BiRD provides a cluster IT infrastructure associated with storage. This computing resource is enhanced by many bioinformatics tools, more particularly dedicated to NGS data analysis.

This computing cluster is composed of:

  • 14 dual-processor Intel Xeon nodes (832 threads total)
  • 3.8 TB RAM
  • associated with ~400 TB of BeeGFS storage and ~600 TB of secured CEPH storage.

This equipment is located in the datacenter of the University of Nantes.

Request an account

 Data storage policy on BiRD

There are 3 types of storage space:

  • home: a welcome space, which contains all personal configuration files (.ssh, .bashrc...). This very small space (1GB), must not contain data.
  • a scratch partition (/SCRATCH-BIRD) for temporary and non critical data. This partition is less secure but more performant. It must therefore be used as a buffer for data generation during calculations but not to store data on the long term.
  • a data partition for mid-term storage (/LAB-DATA/BiRD). This partition is based on a secure and replicated 3-point file system, which makes it fault tolerant. On the other hand, it is less efficient.
  • Be careful, these spaces are not backed up. A backup solution is under study.

On the 3 partitions (/home, /SCRATCH-BIRD, /LAB-DATA/BiRD), you have a personal space with a free quota:

  • 1 Go pour /home
  • 1 To pour /SCRATCH-BIRD/users
  • 200 Go pour /LAB-DATA/BiRD/users

On the /LAB-DATA/bird partition, you can have a project space "shares" (which can be shared with collaborators). Quotas on shares are sized on request and invoiced on an annual fee basis.

Request a project space

Access

  •     with command line, on the frontal server of the computing cluster (SSH protocol):

ssh -X utilisateur@bird2login.univ-nantes.fr

Jobs must be submitted through the SGE scheduler.
A portal contains the necessary information to access the cluster and know the tools and resources installed:
http://bird2cluster.univ-nantes.fr

For further information, please contact pf-bird@univ-nantes.fr