An account on the ESRF Network Interactive Computing Environment (NICE) will be opened one week before your experiment is due to begin. Workstations are available in the Guest House (for e-mail only), in the Central Building and at the beamline (ask your local contact). The password will be maintained for four weeks after your experiment has finished. Data will be kept 30 days after the creation date.

Both the account and the data will then be removed by automatic procedure, without prior notice.

During an experiment, many GigaBytes (GB) or TeraBytes (TB) of data can be produced, most data reduction will start before you leave the ESRF. However, you will still want to back up your data.

There are several ways for backing up and transporting data. You may consider bringing:

  • SSD/USB keys/Laptops with USB 3.0, 3.1, 3.1 Gen2 interfaces (for reduced data) (32GB-4TB) 
  • Large hard disk drives (HDD) with USB 3.0, 3.1, 3.1 Gen2 interfaces (4-18TB)
There are options for saving the data directly to a remote server:

Portable computers can be connected to the ethernet at the beamline, giving a fast connection for data analysis.

Tapes are not generally recommended unless you know already roughly what you are doing (especially which kind of tape reader you have at your home laboratory).

Dat and Exabyte tapes can be created in the terminal room nearest the beamline (PluoC 202). It is best to use the tar command. First check which type of shell you are using : type echo $SHELL For csh and tsh, the command is:

tar cvf /dev/rmt/some_device files |& tee log_file

For ksh:

tar cvf /dev/rmt/some_device files 2>&1| tee log_file

These commands will show the progress of the back up on the screen and will produce a file with a list of the files backed up. There is usually a choice of the way in which the data is written for each tape device. Most people chose Berkeley format. DLT tapes can be written in the Central building, room ctb089. You must first check which type of reader you have at home. The command to write the tape will then be the same as for Dat tapes.