The Research Data Storage Service (RDSS) is Northwestern University’s dedicated research storage platform. This service allows Northwestern researchers to purchase storage for research purposes. RDSS is housed at the University’s central data centers, providing a secure, reliable, and stable environment designed to meet researchers’ needs.
RDSS has two storage zones based on data regulation guidelines:
- Non-Audited: Appropriate for non-regulated research data.
- Audited: for most legally and contractually restricted data
This storage is accessed by mapping it as network drive. You must be on the University's (eduroam) network or on VPN to access the Research Data Storage Service share drive. Storage must be purchased in 1 TB increments.
Features
RDSS runs on an expandable Dell PowerScale storage cluster with 35 PB of total capacity. RDSS users can:
- Connect to storage housed in Northwestern’s Evanston data center
- Store files of any size
- Revert to earlier versions of files from the past 28 days
- Access storage from computers running Windows, Mac OS or Linux operating systems
- Access storage from anywhere (requires VPN)
- Grant access to the storage to anyone with a Northwestern NetID
- Access files on a backup server in Chicago if Evanston is unavailable
Available to
How to Request Service
To request storage, please complete the "Research Data Storage Service Request Form", which requires a valid ChartString. If sponsored funds are used to purchase data storage, the faculty member is responsible for assuring the purchase is consistent with the purpose and aims of the grant. The faculty member will complete any necessary repudiating of the sponsored project, if required, to ensure appropriate management of the funds.
Your request will be processed within five days of requesting service. Northwestern Information Technology (IT) will then email instructions on how to access the shared network and manage user access permissions.
*Researchers from the Feinberg School of Medicine should not use this form to request storage. Instead, please email their local IT support staff at fsmhelp@northwestern.edu.
Cost
Researchers can purchase storage space in 1 TB increments for $100/TB/year. If you request a share mid-year, we prorate the cost based on the quarter you requested it. For example, if you request a share in December, we charge you $75 for the first year. See the following table for specifics.
| Date purchased |
Cost/ TB/for the first year |
| September 1 - November 30 |
$100.00 |
| December 1 - February 28 |
$75.00 |
| March 1 - May 31 |
$50.00 |
| June 1 - August 31 |
$25.00 |
You can choose to pay up front for multiple years.
Shares are automatically billed annually after the first year. See the Annual Billing section below for more information.
Requesting Storage
To request RDSS storage fill out the Research Data Storage Service Request form. You will need the following information.
Access Zones
RDSS is comprised of two zones and have the following unique features
- resfiles is intended for non-public research data and is connected to the Globus data transfer tool.
- resfiles audit is intended for sensitive research data and data subject to state and federal regulations or data use agreements (DUAs). This zone creates audit logs when files are accessed, created, updated, and deleted.
Note: Researchers in the Feinberg School of Medicine (FSM) have access to a related service, FSMResFiles, at no cost and should not use RDSS. See Feinberg IT's Research Data Storage website for more information.
Making changes to your share
You can make changes to your share at any time. To change any of the following, email rdss-help@northwestern.edu with your share name and information specified below.
- Share quota: what you would like the new quota to be
- Billing Chartstring: the new Chartstring
- Contacts: name, email and netid and whether you'd like them to be the owner or data manager
Our staff will make the requested changes and contact you via TeamDynamix when they are complete or if they have questions about your request.
Annual billing
Shares are billed annually in September after an initial prorated charge when you request your share.
- The share owner will receive a reminder email before billing indicating your share size and how much you will be billed.
- You will be able to make changes to your share that will apply to the next billing period at this time.
- Your Chartstring will be billed for the cost of your storage in September. If the charge fails, we will contact you for alternative payment information or arrangements to move your data onto an alternate storage platform.
Cancelling your share
You can cancel your share at any time. Please
- delete all data in the share
- email rdss-help@northwestern.edu with your share name, cc'ing the primary share owner if you are not the share owner.
We will delete the share and notify you when the process is complete. Email rdss-help@northwestern.edu if you experience trouble deleting your data.
Support Resources
Research Data Management Support at Northwestern University
Research computing data services partners with the Office for Research, University Libraries and Galter Health Sciences Library to provide research data management support throughout the research process. Please see the Research Data Management and Sharing page for more information.