Home Directories
Every user in GCE has a home directory. Your home directory is only for you. There are no shared files or directories. It’s a place to store private config files and personal documents. The default quota is 50GB. CELS users may request additional quota.
Project Directories
Project directories are designed to be shared. It’s a place to store data for you and others in your project. This is where you can work on code you check out, analyze data and results, etc. By default, project directories are set up such that all members of the project can read and write files and directories to the space. This is done with the use of standard unix permissions of 2770. Additionally to improve the collaborative use of project directories, NFSv4 ACLs have also been applied that automatically allow members of the projects to edit newly created files and directories with in the project space even when created by another user. The default quota is 100GB. CELS users may request additional space.
Requests for additional space on either of the above are decided on a case-by-case basis, and depending on the amount needed, you or your project may be asked for a project code.
Additionally there is a GCE project space in which anyone in the GCE project can use to quickly share a few files when a dedicated project space may be unnecessary. We ask that the users be mindful that this is a shared space of limited size.
Projects can be found under /nfs/gce/projects/<projectname>
(Note: Some early projects did not have the NFSv4 ACLs applied at the time of creation. You can contact CELS SYSTEMS IT if you wish to work with us on enabling this after the fact.)
Why are the quotas different?
Home directories are engineered for high performance to make sure the interactive experience is is as seamless as possible. We’re preferring SSDs over spinning disk for this pool, to ensure the best interactive experience possible. Putting all data on SSDs gets very expensive, and we’ve found people want as much room as possible. So we ask that data that’s just for your use and not intended to be shared with others is all that we use the home directories for, where any project or experimental data, regardless of if it’s shared with others, is stored on the projects filesystem. You can replicate the legacy experience by using symbolic links to reach your project data from your homedir.
The quotas for each are set with the mindset that all Argonne users can have access to this system, but anything beyond the initial quota will require a CELS appointment or collaboration.