National Center for Atmospheric Research storage accounting and analysis possibilities

While most high-performance computing system operators diligently track computing usage and utilization on a job-by-job basis, far fewer sites have implemented mechanisms for tracking and accounting for usage of their storage systems. As we enter an era of larger and larger data holdings, the need to monitor, track, and analyze users' consumption of storage resources becomes more critical for planning, operating, and managing petascale storage environments. The National Center for Atmospheric Research has long had a formal accounting mechanism in place for its archival storage system and has recently extended a similar mechanism to its recently acquired 11-PB disk resource. The collected data help National Center for Atmospheric Research's users manage their data holdings, provide administrators with reporting and analysis capabilities to guide the use and management of these vital resources, and offer necessary information to support data management policies.