Others are quietly demonstrating their approval by using it regularly. Details of the current configuration of the fileserver, tape systems and network connections can be found elsewhere in this report. Retrieval is instantaneous if the file is located on the magnetic disk cache or takes less than three minutes if the file has already been staged to tape. There are tools to enable bulk stagein of files from tape and bulk stageout of files to tape, to determine where a file physically resides, and to efficiently copy with the minimum tape mounts. The local configuration has been tailored to provide archive tape redundancy to avoid lost files caused by a damaged tape, robustness in the face of disk failure, optimization according to file characteristics, and transparent operation with respect to naive users.
Access is restricted to supercomputer users and others on a case by case basis.
The MDSS is not a replacement for group or departmental disks. The majority of MDSS users are also supercomputer users. As such, these projects have provided Project Summaries under the auspices of the relevant supercomputer in the Appendix to this report. The number of users also increased by 25 per cent to 113 users. In 1997, a programming consultant was devoted to assisting researchers to plan and implement their data intensive projects so as to use the MDSS more effectively with efficient data modelling, storage and retrieval methods.