This page lists all proposed OSC policies for public comments. Your comments help inform our policies and are encouraged. We will provide the response to comments on this webpage after the public comment period closes. Please submit your comments via our online form by the deadline.
Currently Open for Public Comment:
To help alleviate recent storage stress on our scratch filesystem, we will be changing the purge period for scratch files from 90 days to 60 days. This means that any files not accessed within 60 days will be automatically deleted.
We invite you to share your comments or concerns during the public comment period, which will remain open until August 3. Please submit your feedback via the following webform:
Responses to Public Comments:
We have collapsed comments into related themes, and provided answers below. If you commented and requested an individual response, those have been sent as well.
Q: Can you provide individualized notifications in advance of files being deleted?
A: Unfortunately, while we have received this comment nearly every time we have adjusted the Scratch policy, and it remains popular, we have not figured out a way to effectively communicate the sometimes millions of impacted files. We strive to conduct the file deletions regularly midweek, but it is worth reminding you that the timer isn't 60 days from creation, it is 60 days from the last time the file was accessed. If you intend to retain the data long term, it probably should not be left on a filesystem that is not backed up for 60 days without being used.
Q: Have you considered reducing the quota per user rather than shortening the time?
A: We have considered reducing the quota per user, but to solve our problem it would likely required a pretty substantial reduction in quota. We have a number of large, active datasets on Scratch and those are better served on Scratch than Project (for us and the clients!)
Q: Can you provide a tool (or make us aware of an existing tool) which tracks which files are approaching the retention deadline?
A: We don't currently have a tool that would do this at a scale that the filesystem could handle queries from potentially hundred of users, unfortunately.
