Large Scale Data Facility (LSDF)
What is the LSDF?
The Large Scale Data Facility (LSDF) is a central, high-capacity online storage infrastructure for large volumes of scientific research data. It provides a reliable, professionally operated storage resource for data-intensive disciplines — from particle physics and climate research to materials science and engineering — where scale, speed, and reliability requirements exceed what individual institutes can sustain on their own.
The LSDF is tightly coupled to KIT’s high-performance computing environment, including the HoreKa supercomputer, making it a natural home for research workflows that combine large-scale storage with large-scale computation.
The LSDF also serves as the storage backbone for several federated research data initiatives, including the NFDI4Ing Data Transfer Federation (DTF), which enables secure cross-institutional data transfers between member organisations across Germany.
See LSDF Service page for more techical details.
Key Facts
- High-capacity multi-petabyte online disk storage for hot and warm research data (currently 22 PB)
- Multiple access protocols: WebDAV (OAuth2/OIDC and Basic Auth), SCP/SFTP, NFS, CIFS
- Direct integration with KIT HPC systems (HoreKa, bwUniCluster) for combined storage and compute workflows
- Part of the NFDI4Ing Data Transfer Federation (DTF): secure, automated cross-institutional data transfers via the LSDF WebDAV endpoint
- Access control via group memberships and access control lists (ACLs)
- Free of charge for standard allocations; cost model in place for very large projects
- Data protection: State-of-the-art backup and disaster protection
Related Services
- bwDataArchive — long-term archiving of completed research data beyond the active storage phase
- HoreKa — KIT’s flagship supercomputer, tightly coupled to the LSDF for data-intensive compute workloads
- Data Transfer Federation (DTF) — cross-institutional research data transfers for NFDI4Ing members using the LSDF WebDAV endpoint and FTS3
Acknowledgement
Users of the LSDF are kindly requested to acknowledge it in their scientific publications: “This work was performed with the help of the Large Scale Data Facility at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Würtemberg and by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.”
