Backing up to external storage

Our external storage is called Vault. It is accessible via standard methods.

It uses a hybrid disk/tape system. Files are uploaded to the disks first. Once the disks become full the files are migrated to tape. The disks are faster but smaller. When downloading files, there will be a delay for files that are on tape since they must be retrieved. The time this takes will be dependent on the file size, number of files and load on the tape system.

There are two types of data that go onto vault:

1. Historical data
2. Active data on kg98_scratch, which has no internal backup.

The structure of data/directories in vault mirrors that of kg98 and kg98_scratch. For example, a directory foo on ~/kg98 will be foo on vault, a directory foo on kg98_scratch will be called scratch_foo on vault.

Only archives are uploaded to vault. It is advisable to make a listing of archive contents prior to uploading to allow users to see what data is on vault without having to download it.

We have a large allocation on vault and it can be extended quite easily.

Only a few users have access to vault and backup/retrieval requests must be issued to them. Chris has access. Some other people should but I don't know.