NAS can be backed up to our tape system or a low-cost cloud backup services like Amazon Glacier.

For more information about the current drives we recommend, see below.

Cost: One time purchase of hard drives.

Cost: Varies. Cost = NAS + Hard Drives + Any Optional Upgrades

Did you know that tape backup systems are still widely in use across the globe? NASA’s High-End Computing Program currently provides a 1400 petabyte tape system for the backup needs of their researchers.

PSD IT has purchased and deployed a Quantum SuperLoader 3 LTO-9 Tape Library to the Hinds data center for researchers to back up their data. Please note that, due to the quantity of data in Hinds, we are not able to provide on-going tape backup of servers (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly backup jobs). At this time we are only able to provide one-time backup runs by request.

If you are storing your data on the Hinds Lab NAS device mentioned above, our tape system is configured to back up your data when you request it. If you have your own server in Hinds that you wish to backup, please email us and we can conduct a feasibility survey.

Here is some additional information about this service:

• Labs will purchase sufficient number of tapes to back up their data.
• LTO-9 Tapes cost ~$99 and tapes are reusable.
• LTO-9 Tape Storage Capabilities
  • 18 TB (Native)
  • 45 TB (Compressed)
  • Note: For sizing purposes, most backup jobs achieve 10%-30% compression but each job will vary.

Cost: $99/tape