Linux Storage Options and Limits

This is a list of storage options on CLA's Linux systems.

Home Directory

Each Linux user account receives a home directory (aka home folder).  Your home directory is available in the Linux environment and is also accessible by desktop computers via SMB or SFTP.

  • Path:  /home/<Internet ID>
  • Backup: 30 days
  • Limit: 250GB
  • Cost: None

Hint:  use the terminal command du -sh .  (including the period) when on lts or SSHed to a node to check your storage usage

Labs, Research Projects, and Classes

You may request a dedicated folder (aka share) for use by a group (e.g. research lab) or your project.  This space is available in the Linux environment and is also accessible by desktop computers via SMB or SFTP.  This storage is hosted on OIT's Research Data Storage system.

  • Path: /labs or /pkg
  • Backup: 30 days
  • Limit: variable
  • Cost: OIT is implementing an annual cost for usage over 20TB per PI or research group starting July 2026.  Note that allocations are technically in tebibyte or TiB which is the binary measure and results in slightly more space than the decimal-based terabyte (TB).
  • Please contact us at [email protected] to request storage

Local Scratch Space

/scratch.local is highly ephemeral and the files are only available to the node on which the storage is mounted. It should be used when staging content for immediate use by a process running on the node.

  • Path: /scratch.local
  • Backup: None, deleted when job is finished
  • Limit: 1TB but shared between all users on a node
  • Cost: None

Please see our page on how to use Local Scratch Space for more information.

Network Scratch Space

/scratch.network is ephemeral in the sense that it is not backed up and files > 30 days from its creation date are subject to deletion on a FIFO (first in, first out) basis when the storage becomes full. While files exist for a longer time, and are available on any of our integrated compute nodes, as I/O is over the network, it is significantly slower.

  • Path: /scratch.network
  • Backup: None
  • Limit: 1TB
  • Cost: None