The replacement “Blue” storage, part of the HiPerGator 3.0 refresh, is coming! The DDN hardware that will replace the /ufrc Lustre parallel file system on HiPerGator has been installed in the data center and is being configured and tested. The new /blue file system will be 4 PB, up from the 2 PB of /ufrc and will be significantly faster.

The extra speed will come from hardware with a lot of flash drives (in addition to spinning disks) as well as from new software features in Lustre. One feature many have been waiting for is the increased speed to handle small files, something that many researchers today have to do.

The feature is called “data on metadata”: The catalog of the files in the filesystem keeps the first 64 KiB (data) of a file together with the location information (metadata) of which drives the content of the file is stored on. The metadata server has all-flash storage, so it is very fast. Check out more details on the HiPerGator web page at https://www.rc.ufl.edu/services/hipergator/

The new storage will go into production in June 2020. The details on how files will be transferred from /ufrc to /blue will be published in the second half of May.

In preparation, please take the time for some Spring cleaning! Remove old data that is no longer needed, so that it does not have to be moved. Currently, /ufrc holds 1.7 PB, so it is 83% full.

The cost of cores, GPUs, and Orange and Blue storage will not change at this time. We will revisit the rates at the completion of the HiPerGator 3.0 refresh in January 2021. As part of the transition to the new /blue and to more accurately predict utilization, we will discontinue the allocation of 2 TB of free Blue storage with an investment of NCUs. As a transition, starting June 30, the 2 TB will be converted to an investment that will expire at the same time as the first expiring investment of NCUs any investor currently has.