Swestore

In scientific areas such as high energy physics (the Large Hadron Collider at CERN), climate modelling, bioinformatics, bioimaging etc., the demands for research data storage and research data services are increasing dramatically. To serve these and other user communities, SNIC has appointed this working group to design a storage strategy, taking into account the research community needs. For more information please contact Swestore Support

Swestore

Swestore is Research Data Storage Infrastructure, intended for active research data and operated by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC).

The resources provided by Swestore are made available through open procedures such that the best Swedish research is supported and new research is facilitated. The purpose of Swestore allocations, granted by Swedish National Allocations Committee (SNAC), is to provide large scale data storage for “live” or “working” research data, also known as active research data.

The aim of this nationally accessible storage (Swestore) is to build a robust, flexible and expandable system that can be used in most cases where access to large scale storage is needed. To the user, each resource should appear as a single large system, while it is desirable that some parts of the system are deployed and distributed across SNIC centres to benefit from the advantages of, among other things, locality and redundancy effects. We continuously investigate new technologies that are suitable to implement Swestore. This storage solution is intended as a versatile short and medium term storage (one to four years allocations), for large-scale research data. It is intended and best suitable for so called “warm” data that is not analysed or processed right now but it is still relevant for the active research project. Project allocations are usually not backed up unless agreed differently and all files, i.e. digital objects, exist in two replicas in two geographically different locations. The main purpose of this type of storage is to offload the fast storage (Center Storage) during the active research phase and to move data from and to SNIC Centers.

Today, Swestore is available as a resource built on dCache Swestore-dCache.

There was a resource based on the iRODS technology, but this was decommissioned in the end of 2021 (Swestore-iRODS).

Getting access to Swestore

Before you can access Swestore you need to be a member of a storage project.

Apply for storage (for the PI)

All Swestore project allocations are managed using the SNIC User and Project Repository portal, SUPR. Please follow the instructions on the Apply for storage on Swestore page to apply for storage.

Apply for project membership (for all users)

All project members must register in SUPR, sign SNIC User Agreement, if they did not do it previously, and be added to the approved project by the PI. This can happen in multiple ways:

• The PI can add you to a project
• You can request membership to a project:
  • Log in to SUPR
  • Click on the Projects heading in the left hand menu.
  • In the Request Membership in Project section of the page, fill in a project search criteria according to the on-page instructions and click Search for Project
  • Locate the project and click Request button in the Request Membership column.
  • The PI and any Co-PI will be notified of your request and approve/deny as they deem appropriate.

When your project membership is approved by the PI the Swestore system will map an account for you and add access to the project storage directory. Please wait for up to 10 minutes for this information to be distributed to Swestore.

Finding the project storage directory name (for all users)

All SNIC storage projects, including Swestore, are assigned a unique directory name, this is used to locate your storage area.

To find the directory name for a storage project:

• Log in to SUPR
• Click on the project ID in the left hand menu.
• The project Directory Name is shown in the Basic Information section on top of the page.

The project storage area is available in the path /snic/directory_name/ in Swestore-dCache and in the path /snic.se/projects/directory_name in Swestore-iRODS.

Set your Swestore password (for users accessing with username/password authentication)

The username/password access method works for both dCache and iRODS. It requires you to set a password on your Swestore account.

Follow the instruction on the page Setting your Swestore password.

For dCache there are other options, including certificates, please check the Swestore-dCache documentation for further details.

Using your storage area

After having performed the basic steps above you are ready to start using your storage area.

Proceed to the technology-specific documentation:

Swestore-dCache

or

Swestore-iRODS

as appropriate.

If you are unsure of the technology used by your storage project, you can find out:

• Log in to SUPR
• Click on the project ID in the left hand menu.
• Scroll down to the Storage section.
• The Resource column shows the storage technology for the storage project.

Support and Help Desk

If you have any issues using Swestore, please do not hesitate to contact Swestore Support.

Support and Help Desk services are available during the regular office hours of operation (i.e. 09-17), except when the SNIC partner centers are closed due to Holidays, Administrative Closing, or Inclement Weather. Support service may have better service hours as defined above. However, outside of service hours Swestore Support providers do not guarantee the presence of personnel able to handle service requests or able to solve incidents.

Glossary

Active (Research) data

is data that is being worked on as part of research project and therefore subject to change. The files containing data will need to be accessed and amended or updated as new data is gathered or processed.

Static (Research) data

is data that is no longer in the process of change and it can be prepared for preservation and reuse.

Backup

is a copy of the digital data to be stored and used as a replacement in case the main copy is either deleted or corrupted.

Archive

is a service to record, organise, and store (digital) items in optimal conditions, with standardised labelling to ensure their longevity and continued access. The service is based on application of metadata, archiving policies, records management, and digital preservation actions. Archivists make decisions on selection and retention of items which are usually governed by supporting policies.