•The Virtual Archives Laboratory (VAL) is a joint partnership between NARA,
The San Diego SuperComputer
Center (SDSC) and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer
Studies (UMIACS) to
design and test an architecture for a Federated
Persistent Archives
which can address the requirements
for large scale, long term archiving of electronic records.
•
•The
Persistent Archives research at NARA focuses on developing the attributes of a
persistent system that
will continue to operate over a long period of time and is primarily concerned
with the issues of scalability,
extensibility, and evolvability. In keeping with these aims, the Virtual
Archives Laboratory provides
a safe, secure environment suitable for testing prototype persistent archives
applications and systems.
•Research Partnerships
•
•Partnerships
are an important part of Persistent Archives
•research
plan. NARA is working closely with the SDSC and
•UMIACS
in conducting research using the VAL as a virtual
•testing
ground. ERA will use the VAL to test products in the
•marketplace
and as a vehicle to gather additional
research
•knowledge.
It is envisioned to be an environment where
• people can do research on electronic records
issues.
•Cutting Edge Technology and Forward-Focused
Initiatives
•
•One
of the current projects being tested out in the VAL is a prototype system that
leverages the SDSC’s Storage
Resource Broker technology (SRB), (a middleware application that uses grid and
metadata technologies to
transparently manage data,) and MCAT metadata catalog to manage
NARA-designated data
collections. ERA has elected to use SDSC’s InQ (InQuisitor) interface to
manage files. The system makes the storage and retrieval of
the data stored at these locations transparent to users. One of the key features of the SRB is that it
is designed to be scalable, modular and
infrastructure independent.
•
•Utilizing
these technologies, ERA research has set up a prototype system that runs off
of servers at NARA,
SDSC, and UMIACS. Over the course of the first phase of this initiative,
several terabytes of data collections
will be ingested, registered and replicated among the three sites over high
speed connections.
•