DSA documentation additions for data curators

Overview

This document is an addition to the DSS documentation for data curators that outlines specific differences between the management of a Data Science Storage container and a Data Science Archive container.

Please note that our Data Science Archive is still in an early production phase and capabilities and other things may still change over the next few months. So it's probably a good idea to get back to this document from time to time or at least review our DSS Release Notes from time to time.

Limitations of DSA Containers compared to DSS Containers

Because DSA containers are made for cold data, several functional restrictions will apply permanently. Additionally as the product is still very young, there are also some functional limitations that will be lifted in upcoming versions of DSSWeb, our management solution for DSS and DSA containers.

Permanent Functional Limitations of DSA Containers

The following permanent functional limitations for DSA Containers exist and cannot be configured in DSSWeb if the container exists in a DSA Pool:

  • DSA Containers only support ID Streamlining Modes NORMAL and STRICT
  • When access for a user to a container is revoked or the user is deleted in our Identity Management System, the ownership of the files owned by that user in the container does not change as this property is part of the immutability of the file. However as the user has no access to the container directory anymore and the Container ID Mode is NORMAL or STRICT, all users that still have access to the container can still access the data.
  • DSA Containers cannot be exported via NFS
  • DSA Containers cannot have a data protection policy other than NONE. Because data protection is inherent to every DSA Container as data is copied on two different tapes in two different data centres and accidental deletion or modification of files is prevented by file immutability. Additionally we implemented disaster recovery protections to be able to restore the data even in cases where the whole file system vanishes.

Temporary Functional Limitations of DSA Containers

  • DSA Containers currently do not yet support Container Config Profiles