Kyoto University in Japan has lost about 77 terabytes of research data, after a backup was destroyed a week before Christmas.
Then, a cleanup script was corrupted, which was supposed to remove old log files, to delete parts of the backup to the university’s Cray/HPE-based supercomputer.
lies flat
The crash is related to a catastrophic software update from one of the system vendors. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) deeply regrets and settles.
HPE acknowledges that it is “100 percent” responsible for the accident and promises to compensate the affected parties after data loss in Announcement in Japanese (PDF).
The text was simply overwritten while it was running, without considering unintended consequences. HPE states that it is investigating further and promises to make the necessary changes to avoid similar problems in the future.
permanently gone
The university does not delve into the type of research that has been omitted, but states that 14 academic research groups have been affected.
The work of four affected research groups could not be restored. Someone shows that an estimated 34 million files are gone forever advertisement.
Data loss is measured at 77 TB. However, this is somewhat better than the 100 TB which the university was initially afraid to waste.
Kyoto University is making significant research efforts with financial support from Japanese authorities. They are among the most important research institutions in the country, particularly in disciplines such as biology, pharmacology, immunology, materials science, and physics, according to sleeping computer.
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