Data cannot be archived indefinitely. We ask project applications to state a realistic lifetime for a project, perhaps coinciding with the period of initial data acquisition or initial stage of funding. Some projects have a natural conclusion whereas others may extend beyond the initial retention period. In the latter case, such projects may make a further case for continued archival. Typically, projects are granted archival for 1-5 years. At the end of the retention period the data will be deleted from the HFS archive system, unless the project seeks, and is granted, approval for a further period of archival.

Archived data must not be backed up to the HFS backup service. Where a client machine is sending data to both the backup service and the archive service, the TSM software must be configured in such a way that avoids sending the same data to both backup and archive. We can help with the setup of this configuration. In practice this normally requires a physical separation of the archive data from backup data on the client (for example into a separate partition or root folder-path).

Long-term projects, and those requiring large amounts of data (> 1TB) will probably be asked to contribute to the on-costs of archive storage (see the HFS Service Level Description). Externally-funded projects should have a defined element for data storage and will be expected to contribute to these costs.