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Fill out this form to request extended disk space (ONID login required): Request extended disk space

Policy | Fees | FAQ's

Policy

I. This policy addresses two types of network disk space usage:

• User home directories (N: drive) which are privately accessible by the user
• User-requested shared directories which are accessed by multiple collaborators

II. Note that extended disk space has two costs associated with it (Data backup and Server disk space). Those over quota and not on private servers will be charged A and B (below). Current quotas are:

• User home directory quota - 40 GB (single user access)
• Group/Project shared directories - 60 GB (multiple user access)

III. All shared directories will be associated with a party responsible for authorizing user access to these shared spaces. This authorizing authority will be the P.I. in many cases. The party responsible for paying any bills for extended disk usage may be someone other than this authorizing authority. It is recognized that an individual may be the authorizing authority for a number of different projects each with its own group space. Each authorizing authority, however, has one 60 GB group/project space quota which may be spread over a number of individual directories or projects. That is, the total across all associated projects has an aggregate 630 GB quota for each authorizing authority (rather than the party responsible for billing).

IV. Fees are presented as annual fees but billing will occur on the usual quarterly basis.

V. Disk space usage will be monitored and billed in the following manner:

• Scans will be made at some point midway through each quarter.
• Users at = 80% of quota will be notified where they stand after each scan.
• Users and groups not already paying for beyond-quota disk usage will have a grace period of one quarter before being billed for extended disk usage. That is, if they are beyond quota for two consecutive scans/quarters, the first bill received will be at the end of the second quarter.

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Fees

A. Disk Space and Admin

• Standard server space with options for backup: $1.00/GB/year
• High volume (>100 GB) network space with NO backup: $..09/GB/year
        +  Option to add for the above - nightly mirror to another server, additional: $..09/GB/year

B. Data Backup and Admin

• The fee is based on cost of backup media, admin and infrastructure support.
   
  1. Current - Monthly baseline, nightly incrementals, 6-month retention
     -- $1.11/GB/year
  2. 3-month retention - Monthly baseline, nightly incrementals, 3-month retention 
     -- $.93/GB/year
  3. Quarterly - Backed up once per quarter with 1 year retention
     --$.70/GB/year

C. Private Server Admin - $900/year (+$100 if on backup)

• Those who purchase private servers will be charged B and C (backup and private server admin) but will be providing their own extended disk space, A.
• FCR system administration ($900/yr) is required on all private servers on the Forestry network in order to minimize system incompatibilities and security problems. Private servers are also required to be on manufacturer's maintenance.
• If the private server will be backed up, an additional $100 fee covers the backup client license and annual backup software and hardware maintenance required to backup an additional machine.
• The server must have a current hardware maintenance contract to remain under the administration of FCR. Typically, the first 3 years of hardware maintenance are covered in the initial purchase of the hardware. Annual hardware maintenance fees beyond the initial contract are the responsibility of the project.

Examples:

I. 50 GB user – charged for 35 GB space over quota, current backup option

• $1.50 * 35 = $52.50 annually for disk space
• $1.11 * 35  = $38.85 annually for backup option #1$91.35 total annual fee (approx. $8 per month)

II. 250 GB PI group space – charged for 230 GB space over quota, – if the group chooses 3-month retention

• $1.50 * 230 = $345 annually for disk space
• $.93 * 230  = $213.90 annually for quarterly backup option $558.90 total annual fee (approx. $47 per month)

III. 400 GB group with private server – charged for 380 GB over quota, quarterly backup option

• $1000 for server admin and backup
• $.70 * 380 = $266 annually for quarterly backup option $1266 total annual fee (approx. $105 per month)

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FAQ

Q: Why is there an extended service fee for use of large volumes of network disk space?

A: Demand for disk space, and backup media, has a direct impact on costs. We can only hold the line on Basic Service fees if we limit the network user space that is provided and backed up as a basic service.

Q: How are server disk space costs calculated?

A: Annual lease on a 1000 GB server is $1000. ($1.00/GB/yr) This cost will be examined on an annual basis. It is expected that the same money will buy more disk space in the future. The impact would be that costs would drop and the quota would be increased.

Q: Why isn't all the disk space $.50/GB/yr?

A: In order to drive the cost down, the $.25 space is on a server that uses disks with slower random access speeds that still provides good throughput for large data files. Even making this compromise, $.25/GB/yr still looks on the surface to be considerably more expensive than cheap external drives, but -- the server space is sharable, in larger blocks, and on significantly more reliable hardware.

Q: Why is disk mirroring the only option on $.25 space?

A: Because regular tape backup is impractical on large volumes and would cost at least $3/Gb/year, we do not plan to offer it for this high volume network storage.  Instead we offer (and recommend) a disk mirroring option which will nightly synchronize files with a mirror copy on a different server.   

Q: What do I get with disk mirroring?

A: Disk mirroring means that every night your files will be synchronized with a mirror copy on a different server.  In the next year we plan to move our primary mirror servers to Kerr Admin so a physical catastrophe in Richardson Hall will not destroy both copies of the data.

  Mirroring will provide quick recovery from most disasters and combined with Undelete services (through the Helpdesk) should allow recovery of recently deleted files (and versioning on some Microsoft Office files).   However, the combination provides only very limited protection against user introduced file corruptions or the recovery of files outside of the window of availability with Undelete services.  Files needing that type of protection should be kept in regular disk spaces getting normal backup.   

Q: Why are the quotas set at 20 GB and 30 GB respectively?

A: Each user's $125/month "Fully Supported User" fee supports the basic infrastructure and services required to currently provide 20 GB of network disk space per user. Because 90% of our users do not occupy their full 15 GB, there is enough remaining capacity to permit allocation of 30GB to each of the 150+ current group work spaces.

Q: Why private servers?

A: Restrictions on grant funding may dictate private server purchases for some groups. However, this private disk space comes with additional costs -- standard $900 annual machine fee (network access and server patches, maintenance, and administration) plus $100 to cover costs of backing up an additional machine (client license, annual backup software and hardware maintenance).

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