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Open Science Data Federation Overview

The OSG operates the Open Science Data Federation (OSDF), which provides organizations with a method to distribute their data in a scalable manner to thousands of jobs without needing to pre-stage data at each site.

The map below shows the location of the current caches in the federation:

Joining and Using the OSDF

We support three types of deployments:

  1. We operate the service for you. All you need is provide us with a Kubernetes host to deploy our container into.

    This is our preferred way for you to join. It is conceptually described on our home website for an origin. A cache would be deployed exactly the same way.

    If this is how you want to join OSDF, please send email to support@osg-htc.org and we will guide you through the process.

  2. You can deploy our container yourself as described in our documentation.

  3. You can deploy from RPM as described in our documentation

We strongly suggest that you allow us to operate these services for you (option 1). The software that implements the service changes frequently enough, and is complicated enough, that keeping up with changes may require significant effort. If your installation is deemed too out-of-date, your service may be excluded from the OSDF.

For more information on the OSDF, please see our overview page.

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