Knowledge Base Migration

The CSCS Knowledge Base is being migrated to the CSCS Documentation: please check the new page File Systems

CSCS supports different file systems, whose specifications are summarized in the table below:


scratch (Alps)scratch (Clusters)/users/capstor/store
TypeLustreGPFSVASTLustre
QuotaSoft (150 TB and 1M files)None50GB/user and 500k filesDefined on a per-project basis
Expiration30 days30 daysAccount closureEnd of the project/contract
Data BackupNoneNone90 days90 days
Access SpeedFastFastSlowFast
Capacity91 PB1.9 PB160 TB91 PB

To check your usage, please type the command quota on the front end Ela and the User Access Nodes (UANs) of EigerDaint.Alps and Santis. Please build big software projects not fitting $HOME on $PROJECT instead and do not run jobs from $HOME or $PROJECT, please copy the executables, libraries and data sets needed to run your simulations to $SCRATCH with the Slurm transfer queue.

Users can also write temporary builds on /dev/shm, a filesystem using virtual memory rather than a persistent storage device: please note that files older than 24 hours will be deleted automatically.