Large Scale Storage (LSS) is a cost-effective and scalable storage solution available to all University of Iowa faculty, researchers, and departments.  

LSS is useful for:

• backups
• archives
• storing large files (e.g. videos and images)
• HPC workloads that demand high bandwidth and storage

LSS is approved for the following data classification levels:

• Public
• Internal
• Restricted *
• HIPAA * (SMB/CIFS only)
• Export-Controlled (Please contact research-computing@uiowa.edu before putting Export-Controlled data on LSS)

* If you intend to store protected health information (PHI) from University of Iowa Health Care on LSS, you are responsible for obtaining approval from the UI Health Care Data Governance group.  Please submit a request by navigating to the UI Health Care Data Governance Request Form.

Storage space can be rented on a monthly basis (“shared storage”, the most common LSS usage) or for a fee ITS - Research Services can maintain & support storage nodes purchased by you (“dedicated storage”).

If you are interested in dedicated storage, please contact research-computing@uiowa.edu before purchasing storage nodes as some conditions and considerations apply.

Benefits of LSS

• 1TB-100TB+ shared space
• Optimized for HPC workloads that demand high bandwidth and storage
• Daily backups and snapshots help recover a deleted file (or a different version of a file) as far back as 30 days, unless other increments are needed
• Replication copies files to a remote site for disaster recovery (optional)
• Access from off-campus is available through VPN (UI Anywhere) or Virtual Desktop

LSS does not support complex nested permissions inside a single file share.

No cost storage for faculty

For faculty, a single 5TB share with backups is available upon request at no cost on either LSS or the Research Data Storage Service. Additional space may be purchased at the standard rate.

Request an LSS share Compare research storage options