E-Infrastructure Resources

Data processing

Here is the collection of information pertaining to the e-infrastructure resources available for software access and data processing. Specific highlights are the virtual desktop (VDI) system and storage drives for use with fourMs related data at RITMO.

Data Classification

How to store data in accordance with the law

Data color classification for UiO

Privacy and information safety is important at RITMO. To make it easier to comply with the law, UiO divides information into four color classes and allocates storage according to the protection needs of the information. Most of the data at RITMO is considered yellow. Each color class has different rules for where the data can be stored and processed.

Remember to follow UiO Data Storage Guide.

Storage Locations

Where should I save my documents?

A variety of solutions are available for data storage. Each have different access pathways depending on location (campus vs home), operating system, and security level. Listed below are the ones most likely used at RITMO. 

UiO storage services

  • Home area (M drive)
    • Your home directory is your personal storage area at the UiO. It is used, among other things, for personal files and setup files for various software. Your home directory should not be used for storing documents that should be accessible to others.
  • Common/shared area
    • Shared volumes are created for a group of people that need to share data and documents. These are not areas for research data so are not used frequently at RITMO. 
  • Research Storage Hotel (lagringshotell)
    • How research data can and should be stored depends upon what kind of data it is (color classification). Most data at RITMO will be stored on the lagringshotell. We have multiple drives on the storage hotell. While all new projects are working off the Felles drive, there are other locations still being used for data storage such as the hf-mocap or nevro drives. 
      • Accessing the RITMO-Felles Drive
      • The legacy hf-mocap drive can not be directly mounted to your pc, access instructions can be found here
  • UiO website (Vortex)
    • The UiO website should be used primarily for publishing and not for storage. But nevertheless, the site can be used for your work documents, minutes to your meetings, other administrative documents that need to be easily accessible to many. What is important to keep in mind is that everything on this site can potentially be open to the world and that means that it can be searchable for Google. It is therefore important that you consider what you want to put on UiO’s website. Always check that the correct access levels are set before publishing. If you are unsure about using the website or what type of security level your documentation is, contact your manager, professor or departments web editor before posting.
  • TSD (services for sensitive data)
    • Most projects in the fourMs lab will not need to use TSD. However, it exists as a secure solution for sensitive data if needed.
  • Educloud 
    • Educloud Research is a project-oriented self-service Platform as a Service. It is released but still in active construction. It allows outside UiO users access to projects too. 
  • IMV Media drive
    • Brief directions on accessing this drive as it is used for media rather than research

Cloud services

Cloud storage in this case is storage areas you can log in to with UiO user name and password, where the storage takes place on servers that are not owned by UiO. UiO offers users its three types of cloud storage (Office 365 with OneDrive, UiO-Dropbox, and G Suite) to make access and collaboration easier. According to the system for data security, only green and yellow data may be stored here. Do not save information with protection needs in cloud solutions, and do not use other cloud services the 3 mentioned above, for UiO-related information. At RITMO, we mainly use G Suite for collaborating. 

What should I use the hard drive on my PC for?

UiO PC standard setup for the hard drive (/C:-disk /D:-disk) is meant for software and other system files. Do not store documents on the hard drive of your UiO PC, local hard drives are not backed up. If the hard drive breaks or the PC is stolen, your documents will be lost. 

What about personal documents?

Personal documents and files are best stored at home, cf. section 3.3 of the IT regulations. 

More Questions

What about sending files?

Refer to the UiO Data Storage Guide about recommendations for file transfer. FileSender is a web based application that allows authenticated users to securely and easily send large files to other users. The purpose of this software is to enable researchers and research groups to share data. With this service researchers can send a large file to someone, have that file available for download for a certain number of downloads and/or a certain amount of time, and after that automatically delete the file. The software is not intended as a permanent file publishing platform.

Restoring lost files

Information on restoring files from backup can be found at: Help! I have lost my document

Access Options

Virtual Desktop

A VDI gives you access to a UIO computer with the software and processing power you need. It is a secure method for high speed processing of data. 

Remote Desktop

This is a tool that will allow you to remotely log onto specific computers. It can include your UiO computer or also other computers on the campus network. 

Program Kiosk

Application kiosk gives you access to your home area and a large amount of programs without having to install the programs on the machine you are using. While the connection is most stable when using VMWare horizon client, there is also a webversion of programkiosk.  

Fox

Fox is a powerful HPC-cluster available to all users of the Educloud Research infrastructure. General Information can be found here with documentation here. General instructions for using Fox with Jupyter and the RITMO Felles drive are here

/ritmo/english/research/labs/fourms/handbook/einfrastructure/fox-jupyter-felles.html

ChatGPT

UiO now has a local instance of GPT available for yellow and green data:

/english/services/it/gpt-uio/index.html