Onboarding Checklist for Chronopolis at TDL

Owned by Ryan Steans (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 09, 2020 by Courtney C. Mumma
3 min read

Onboarding Chronopolis TDL members

TDL Responsibilities 

  • See basics for DuraCloud onboarding and setup here: Onboarding for DuraCloud@TDL
  • Consult with user through entire process, support workflow development
  • Select Digital Preservation storage provider(s)
  • Begin contract process (SLA)
  • Invoice when contract is complete and filed at TDL
  • Set up DuraCloud space, dashboard, user(s), and storage provider and allocation
  • Work with Member to test 
  • Review helpdesk procedures with member
  • Add member information the main Chronopolis depositors info list
  • Review workflows with member after set up to make sure they are prepared for independent use
  • Confirm member is on the TDL digital preservation list and a member of the DPS User Group meetings
  • Set 3 month, 6 month and 1 year reminders to check in with member

Member Responsibilities (with TDL Support)

  • Assess content needs using the TDL Digital Content Inventory and Prioritization spreadsheet (as-is or modified according to member needs) TDL Digital Content Inventory and Priorities.xlsx
  • Determine ingest workflow (can be done while contract signatures are in progress)
    • TDL Member determines their own workflow for prepping content for uploads. 
    • TDL Member may require network storage, divided into directories 
  • Work with TDL developers to set up local dashboard and user(s)
    • DuraCloud Sync Tool installation
  • Configure Sync Tool
    • Information about the Sync Tool configuration can be found here: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DURACLOUDDOC/DuraCloud+Sync+Tool

    • Click Edit and enter your hostname (institution-dcloud.tdl.org), and account information (DuraCloud username and password)

    • Select Space - This is the space you created in the DuraCloud dashboard where your content will be ingested 
    • Add the directory you wish to Sync. This will be a folder, and when you select it, you will only sync everything BELOW the folder level to the space you created - see instructions for configuring Folder structure for upload folder if this is not ideal for your workflow

    • Set Run Mode (bottom panel) to Single Pass

    • Update Policy

      • Overwrite existing content - (Recommended for Chronopolis users) This is if you want to overwrite an existing content in this space with any changes every time you upload. For Chronopolis, you will notice that the Space is emptied every time the snapshot to Chronopolis has completed, so this is kind of happening anyway. This option ensures if you're transferring content to the space and the operation is interrupted for any reason, the next time you run the SyncTool, it will overwrite any files that may not have transferred completely or correctly with the correct version on local disk.

      • Do not sync updates - This turns off the syncing function entirely, for any files that already exist in DuraCloud. So every time you sync from this folder, it's just adding content and not updating or renaming anything.
      • Update but do not overwrite (preserve original in cloud)- This is if you want the tool to sync and recognize changes to the files and ingest updates, but the original uploads would stay put in storage. If there is a changed version of a file, the name would be adjusted to reflect that it's a different version.
    • Check the Jump Start box to Accelerate initial upload of files with jump start
  • Test instance
  • Commence with content deposits
    • Use Sync Tool to upload content to DuraCloud@TDL Space(s) by clicking Start when you're ready and have created a space in DuraCloud@TDL and selected the local folder to upload
    • Upload to Chronopolis using snapshot** procedure once given the greenlight from TDL via email or other means of communication. **Snapshots are collections of content which are bundled together as a group for preservation.
      • Do not snapshot prior to alerting TDL via email or Slack
      • Once upload has completed, select your content in the DuraCloud dashboard and select Snapshot from the right pane
      • Remember that it is recommended to keep size under 250GB per snapshot so retrieval is easier and less costly in the future. 
      • Only snapshot 3 spaces at a time since the Bridge has a limited amount of workspace shared by multiple users, and because packages over that amount can be difficult and costly to retrieve if needed.
      • Start each snapshot, one at a time. Once the first snapshot shows 'staged' or 'waiting for Chronopolis', move to the next one
      • Once Snapshot is completed and content has been replicated to Chronopolis nodes by TDL, the space content is deleted automatically from DuraCloud@TDL
  • Member determines frequency of uploads - automatic or manual on a schedule based on time/amount of content threshold.

Chronopolis resources: