ARCHIVED: About the retirement of the Research File System at IU

This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable.

UITS will decommission the Research File System (RFS) the week of January 2, 2017. Given the age of the system's hardware, a recent decline in development of the OpenAFS file system, and other limitations, the UITS Research Storage team has determined the RFS will be unable in the future to reliably provide the high levels of storage capacity, security, and performance that Indiana University researchers require.

Retirement of the RFS is following this timeline:

  • Week of May 9, 2016: The option to create new RFS accounts was removed from the IU Access Management System.
  • Week of August 1, 2016: RFS accounts not updated since January 1, 2015, or earlier became read-only.
  • Week of August 8, 2016: RFS accounts not updated since January 1, 2016, or earlier became read-only.
  • Week of August 15, 2016: Remaining active accounts were evaluated.
  • Monday, October 17, 2016: Personal RFS accounts not updated since August 15, 2016, and projects not updated this year became read-only.
  • Monday, November 14, 2016: Remaining active accounts (with few exceptions) became read-only.
  • Week of January 2, 2017: RFS will be officially decommissioned and no longer accessible to users

Research Storage staff have notified RFS users regarding best practices and recommendations for migrating their data. Research Storage also recommends consulting your local IT Pro to determine the best strategy for migrating your data. You must plan to migrate your data well in advance of the target dates indicated in the RFS retirement timeline.

For many users, particularly those who frequently share files or use desktop productivity applications (e.g., Microsoft Office), the IU Box service is a suitable replacement for RFS. For users working with sensitive data, Box at IU provides two special types of accounts:

  • Box Health Data Accounts: To use Box at IU for storing and sharing research data containing protected health information (PHI), you must use a Box Health Data Account (BHDA). BHDAs are set up, monitored, and audited by Clinical Affairs IT Service (CAITS).
  • Box Entrusted Data Accounts: To use Box at IU for storing and sharing non-health-related institutional data classified as Restricted, UITS recommends using a Box Entrusted Data Account (BEDA).
  • Important:
    Except for approved PHI, institutional data classified as Critical may not be stored in Box.

For more, see:

If you have questions about migrating RFS data, email the Research Storage group. If you have questions about the IU Box service, contact your campus Support Center.

This is document bctu in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2018-01-18 17:12:18.