Description
TACC's High Performance Computing (HPC) systems are used primarily for scientific computing and while their disk systems are large, they are unable to store the long-term final data generated on these systems. The Ranch archive system fills this need for high capacity long-term storage, by providing a massive high performance file system and tape-based backing store designed, implemented, and supported specifically for archival purposes. <br/><br/>Ranch is a Quantum StorNext-based system, with a DDN- provided front-end disk system (30PB raw), and a 5000 slot Quantum Scalar i6000 library for its back-end tape archive. <br/><br>Ranch is an allocated resource, meaning that Ranch is available only to users with an allocation on one of TACC's computational resources such as Frontera, Stampede3, or Lonestar6. ACCESS PIs will be prompted automatically for the companion storage allocation as part of the proposal submission process and should include a justification of the storage needs in their proposal. The default allocation on Ranch for users is 2TB. To request a shared Ranch project space for your team's use, please submit a TACC Helpdesk ticket.
RP Description
Ranch is a long-term tape archive consisting of a 4 PB Dell flash front end and a 16 PB Dell ECS disk tier backed by two 15-frame Spectra Logic TFinity libraries with 20 LTO-9 tape drives, running Versity ScoutAM on the ScoutFS filesystem. It is particularly well suited for finished data that must be kept for years but is rarely read, and is often used for completed simulation output, raw instrument data and results moved off TACC compute systems at the end of a project. It includes no user software - Ranch stores data rather than running it, and pairs with the TACC compute resources whose allocations it accompanies.
Login Text
Sign in by following the [Ranch System Access] guide. Before your first sign-in:
- You need an active ACCESS allocation on Ranch, granted as companion storage alongside an allocation on a TACC compute resource.
- Log in with your TACC username, not your ACCESS ID. Once your allocation on Ranch is approved you will find it under Resource Provider Site Usernames on the [ACCESS Allocations] page.
- Create a TACC account and set its password at the [TACC Accounts Portal] before you connect for the first time.
- Pair a device for [Multi-Factor Authentication at TACC] before you connect. TACC requires MFA on all of its compute and storage resources.
Ranch is an archive, not a compute system: no job scheduler, no queues, no compute nodes and no web portal. The shell on ranch.tacc.utexas.edu is for creating directories and managing files, not for analysis.
There is no separate Ranch password - Ranch uses the same TACC account and MFA device as TACC's other systems - and there is no Open OnDemand instance for Ranch.
External Storage
Ranch is the archive tier for TACC's computational systems. You need an allocation on a TACC compute resource such as Frontera, Stampede3 or Lonestar6 to hold a Ranch allocation, and ACCESS PIs are prompted for the companion storage allocation during proposal submission.
Ranch filesystems cannot be mounted on another system, and Ranch cannot be reached from inside a running job - transfer data from Ranch to your compute resource before the job starts. See [Ranch Accessing Files from Within Running Programs]. In scripts, use TACC's $ARCHIVER for the archive hostname and $ARCHIVE for your personal archive space, so the script survives a hardware change.
File Transfer Text
Ranch has no separate data transfer node - transfers go directly to and from ranch.tacc.utexas.edu. Use scp for most transfers, and Globus for very large datasets.
Bundle small files into a single tar archive before you transfer, and send as few and as large files as you can. TACC supports rsync against Ranch but advises avoiding it wherever possible, so it is not listed as a method below.
See [Ranch Data Transfer Methods].
Storage Text
Ranch has two spaces: a personal archive of 2 TB and 50,000 files for every user, and a shared Project space that a team requests through a TACC support ticket when the standard per-user quota is not enough. Data lands on a flash disk cache and is migrated to tape, so a read may have to wait while the file is fetched back from a cartridge.
File count matters as much as capacity - bundle small files into one tar archive before you transfer them. See [Ranch Organizing Your Data].
Ranch holds one copy of your data. TACC states that Ranch is a single-copy archival system whose user data is neither backed up nor replicated, and that it is never to be used as a replication solution or for system backups. Keep a second copy elsewhere of anything you cannot lose.
Data archived before the 2025 hardware replacement is not moved for you: copy it across yourself before the end of November 2026 - see [Ranch Migration 2026].