Managing data at eX3

The eX3 infrastructure is first and foremost an experimental test bed, which consists of the newest computing devices and interconnect solutions, with the purpose of being used by exascale-oriented research activities. During these extensive “trial and error” cycles, measurements will be made with respect to both computational performance and energy consumption. Such measurement data will usually be the property of the projects conducting the actual research, and be governed, managed and reported according to the individual project’s plan. However, such measurements could be a valuable source of knowledge in a wider perspective. Therefore, the eX3 project invites all users to make their data publicly available through the eX3 web site.

In some cases, the research conducted at eX3 will be based on real-world user applications, which rely on realistic input data and generate new data. It is likely that some (or all) of the data items should not be made public, due to ethical or confidentiality considerations. Therefore, apart from ensuring the security of non-public data files stored in the global file system through normal Unix-based file protection, the technical support staff of eX3 will occasionally remind users about deleting non-sharable data files from compute nodes’ local hard drives and/or NVMs. Automatic clean-ups of such temporary storage will also be enforced periodically.

It is the individual user’s responsibility that any data they enter or generate on eX3 resources adhere to whatever regulations that might apply, and that appropriate security measures are taken. The eX3 resources are not meant for storage of sensitive data, nor for long-term storage of any data after completion of the experiments requiring the data.