TACC's High Performance Computing (HPC) systems are used primarily for scientific computing and while their disk systems are large, they are unable to store the long-term final data generated on these systems. The Ranch archive system fills this need for high capacity long-term storage, by providing a massive high performance file system and tape-based backing store designed, implemented, and supported specifically for archival purposes.
For information on how Ranch works, see In Depth: How it Works.
Storage
File System
| Directory | Path | Quota | Purge | Backup | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $HOME | $HOME | 2 TB and 50,000 Files | - | Not backed up | Display on-disk file space usage by running `ranch$ du -sh` |
| Project | - | - | - | - | Must be requested by submitting a support ticket. Supports both shared and over-size data directories for users and/or projects for whom the fixed standard storage for each user of 2TB is inadequate. |
File Transfer
Data should be transferred using as large a file as possible to maximize the efficiency of data archiving and retrieval for users. See Organizing your Data for more information.
Ideally, data being transferred to Ranch should be in its final form. If that is not possible, some technique should be used to create smaller files that transfer gracefully. See Transferring Data.
TACC supports scp (recommended) and rsync (avoid if at all possible). See Data Transfer Methods.
For information on large data and conduct, see Large Data Usage and Transfers and Good Conduct on Ranch.
| Supported Methods | Data Transfer Node | URL |
|---|---|---|
| SCP | RECOMMENDED | N/A | Secure Copy with scp Command |
| RSYNC | N/A | Remote Sync with resync Command |
Login to Ranch
Ranch can be logged into directly via ssh with the command
$ssh <taccusername>@ranch.tacc.utexas.edu
The preferred way of accessing Ranch, especially from scripts, is by using TACC-defined environment variables $ARCHIVER (defines the hostname of the current TACC archival system) and $ARCHIVE (each account's personal archival space). See Ranch Environment Variables.
Ranch access is not allowed from within running jobs on other TACC resources. Data must first be transferred from Ranch to your compute resource. See Accessing Files from Within Running Programs.
See System Access for login information.