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Filesystem Layout

The department filesystem is centered around the concept of / (called "root") from our Linux filesystem. Some of the important volumes in our filesystem are listed below. Volumes which are "networked" can be shared across all department workstations. Non-networked volumes are specific to an individual machine.

On Windows, \\cifs.cs.brown.edu\dfs corresponds to / on the Linux filesystem. By default, this is mapped to the Y: drive on department computers. Z: is mapped to your home directory (/home/username or \\cifs.cs.brown.edu\dfs\home\username).

Location	Usage	Networked	Backups
/admin	Files to assist in the administration of departmental programs and organizations	Yes	Snapshots
/contrib	Unsupported, user-provided software	Yes	Snapshots
/course	Directories for courses and course projects	Yes	Snapshots
/data	Large datasets with lesser backup needs	Yes	Daily
/home	User home directories	Yes	Snapshots
/local	Tstaff-managed software and configuration specific to Brown CS	Yes	Snapshots
/ltmp	Local, non-networked scratch space that is not backed up. Available only on Linux. Should only be used for large-scale temporary storage when reliability is not important.	No	None
/nbu	Networked scratch space that is not backed up	Yes	None
/research	Space for research projects and groups	Yes	Snapshots
/sysvol	Files for various departmental system services	Yes	Varies
/web	Files for departmental websites	Yes	Snapshots

Requesting Space

All users are given personal directories in /home/username, /data/people/username, and /nbu/people/username. All users have a personal web directory in /web/iweb/web/people/username.

If you would like space for a research project, course, or other group, email problem. To request a project in /contrib, see the contrib-req command.

Undergraduates are given space in /home only. Additional space will be granted only for pursuit of course goals or faculty-sponsored research.

Backup Tiers

Snapshots

This is the highest level of backup which tstaff offers. In addition to nightly backups, snapshots are taken every four hours. Every directory on a volume with snapshots has a hidden .snapshots directory which you can use to access the snapshots. Visit the snapshots page for more information.

Nightly

These volumes are backed up nightly, as described on the backups page. There are no snapshots.

None

These volumes are never backed up.

Quotas

Directories in home, course, data, nbu, and research have have quotas attached to them. Undergraduates' home directories have a quota of 500M. All other directories have quotas representing their maximum expected usage, which can be increased upon request by emailing problem.

The /local/bin/gpfs-usage command will let you know what percentage of your quota you are using and how much space you have left before hitting your quota.

Legacy Volumes

The following volumes have been depreciated. The directories inside these volumes have been replaced with symbolic links to their new locations in order to maintain compatibility with old scripts and configurations. However, no new directories are being created, and new scripts should not refer to these locations.

Location	Replaced By
/pro	Mostly /research
/com	/local
/auto	Various
/tierfs	/data (tier2) and /nbu (tier3)
/map	Various
/ws	Various