On Corral

On Corral#

The Backbone of DesignSafe Storage

For long-term, collaborative, and cross-platform data management, DesignSafe uses Corral, a dedicated storage system fully integrated with the DesignSafe interface. Corral is the central file system at TACC that underpins most persistent storage in DesignSafe, including:

  • MyData – Your personal, private storage space.

  • MyProjects – Collaborative project storage where team members can share files.

  • CommunityData – Public datasets and shared examples.

  • Published – Finalized datasets that are publicly accessible and assigned DOIs for citation.

Think of Corral as the foundation: these different areas are simply directories with different access rules built on top of the same file system.

Advantages of Corral#

  • Persistent and backed up — unlike Scratch or node-local storage, Corral is safe for long-term use.

  • Versatile access — available through the DesignSafe web portal (Data Depot), JupyterHub, OpenSees Interactive VM, and programmatically via Tapis.

  • Supports collaboration — private (MyData) and group-based sharing (MyProjects).

  • Publication-ready — data can be promoted into curated Published datasets with DOIs for citation.

  • Cross-platform consistency — the same storage structure is visible across different environments.

Limitations of Corral#

  • Lower I/O performance — Corral is network-mounted, so it’s slower than system-local storage (Work or Scratch) for large-scale compute jobs.

  • Not ideal for active job execution — running HPC jobs directly from Corral can cause delays or job failures.

Best Practice#

  • Use Corral (MyData/MyProjects) for preparing input files, archiving results, team collaboration, and publication.

  • For active HPC jobs, stage files to Work on Stampede3, then move results back to Corral afterwards.

This architecture enables cross-platform access, data sharing, and publishing workflows, making Corral the preferred data hub in the DesignSafe ecosystem.

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