Home directories are backed up every night. The nightly
backups are kept for one month.
Directories in which special arrangements have been made
with the support staff (for example, /project directories)
Once a month, a copy of the tapes is moved off site. This copy is kept for
one month and is meant for disaster recovery (flood, fire). These tapes
cannot be used for normal file recovery as this would require several days
to restore and would therefore force us to suspend our regular nightly
backups during this time.
What systems we do NOT back up
The scratch filesystems (for example, /scratch1, /scratch.i12) are not backed up.
Temporary directories (like /tmp) are not backed up.
Suggestions for backing up your data
Keep two separate copies of anything you back up.
Keep detailed records of what you've backed up, including date, file names, and device used.
Verify your archive after you've written it.
How do I have data restored from systems backups?
Please send a request with the following information via email to
help@msi.umn.edu. Include:
name of file(s) or directories you need to have restored
approximate date that the file(s) existed on our systems
This information is available in alternative formats upon
request by individuals with disabilities. Please send email
to alt-format@msi.umn.edu or
call 612-624-0528.
Website related questions or problems
should be directed to webmaster@msi.umn.edu The Supercomputing Institute does not collect
personal information on visitors to our website. For
the University of Minnesota policy, see www.privacy.umn.edu.