Getting Started DartFS

DartFS is reliable, high-speed network file system. It provides both the 50GB home directories used when logging into Research Computing’s Linux systems and larger “lab volumes” when a home directory isn’t big enough or there is a desire to share the space among collaborators. DartFS home directories and lab volumes can be accessed from any computer on the Dartmouth network.

Attention: If you’re off-campus, connect to the Dartmouth VPN for access to DartFS.

• To get a DartFS home directory, request a Research Computing account at Dartmouth HPC Account.
• To purchase a lab volume (or, if faculty, to claim your RC Bill-of-Rights 1TB lab space,) go to Dartmouth Storage Requests.

Your DartFS account lets you login to our central Linux compute systems (Polaris and Andes) as well as the Discovery HPC cluster. Your account comes with a 50GB DartFS home directory which is shared across all Research Computing Linux systems.

Features  

• DartFS is available to anyone with a Dartmouth NetID
• 50GB Linux home directories at no cost (College-subvented, RC Bill-of-Rights level)
• 1TB lab volume at no cost for faculty members (RC Bill-of-Rights level), expandable at regular pricing.
• Volumes of virtually any size available for purchase
• Automatically mounted on Research Computing systems
• Mountable from any Windows, Mac, or Linux computer
• Flexible permissions model allows for fine grained control over sharing and collaboration
• Daily, weekly, and monthly snapshots (backups) are made automatically
• Users can restore data from snapshots by themselves

Naming  

Home directories are named according to your NetID and are further grouped according to the last letter of your NetID. So if Professor Charles Xavier’s NetID were f1234x5 then his home directory would be in 5/f1234x5. All home directories start with /dartfs-hpc/rc/home/ so his full path (on the Linux systems) would be /dartfs-hpc/rc/home/ 5/f1234x5.

Lab volumes default to the last name and first initial of the PI so unless he requested otherwise (which he could do) Professor Xavier’s lab share would be named XavierC. Lab volumes are grouped according to the first letter of the name so he would be in X/XavierC. There are two possible beginnings to a lab volume path: /dartfs-hpc/rc/lab and /dartfs/rc/lab depending on whether or not it is in the high performance computing (hpc) storage tier.

Accessing DartFS from Personal Computers  

You may also access your home directory from a personal computer. You must be on the Dartmouth network (or running the Dartmouth VPN) to do so.

Acessing DartFS

Pricing  

• Standard Performance tier with snapshots is $95 per TB per year.
• Standard Performance tier with NO snapshots is $75 per TB per year. (No backup copies of any kind)

Note: As of 2023, there is only one performance tier. The previous dartfs-hpc and dartfs tiers now go to the same system.

A storage pricing calculator is available on the storage request page at https://rcweb.dartmouth.edu/storagerequests/

Appropriate Use  

• DartFS is intended for the storage of research data only
• DartFS is only approved for DISC Levels 0-2 (public or private but not sensitive data). NOT approved for DISC Level 3 (ie. sensitive data, PHI, PII, etc.)
• While DartFS is a “HIPAA compliant hardware technology solution”, HIPAA (and all other) compliance is a combination of hardware, software, policies and training (peopleware), and that the technology is a necessary but not sufficient aspect of compliance.