The Massive Data Storage Service (MDSS)
The Massive Data Storage Service (MDSS) provides extensive capacity (4.2 petabytes) for Indiana University faculty, staff, and graduate students to store and access huge amounts of research data. It uses the High Performance Storage System (HPSS), a hierarchical storage management software package. The system is located at both IU Bloomington and IUPUI, providing automatic off-site copies of data for disaster recovery.
At IU, the terms "MDSS" and "HPSS" are often used interchangeably to describe the same service.
The MDSS is part of a rich suite of distributed storage services that IU offers; other services include the Research File System (RFS) and the Slashtmp file-sharing service, for temporarily storing files too large to be shared via an email attachment.
MDSS uses Kerberos, the widely used network protocol for secure authentication. With Kerberos, secure transactions are ensured because plaintext passwords are not sent over the network. The HPSS software also supports protocols like SFTP and HTTPS that enable encrypted data transfer. For more, see At IU, how do I access the MDSS?
For further information, visit the MDSS web page and the MDSS FAQ.
