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Helpdesk item: I need more disk space to comple my task

Description of the Problem

I have not enough space available in my home directory, although the capacity of the file system is by no means a barrier for my storage. How I can get more space to complete the task?

The Answer(s)

The analysis of the problem. CSC grants quotas to every user. You may query your quota status with the unix program quota. In practice, problems related to low quota can be solved in a number of means, depending on the task you are doing.

Situation	Creator	Reader	Solution	Limitations
disk intensive computation	the user's application	the user's application	The shared network file system, $METAWRK	total 600GB, user quota (e.g. 80 GB), 30 days
archiving of user's files	the user	the user	use the archive robot, $ARCHIVE	TBytes, while a valid CSC user
small temporary files	the user	the user	/tmp may be used for small files of some hundreds of MB. Saving bigger files to /tmp risks the stability of the server.	total 100GB, 1 day. Accessible only by the same machine.
huge temporary files	the user	the user	A new file system /mnt/work will be installed if necessary.	No quota system will be used to stop user whose space consumption harms the others. Accessible only by the same machine.
huge temporary files	the user	the user	Try to use the home directory. If necessary, ask for more quota.	You may not get any increase in the quota if you ask too much.
sharing temporary files	the user	any number of users	Try to use the home directory. If necessary, ask for more quota. Put the files into a directory whose name is difficult to quess.	You may not get any increase in the quota if you ask too much. This is a very good, but not a fully secure way to share files.
sharing big files in long-term research projects	the group	the group	Ask for a unix group name. Then the group asks for quota big enough for the project.	You may not get any increase in the quota if you ask too much.
sharing big files in long-term research projects	the project user	the project user	Start a project that buys computer resources from CSC. Then CSC allocates quota for the project.	You may not get any more quota than what you pay for.
ad hoc sharing big files between users in a group	any user in a group	any user in a group	copy to $METAWRK, and apply chgrp and chmod commands to the files.	You need the group id and you must be a member of the group also (see the groups command in Unix).
ad hoc sharing big files between any users	the user	another user	copy to $METAWRK, and apply chmod, giving permissions to others. Remove permissions as soon as possible.	This is not a secure way to share files.
moving new corpora to the language bank	the user	all the users	the administrator provides a directory in /mnt/corpus/, giving its rights to the user. The user can provide the data, and the administrator can capture the files my changing their owner and permissions	The user may not have writing permissions after the files have been captured by the superuser. Accessible only by the same machine.
moving new corpora to the language bank	the user	the language bank users	the administrator provides a directory in /mnt/corpus/, giving its rights to the user. The user can provide the data and set the permissions for the files so that the files are readable by the other users in the machine or in a unix group. RECOMMENDED	No user quota. The administrator does not change permissions or ownership as long as updates are possible. Accessible only by the same machine.
moving new corpora to the language bank	the user	the language bank users	the administrator provides a directory in /mnt/kielipankki, giving its rights to the user. The user can provide the data and set the permissions for the files so that the files are readable by the other users in the machine or in a unix group.	The administrator of the language bank cannot change the permissions of the files, without help of the file system super user. The filesystem is available only in certain machines at CSC.

What other situations are to be addressed? .... please add you comments here.

-- AnssiYliJyra - 21 Aug 2006