RDMS User Storage Policy v1.0

This user policy describes the rules, conditions, and responsibilities for storing data in the Research Data Management System (RDMS). The policy applies to all RDMS users and aims to ensure:

• Scalable and reliable storage services.
• Financial sustainability of the RDMS.
• Good system performance and long-term accessibility of data.
• Prevention of data loss or orphaned data.

The RDMS is a long-term research data storage service. It is not intended for high-frequency access. This document is subject to change as new insights are gathered, and users will be informed of the changes.

If users do not comply with the rules described in this policy, the RDMS team may block the ability to transfer new data to the affected Home Drive or Team Drive until the issue is resolved.

• Data stored in the RDMS will be retained for 10 years.
• After 10 years, data will be permanently deleted, unless a retention extension is requested via rdms-support@rug.nl.
• Requests for extended retention must be made at least 3 years before the end of the retention period.

• The RDMS maintains back-ups with a retention period of 30 days.
• Deleted data can be restored within 30 days, provided it falls within the backup retention period.
• The recovery time depends on the total data size and the number of individual files to be restored.
• Data in the RDMS Trash will be automatically deleted every 30 days.
• Requests for data recovery must be submitted to rdms-support@rug.nl

• Each RDMS user is provided with a Home Drive.
• Home Drives are intended for long-term storage of research data.
• A Home Drive is a personal environment.
• Home Drive owners should move their data to a Team Drive or transfer ownership when they leave the University of Groningen (see section 10).

• Home Drives have a hard quota of 1 TB.
• Home Drives have a hard limit of 100,000 individual files.
• Both the storage capacity limit and the file-count limit are non-expandable hard quotas (see Section 7).
• If more than 1 TB of storage is required, users must request a Team Drive.

• A Team Drive is a group environment, managed by one or more owners.
• Team Drives are the recommended solution for managing larger datasets and data that belong to a group or institute.
• A Team Drive should at least have one owner with a permanent staff contract.

• Team Drives have a default storage limit of 20 TB.
• The quota can be expanded upon request, subject to review and approval.
• Team Drives have a hard limit of 1,000,000 individual files.
• The file-count limit is a non-expandable hard quota.

To maintain system performance and overall RDMS health:

• Users are strongly advised to bundle or compress data where possible.
• Data sets containing large numbers of individual files (e.g., hundreds of files) must be bundled.
• A single bundled data package should not exceed 500 GB.
• Data sets larger than 500 GB should be subdivided into smaller parts, then bundled into separate archives (e.g. dataset_part1.tar, dataset_part_2.tar, etc.)
• Software packages must be bundled.
• Do not store unnecessary, duplicate, or temporary data in RDMS.

The RDMS team monitors storage usage, total volume, and the number of individual files regularly across all RDMS zones to ensure system performance and stability.

For further information about compressing data, you can refer to the Bundling Data Sets section of the user manual.

To request a new Team Drive, please contact rdms-support@rug.nl. The following conditions apply:

• A Team Drive must have at least one owner with a permanent contract at the University of Groningen (e.g., a supervisor, data manager, or data steward).
• There may be multiple owners, but at least one must meet the permanent-contract requirement.
• When submitting a request, please provide:

Proposed Team Drive name
Faculty of the applicant
Institute of the applicant
Name(s) and role(s) of the Team Drive owner(s)

The RDMS provides a dedicated Sensitive Data (SD) Zone for sensitive research data.

• Access to the SD Zone is not enabled by default.
  
• Initial access requests must be submitted by a research group leader, supervisor, or principal investigator (PI) to rdms-support@rug.nl
• An administrator is responsible for the overall management of the Team Drive, including granting and revoking access rights.

• Sensitive data can only be stored in Team Drives within the SD Zone.
• Storing sensitive data in Home Drives and Projects is not permitted.
• Folder names, file names, and metadata must not contain sensitive information.
• Users must request permission from the Team Drive administrator before retrieving data from the SD Zone.

• Team Drive administrators are fully responsible for managing user permissions and roles.
• To grant new users access to the SD Zone, the administrator of a Team Drive must contact rdms-support@rug.nl to request that the new users are added to the SD Zone Team Drive.
• For further information, you can refer to the Data Zones section of the RDMS user manual.

• Empty your RDMS Trash folder regularly, as data in Trash still counts toward your total usage.
• Compress files where possible to reduce storage consumption.
• Move large datasets from Home Drives to appropriate Team Drives.
• Make sure that there is always at least one owner of your data whom RDMS can contact.

If users do not comply with the rules described in this policy, the RDMS team may block the ability to transfer new data to the affected Home Drive or Team Drive until the issue is resolved.

Users who leave the University of Groningen are responsible for ensuring their RDMS data is handled appropriately before departure, by taking one of the following two actions:

• The Team Drive should have at least one owner who has a permanent contract at the University of Groningen, such as a supervisor, data manager, or data steward. etc.

• Data sets should be bundled or compressed (see Section 5 )

• The data has been moved to the Home Drive of a person with a permanent contract with the UG.
• The size of the data should not exceed 1TB, and individual file sizes should be less than 100,000 (see Section 4).

Data without a responsible owner may be removed after 10 years, or earlier if it negatively impacts the RDMS system, for example, due to excessive storage use or performance issues.

This policy is effective as of 12 March 2026.

From the effective date onward, all Home Drives must comply with the 1 TB hard quota. Users whose Home Drive exceeds this limit must reduce their usage or move data to a Team Drive. A limited transition period may be provided to allow users to take corrective action. After this period, the quota will be enforced.

Existing Team Drives that exceed the default quota will not be reduced or deleted as a result of this policy. The default quota applies to future growth.

Existing Team Drive Owners should contact rdms-support@rug.nl if additional storage is required.

Requests for additional storage will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and may be approved or declined temporarily depending on overall RDMS storage capacity and sustainability considerations.

This policy may be updated as RDMS functionality, funding models, and institutional requirements evolve. Users will be informed of significant changes through official communication channels. Please do not hesitate to contact rdms-support@rug.nl if you have any questions.