Purdue University

As with the community clusters, research labs will be able to easily purchase capacity in the PDFSthrough the PDFS Purchase page on this site. For more information, please contact us.

Link to section 'Protected Data Filesystem Features' of 'Protected Data Filesystem Overview' Protected Data Filesystem Features

The Protected Data Filesystem (PDFS) offers research groups in need of centralized data storage unique features and benefits:

• Available

  To any Purdue research group working with sensitive or restricted data as a purchase in increments of 1 TB at a competitive annual price or you may request a 100 GB trial space free of charge. Participation in the Community Cluster program is not required.

• Accessible
  • Directly on Community Cluster nodes.
  • From other universities or labs through Globus High Assurance.
• Capable

  The PDFS facilitates joint work on protected datasets across your research group, providing a central place for datasets requiring higher levels of security to meet sponsor requirements. 

   

• Controllable Access

  Access management is under your direct control. Unix groups can be created for your group and staff can assist you in setting appropriate permissions to allow exactly the access you want and prevent any you do not. Easily manage who has access through a simple web application — the same application used to manage access to Community Cluster queues.

• Data Retention

  All data kept in the PDFS remains owned by the research group's lead faculty. When researchers or students leave your group, any files left in their home directories may become difficult to recover. Files kept in PDFS remain with the research group, unaffected by turnover, and could head off potentially difficult disputes.

• Never Purged

  The PDFS is never subject to purging.

• Reliable

  The PDFS is redundant and protected against hardware failures.

• Restricted Data

  The PDFS is suitable for sensitive and restricted datasets. Example datasets that have been reviewed and approved include NIH Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP), licensed datasets such as the UK Biobank, and deidentified human genomic data. The PDFS is not approved for export controlled data subject to ITAR, or CUI.

Link to section 'Protected Data Filesystem Hardware Details' of 'Protected Data Filesystem Overview' Protected Data Filesystem Hardware Details

The PDFS uses an enterprise-class Lustre storage solution with an initial total capacity of over 2 PB. This storage is redundant and reliable, and is available today on the Negishi cluster. The PDFS is non-purged space suitable for tasks such as hosting datasets, processing protected data, editing files, developing and building software, and many other uses. The PDFS is built on Data Direct Networks' 400NVX2 storage platform.