Group Storage Allocation FAQ

This page provides common questions and answers about the use of /work and /bulk storage on ARC.

General Information

Work and Bulk storage mostly work like any other directories that you have access to on ARC (e.g. your home directory). You can use the standard linux file system commands within them ls, cd, cp, mv, rm. You can also refer to them directly by their full path from any node in the cluster. As long as you set all of the permissions correctly, this means that you can treat these spaces the same as you do your home directory. Most of the complexity of using Work and Bulk storage on ARC comes from the handling of Linux permissions, which are mostly inconsequential in your home directory.

Frequently Asked Questions

I can't access my advisor's (or other colleague's) work or bulk directory. Why not?

To access any work or bulk directory on ARC you must belong to the unix group associated with it. This can be requested for you by the owner (or their delegate) simply by emailing support@hpc.ucalgary.ca and requesting that you be added to the unix group (including the group name). This can be done at the same time that you ARC account is requested. Once you have been added to the unix group for the group allocation, you may still not be able to access all subdirectories in it, as some groups allow members to keep some data private from other members of the group. The permissions mechanism for this is explained in #How do Linux permissions work for sharing data in a work or bulk directory?