The Utility Storage Service provides a low-cost, large-capacity storage solution strictly for research use, and is ideal for archival purposes as well as for low to medium I/O performance storage needs. The storage volumes are provisioned over the campus network, and therefore, there is no need for any physical connection to client systems, other than the normal Ethernet connection.

The Utility Storage Service can be subscribed via nTouch. Once we receive your request, we will send you the subscription agreement and the quotation for the subscription of this service.

As the storage service is for archival of large research data files, the minimum size per subscription is 1TB. Please contact the Utility Storage Service administrators (see contact information below) for more details on this.

The network-based storage volumes provisioned in this service support 2 network storage protocols:

1. CIFS/SMB
2. NFS

Requirements for CIFS/SMB volumes

The CIFS/SMB protocol is used mainly in Windows computers and servers and is now supported in many Linux and MacOS flavours.  To subscribe to a CIFS/SMB volume, subscribers will need to provide the Distribution Lists to be given the following permissions:

1. Admin Group: Full administrator access as defined by NTFS ACL.
2. User Group: Read/Write access only

Subscribers will need to request the creation of Distribution Lists in nTouch (click here for the direct link in nTouch).

Access to the volume is done via the user accounts in the Distribution Lists.  Note that static IP address is not required for the CIFS/SMB volumes.

Requirements for NFS volumes

The NFS protocol is used mainly in Linux, Unix and MacOS computers and servers with static IP addresses.  Access is restricted to the machine with the given static IP address for security purposes.  As such, subscribers must provide the static IP address(es) of the NFS client(s) to use the NFS volumes.  Click here to access the nTouch forms for Static IP Address.

If subscribers do not have a server, they can subscribe to a virtual machine from NUS IT. For more information on this service, please refer to information on the nCloud services here: Cost to subscribe to nCloud.

Hybrid-mode volumes

Subscribers can also opt for hybrid-mode volumes, i.e. storage volumes that can be accessed using both CIFS/SMB and NFS.  To request both protocols, please fill in the information required for both CIFS/SMB and NFS as described above.

For all requests / enquiries, please submit an enquiry in nTouch: (https://ntouch.nus.edu.sg/) with the details of your requests / enquiries.

1. How is the payment done?
   After submitting the online request form, the Utility Storage team will contact you for information on your project’s WBS number. You will need to supply us the name and contact details of your finance office, as well as get the finance officer to endorse your application to make use of your WBS number for this subscription.
2. How do I connect to the network storage volumes?
   We provision the volumes using 2 different protocols, NFS for Linux clients, and CIFS for Windows clients. NFS volume can be mounted with the Linux “mount” command, as administrator. Alternatively, edit the /etc/fstab to include the new NFS volume for automatic mounting during start up.CIFS volumes are accessed similar to Windows Shared Folders. Share folders (and therefore CIFS volumes) in Windows can be accessed using the Windows Explorer, giving the proper Windows UNC path (provided to you after the CIFS volume is created), or use the “NET USE” command at the DOS prompt.
3. Can I connect to more than one client?
   Yes. For NFS, you will need to provide the IP addresses of all the clients. For CIFS, access is given based on your NUS-IDs. You will need to give us the list of userids to be given permission to access the volume.
4. Do you charge GST?
   No, we do not charge GST.
5. Do you provide backup services?
   No, you will need to manage the backup of your data stored in the provisioned volume.
6. How do I ensure higher reliability and availability of my data?
   You can subscribe to a second replication volume, which will be located on a different server in our data centre. You may make use of this volume to backup your data for higher reliability and availability.