CISE Help & Resources
Research Disk Space
One of the main sources of disk space for research professors and their students is research space. Research space is any disk that is purchased by a professor for use in a research project.
Please note that all materials in research space are owned by the professor in charge of the space. Any files under the primary research directory may be chown'ed to the professor at any time at the request of the professor. Do not store private materials in research space.
- How do I get research space?
- How do I name research space?
- How should I access research space?
- What does the path /cise/research12/foo mean?
- What does the path /amd/birch/export/research12/foo mean?
How do I get research space?
The first thing to do is purchase disk space. To do this, send email to for details. When you request disk space, you should also include the name of one or more research projects which will be stored on that disk space. Choosing the name(s) is covered in the next section.
How do I name research space?
Once the disk space is purchased, it will be allocated to the research project. Every research project must have a unique name (and multiple projects can share an allocation of disk space).
The name of a research project must consist of alphanumeric, dash (-), and underscore (_) characters; it must start with a letter; and it should be between 6 and 15 characters in length (the length is flexible, but these are good recommendations).
To determine whether a project name is available, run the following command in a shell on any UNIX computer:
ypmatch research/PROJECT amd_cise_research
where PROJECT should be replaced with the name you want to use. You will get one of the following style of messages:
% ypmatch research/foo amd_cise_research
type:=link;sublink:=${/key};fs:=/cise/research03
or
% ypmatch research/xxx amd_cise_research Can't match key research/xxx in map amd_cise_research. Reason: no such key in map.
If you get the first type of message, that project name is already in use, and you need to come up with an alternate name. If you get the second message, the name is available.
Once the research space is purchased, and valid name(s) chosen, the system staff will set up the space. You will be notified by email once the space is available.
How should I access research space?
There are several ways to access the research space.
On UNIX: The correct path to research space is:
/cise/research/PROJECT
where PROJECT is the name of the project.
On Windows: The correct path is:
Z:\research\PROJECT
Web pages: If a public_html directory is placed in the top directory of the research space, it can be accessed via the URL:
http://www.cise.ufl.edu/research/PROJECT/
What does the path /cise/research12/foo mean?
At CISE, all research space is stored in numbered partitions on a fileserver. This method is useful for several administrative purposes, but is intended for internal use by the system staff. Numbered partitions are subject to change at any time without warning as disks or partitions are moved.
The correct path reference above would be: /cise/research/foo. Note that everything up to and including the numbered research directory is replaced by the path /cise/research. The path /cise/research/foo is the only correct way to access this directory, and is guaranteed to not change.
What does the path /amd/netapp1/research12/foo mean?
All research space is physically stored on one of the CISE file servers. This space is automatically made available everywhere via. NFS using a tool called the automounter (amd). When you need to access a research disk which is stored on some other machine, the automounter mounts it locally and creates links to it which allows you access to the disk.
The first step is to mount the disk from the fileserver on the local machine, and this is done using a special directory named /amd. This directory is solely used by the automounter. It is subject to change at any time without warning. You should never refer to any path starting with /amd in a program, a script, a Makefile, or any other location.
The correct path reference above would be: /cise/research/foo. Note that everything up to and including the numbered research directory is replaced by the path /cise/research. The path /cise/research/foo is the only correct way to access this directory, and is guaranteed to not change.