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Chronopolis Sunsetting

Chronopolis Sunsetting

Sunset of the Chronopolis Digital Preservation Network

Texas Digital Library (TDL) is announcing the planned sunset of the Chronopolis digital preservation network, a core component of TDL’s Digital Preservation Services for more than a decade.

Chronopolis, operated in partnership with the UC San Diego Library, the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), has provided geographically distributed, highly redundant preservation storage for libraries, archives, and research collections, including many from TDL member institutions.

Through DuraCloud@TDL and Chronopolis, TDL members have benefited from:

  • Three‑site, geographically distributed replication of preservation content

  • Regular fixity checking and audit trails

  • Long‑term stewardship of content from services such as the Texas Data Repository, TDL-hosted DSpace instances and other institutional collections

As the Chronopolis network sunsets, TDL is focused on ensuring that our preservation commitments to member institutions remain intact.

Timeline

  • TDL will cease its support for the Imaging Management Server (IMS) in December 2026.

    • investigate IMS and ACE dependency (Ron)

  • UCSD’s final deposit into Chronopolis will be October 2026 at the latest (TBD, dependence on move of content, could be earlier in summer 2026)

    • storage needed until migration to Merit Jan-June 2027

  • TDL’s will end deposit into Chronopolis in DATE TBD

  • UCSD will discontinue troubleshooting support for all depositors in October 2026

  • The UMIACS node will shut down in June 2027, hardware warranty would not be supported past March 2027

  • Chronopolis will no longer be supported by UCSD as of June 2027.

What the Chronopolis sunset means

The Chronopolis sunset includes:

  • Ending new deposits and ingests into the Chronopolis network - Date TBD

  • Coordinated planning among Chronopolis partners for the long‑term stewardship or migration of content

  • Final audits, reporting, and documentation of Chronopolis services and preservation actions

Importantly, the sunset does not mean that member content is discarded. Instead, it triggers a planned transition and stewardship process.

For collections held in Chronopolis, partner institutions (including TDL) will:

  • Develop and implement migration plans to successor preservation platforms or storage providers

  • Maintain provenance, fixity histories, and other preservation metadata associated with Chronopolis

  • Integrate collections into local or consortial digital preservation programs as appropriate

What this means for TDL members

For TDL members, Chronopolis has been part of the preservation guarantees we provide via our Digital Preservation Services (see: Digital Preservation Services Overview – Digital Preservation Services Overview

As we navigate the sunset of Chronopolis, TDL will:

  • Coordinate with Chronopolis partners on timelines, risks, and migration strategies for TDL‑stewarded content

  • Identify and implement successor preservation storage that continues to meet community standards and member needs

  • Update TDL’s Digital Preservation Policies and Procedures to reflect changes in our preservation storage architecture (see: Digital Preservation Policies and Procedures – Digital Preservation Policies and Procedures

  • Communicate clearly with members about any changes to ingest, storage, retrieval, or service‑level expectations

TDL’s commitment to members remains the same: to provide sustainable, standards‑aligned digital preservation options that support the long‑term preservation of your collections.

Looking ahead

The sunset of Chronopolis is also an opportunity for TDL and its members to:

TDL will continue to share updates with the membership as successor services are selected, migrations are planned, and timelines are finalized.

Questions and contact

If you have questions about:

  • How this change affects specific collections from your institution

  • Your local preservation workflows that rely on DuraCloud@TDL and Chronopolis

  • Planning for future deposits and preservation storage

please contact the TDL Digital Preservation Services team through the TDL Helpdesk.