NERSC 1998 User Survey Results

Question 34: Comments about file systems, suggested improvements, future needs

These are the complete responses to this question, with a few minor edits.

Suggestions / feedback:

I miss the masget/masput for HPSS
I have not yet tried HPSS. If CFS is turned off in favor of HPSS, be sure to keep the old cfs data.
We haven't been using HPSS, simply because we haven't bothered with getting passwords. Have a set-up similar to CFS for the password (so it's more automatic) would be useful.
CFS is pretty slow at storing even medium size (60 MByte) files on the T3E. Maybe HPSS would be better.
Faster restoration of migrated files would make the system less of a nuisance.
I now use AFS while on the C90 and would like to have access to it when on the J90s. It would be nice to have sufficient space to store large numbers of large binary files that are used to run out main code.
My workstation is frequently slowed down by network traffic. I don't know if this is a problem with AFS, my local ethernet, or my machine's configuration.
how does one sign up to use AFS?
If NERSC migrates to DFS, the archival system should be made part of it.

Don't use (much) / don't know about this / no opinion:

I store nothing at nersc except what I immediately need. Everything is stored on my desktop machine, and transferred to nersc as needed. Output/data files are also transferred from nersc to my desktop machine. All I really need is a big fast number cruncher.
i don't have much data at nersc, and it all fits in my home directory, so I'm not too familiar with your mass-storage facilities.
My disk needs are so trivial, I'm relatively unconcerned.
I have not had much use of this.
No strong opinions.
I have little faith in them.
I don't know what you are talking about..
I haven't use this system