I need to use the local scratch area, may I? How? Is it backed up?
Generally each linux workstation should have a local disk area called “ /scratch ”
You can write your data here.
Put your files in /scratch/yourusername directory and NOT in /scratch. Therefore, firstly you have to create a subdirectory in the /scratch directory using the following command from a linux shell:
mkdir /scratch/yourusername
Local directories (for example: /scratch /data /tmp) are never saved (“ backed up ”)!!
For I/O intensive applications (i.e. huge data on input/output files), you are strongly suggested to use the local disk of the workstation where your executable is running and NOT your home directory. Since the latter is accessed by the workstation through the network, the reading and writing procedure could slow down terribly and lower the performance of your application.
Please note, there is a NEWS. From the external network you can reach your linux workstation and so reach its /scratch area using the VPN connection.
To use the VPN connection, you should install the VPN client on your laptop, so
please read the information on Cisco VPN client installation page.