Active Archive Facility

Fermilab offers researchers access to remote storage of scientific data through the Strategic Partnership Project (SPP) mechanism.

Fermilab’s world-class scientific data management capabilities provide an extra layer of protection for important and irreplaceable scientific data.

The “active archive infrastructure” technologies used by Fermilab leverage the unique wide-area transfer protocols and cached storage systems developed by the high energy physics community. These protocols are designed to move lots of data quickly, efficiently and without error between sites on the global network, and are integrated with Fermilab’s high capacity hierarchical storage archive service. The archive facility at Fermilab is capable of providing access over a 100 Gb/s network to hundreds of petabytes of data, with long-term persistence and custodial care, and with high performance retrieval.

The Fermilab Archival Storage Service provides a high level of data integrity. Several transfer protocols that support end-to-end checksums are available, the storage system monitors data integrity with automated random sampling and checksums are verified on every read. The data is also protected by policies and procedures against accidental harm, such as physically write locking the cartridges when they are full. In addition, files can be replicated to tape at a second data center on the Fermilab site for added protection.

More information: Active Archive Facility Website