Description
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. <br/><br/>Ranch is a Quantum StorNext-based system, with a DDN- provided front-end disk system (30PB raw), and a 5000 slot Quantum Scalar i6000 library for its back-end tape archive. <br/><br>Ranch is an allocated resource, meaning that Ranch is available only to users with an allocation on one of TACC's computational resources such as Frontera, Stampede3, or Lonestar6. ACCESS PIs will be prompted automatically for the companion storage allocation as part of the proposal submission process and should include a justification of the storage needs in their proposal. The default allocation on Ranch for users is 2TB. To request a shared Ranch project space for your team's use, please submit a TACC Helpdesk ticket.
RP Description
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.
Login Text
Full instructions in [System Access].
To login to Ranch, users must need an active Access allocation and TACC account credentials.
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).
Ranch access is not allowed from within running jobs on other TACC resources. Data must first be transferred from Ranch to your compute resource.