Tier 2 Research Storage#

Tier 2 is a reliable, scalable storage environment for inactive research data that no longer needs to reside on high-performance Tier 1 systems. It is connected to Tier 1 (HPC and RStore) via high speed (100Gbps) network links, making data migration straightforward and fast.

Important

Charges of $35/TB/year apply to storage usage exceeding the 10 TB base allocation, effective July 1, 2026. See RT Announcements for full details.

Storage Details#

Detail

Value

Path

/cluster/tier2/projectname

Technology

Magnetic Disk

Starting quota

100 GB minimum

Base allocation

10 TB at no cost (if eligible faculty member)

Cost beyond base

$35/TB/year (effective July 1, 2026)

Prerequisites#

  • Active Tufts account and research storage allocation

  • A Globus account linked to your Tufts credentials

Requesting Storage#

Submit a Research Storage Request to request a new Tier 2 allocation or increase an existing one. Use the Data Storage Finder to confirm Tier 2 is appropriate for your data.

Access Method — Globus#

Tier 2 storage can also be accessed through Globus. Tufts Research Technology provides a site collection for Tier 2.

  1. Log in to Globus with your Tufts credentials

  2. In the File Manager, click the Collection field and search for “Tufts”

  3. Select the Tufts Tier 2 Storage collection

  4. Authenticate with your Tufts credentials when prompted

  5. Your /cluster/tier2/projectname directory will be available to browse and transfer

See the full Globus guide for setup, transferring files between endpoints, and monitoring transfers.

Moving Data Between Tiers#

A common workflow is to migrate completed or infrequently accessed data from Tier 1 HPC or RStore to Tier 2:

To Transfer using Globus#

  1. Set up both a Tufts Tier 1 endpoint and a Tufts Tier 2 endpoint in Globus File Manager

  2. Navigate to the source folder on the Tier 1 collection

  3. Navigate to the destination folder on the Tier 2 collection

  4. Select files and click Transfer or Sync to

To Transfer via Tufts HPC Cluster login node#

Tier 2 is mounted on the HPC login nodes, so you can move data directly from the command line without Globus.

  1. SSH into the login node:

ssh your_utln@login-prod.pax.tufts.edu

  1. Move data from Tier 1 to Tier 2:

mv /cluster/tufts/projectname /cluster/tier2/projectname

To move a specific subdirectory or file:

mv /cluster/tufts/projectname/subdir /cluster/tier2/projectname/subdir

Note

mv is preferred over cp when migrating data to Tier 2 to avoid duplicate storage charges. If you need to keep a copy on Tier 1, use cp -r instead.