We are pleased to announce that are upgrading our parallel storage systems for the HPC and Spear. We have procured a new GPFS filesystem, and over the next several months, we are going to migrate all user and research data to this new system from Panasas and Lustre. After the consolidation, we will retire these older systems.

There are several advantages to the GPFS Filesystem:

1. Simpler file management - each user will have a single home directory for both the HPC and Spear systems.
2. Better performance - the GPFS system is connected to the rest of our infrastructure via a high-throughput 40Gbps links
3. Better reliability - The new system provides a high level of redundancy. Additionally, we are implementing proactive data backups.
4. Lower cost - The cost per gigabyte is significantly less than the PanFS storage system. Rates will be posted on our website in early 2018.

What else is changing?

• Home directories will be located at /gpfs/home/{username} on both Lustre and Spear.
• Owner and group storage volumes will be located at /gpfs/research/{group-volume-name} on both Lustre and Spear.
• Home directory quotas will be increased to 150GB for each user.

The migration to the new system will affect all users and research groups. We will begin the process in early 2018 and expect to complete it by Summer 2018.

In early 2018, we will make a self-service command-line tool available for users to move their PanFS/Lustre home directories to the new system. After this time period, RCC staff will schedule and move all remaining home directories.

We will also begin reaching out individually to each research group that has purchased storage on our Lustre and PanFS systems in order to coordinate moving your data with as little disruption as possible.

We'll be posting more details as the project progresses. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know: support@rcc.fsu.edu.