HCC will be retiring the $COMMON filesystem from use on July 1st, 2025 after 8 years of service. The functionality of $COMMON is being replaced by NRDStor.  

The $COMMON file-system was introduced in 2017 as a common file-system for the Sandhills, Tusker, and Crane clusters, now all retired. Over the last 8 years, $COMMON was used by thousands of HCC researchers and 1,300 TB of data was stored on it. 

When $COMMON is retired, the storage media will be immediately erased--complying with IT security standards. Any data that has not been transferred or backed up before July 1st, 2025 will be permanently lost. Please note that HCC will not transfer data from $COMMON automatically, and every HCC user with data in $COMMON is responsible for data backup-up and relocation. However, HCC would be more than happy to provide guidance with the process if needed. 

NRDStor, HCC's newest filesystem, provides a good substitute for the $COMMON filesystem. NRDStor is available both from Swan and any computer connected to the NU Campus and is free to use with an initial 50TB quota per group. As with $COMMON before it, NRDStor is maintained with our best effort toward data integrity, but we do not provide backups. Please note, any IMPORTANT data should be backed up to multiple locations and not stored on a single system. HCC does offer a near-line archive service, Attic, which provides reliable data storage for a nominal cost. 

For large data transfers, it is strongly encouraged to use Globus to transfer your data. The Globus transfer servers for Swan, NRDStor, and Attic provide a fast and reliable connection for the data transfer and provide checks on both ends of the data transfer. 

During the transition, it is strongly recommended to review data stored on $COMMON and see what may be able to get archived, or removed. 

Once data has been moved to another location, please remove the data from $COMMON to help us track the data migration process as well as to prevent possible confusion on your part as to what dataset is active and most recent. 

HCC will work to make this transition as minimally disruptive as possible. More information can be found on the Common Retirement FAQ Page: https://hcc.unl.edu/docs/faq/common_retirement/ . Please contact [email protected] with any questions or concerns.