Network attached storage (NAS)
The term "Network Attached Storage" (NAS) referrers to a File Server which is offered across a network. Depending on the users operating system access to the data can be gained through various protocols. For Windows computers network drives fir grizos and user data are availiable. Linux and Mac OS X computers can access the same data using CIFS and NFS share and for the most part do not require special software clients. UNIX computers can access the data via NFS share.
To respond to different demands from research, teaching and administration ETH IT Services offers a number of storage tiers. The figure above shows the tier model of NAS. The costs associated with the individual memory tiers are explained in the description of each tier below.
TIER 1 - NAS with Fibre Channel Disks
The NAS with fibre Channel disks (NAS Tier 1) is primarily aimed at ETH groups of institutions that wish to reduce their IT costs by outsourcing their file server. The IT Services group specialises in file systems and handling large quantities of data. The SLA ensures that the service available 99.5% of the time. The NSA service is monitored 24/7.
Cost
The Tier 1 centrally managed 1TB NAS storage service costs CHF 125 per year (as of 1 July 2019).
Optional data replication is available at sites RZ and HIT. Replication means the duplication of data and costs 2 X CHF 125 per year and TB, plus a base amount of CHF 4,000 per customer group with a frequency depending on the number size of shares being replication (see information sheet Tier 1).
TIER 3 - HSM storage (Hierarchical Storage Management) with Tape Backend
The NAS memory is migrated to tapes in two independent tape libraries. The process is performed in a fully transparent manner but is slow. For this reason the division of NAS and HSM should be carefully planned by the user.
Cost
The TB centrally managed HSM storage (NAS tier 3 with tape store backup) costs CHF 75 per year (as of 1 July 2019). The storage requirement is calculated and the end of the year, while reports are send quarterly.