Update on JASMIN disk and tape storage issues

Posted on April 30, 2021  (Last modified on October 19, 2023) • 2 min read • 395 words

Contents:

1. Update on disk storage issues
2. New disk storage capacity
3. Update on Elastic Tape service
4. Update on network connectivity

1) Update on disk storage issues

As reported last week, there are some issues currently affecting certain file systems: 

• some Group Workspaces (those with /gws/nopw/j04 paths)

• some CEDA Archive datasets (multiple datasets, unfortunately there is no easy way for us to inform you which datasets are affected)

• Issue 1:

• This appears as intermittent I/O Errors when trying to access a file or directory. This issue is still under investigation and is likely to be addressed by a software update. For now, the recommended workaround for users is to move to a different machine if possible.

• Issue 2:

• This appeared as file systems appearing to hang/freeze and becoming unavailable. We believe this issue has now been resolved, but please report any further instances to support@jasmin.ac.uk.

2) New disk storage capacity

Some of the new disk storage purchased at the end of last year is now delivered and being installed. It is hoped that the first of this new capacity will be made available to consortium managers towards the end of May, which will hopefully ease the current pressure on storage capacity across the system. A further update about other benefits brought by the Phase 7 upgrade will follow in due course.

3) Update on Elastic Tape Service

Since earlier this year, the Elastic Tape service has been out of action to users. The issue centered around the system’s view of a disk cache used for retrievals, which was causing operations to fail unexpectedly. The teams involved have been working very hard to understand and resolve this, and have now made good progress. Testing has been underway since last week and it is hoped that further trials with some invited users will lead to a return to operations very shortly. Please look out for further announcements and accept our sincere apologies for the unavailability of this service for what we appreciate has been a significant time.

4) Update on network connectivity

Work completed last week on the RAL site firewall caused some additional disruption beyond the scheduled date but should now be resolved.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by these issues. 

 

Please note that JASMIN support will be unavailable for the UK bank holiday long weekend - normal support will resume on Tuesday 4th May.

JASMIN Team