Our TRE currently uses something called object storage for storing study, user and project files that should be kept beyond the lifetime of a single workspace. There are major benefits to using this, most notably the ability to store very large amounts of data for relatively low cost. This means the charges to researchers are much lower than they otherwise would be 🎉.
🛑 Limitations
The downside is that the filesystem does not always behave as you expect. For example, some applications have problems saving files, or it may not be possible to move or rename a file.
💡 Workarounds
One option is to use the C: drive on Windows, or a directory outside of ~/studies on Linux, for daily work, and to copy your files into your user or project folder (folders under the D: drive on Windows, or ~/studies/ on Linux) before you log off. Note that files outside of your user or project folders are not backed up, so in the rare event of a system failure those files may be lost. This is why you should always ensure anything important is kept in the user or project folders.
If your application is working fine, but you are having problems with renaming or moving files, you can instead copy the files or folders, then delete the old version.
🛠️ What are are doing about this?
There’s obviously a tradeoff between usability of the TRE, and the costs charged to researchers. We’re investigating alternative storage platforms, and we hope to have this in place in late 2024 or early 2025.