At IU, what is the Massive Data Storage Service (MDSS)?

The Massive Data Storage Service (MDSS) provides extensive capacity (4.2 petabytes) for storing and accessing huge amounts of research data. It uses the High Performance Storage System (HPSS), a hierarchical storage management software package. The system is located at both Indiana University Bloomington and IUPUI, providing automatic off-site copies of data for disaster recovery.

The MDSS is part of a rich suite of distributed storage services that IU offers; other services include the Research File System (RFS) and the Slashtmp file-sharing service, for temporarily storing files too large to be shared via an email attachment.

MDSS uses Kerberos, the widely used network protocol for secure authentication. With Kerberos, secure transactions are ensured because plaintext passwords are not sent over the network. The HPSS software also supports protocols like SFTP and HTTPS that enable encrypted data transfer.

For more, see IU's MDSS web page and MDSS FAQ.

To obtain an account, see At IU, how can I apply for an account on the MDSS or RFS?

This document was developed with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 0503697 to the University of Chicago and subcontracted to Indiana University. Additional support was provided by IU through its participation in the TeraGrid, which is supported by the NSF under Grants No. 0833618, SCI451237, SCI535258, and SCI504075. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

Also see:

• Are the data stored on the MDSS backed up?
• At IU, on the RFS or MDSS, how much space is available to me?
• At IU, how do I access the MDSS?