ICSI Speech FAQ:
2.6 What disk space can I use? How can I get more?

Answer by: wooters - 2002-08-26

For most users, the disk on which your home directory is located is shared by several users. That means that if any one user fills the disk by writing lots of stuff into their home directory, it will disrupt all the other users whose home directories are co-located on the same disk. Thus we have a policy that users should not have large ( > 1 gig) home directories when they are located on a shared disk.

If you are not sure how much space you are using in your home directory, you can find out by running:

du -sk ~

This will report the amount of disk space you are using in your home directory, in kilobytes. This number should be less than 1,000,000.

So, if you can't put data into your home directory, where should you put it? The answer depends on what type of data you want to store. If it is something that you think would be of interest to other users, (e.g. a speech database, annotated data, etc.) then you should talk to Chuck Wooters (email: wooters) about having the data installed into a central location. (This is especially important if you want the data to remain available to other users after you leave ICSI.) If the data is something that only you will be using (e.g. feature files for an experiment you are running, temp files created by some process you are going to run, etc.) then you should use "scratch" space.

Currently, scratch space is located at /n/abbott/xl/. This is a 350 gig raid array. To get access to this space just send a message to Chuck asking for scratch space.

We have about 20 people using this disk so each person should limit the amount of space they use to 20 gigs. Since we are not imposing quotas at this time, it is your responsibility to monitor your disk space usage. Please be mindful of the 20 gig limit so as not to impose on others.

There is an important point to keep in mind about scratch space.

While the scratch disk is a raid system and is fairly reliable, there is no guarantee that it won't crash. Since scratch space is NOT backed up, you should only use scratch space to store files that you can rebuild or recover. You should not store any *critical* files on the scratch disk. If you need large amounts of disk space to store "critical" data (i.e. data that MUST be backed up), then just drop Chuck a note and let him know what you need and he'll make special arrangements.

Finally, any files you have stored on the scratch disk should be removed when you leave ICSI.

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ICSI Speech FAQ: 2.6 What disk space can I use? How can I get more?

ICSI Speech FAQ:
2.6 What disk space can I use? How can I get more?