Data preservation for the HERA experiments at DESY using dCache technology

We report on the status of the data preservation project at DESY for the HERA experiments and present the latest design of the storage which is a central element for bit- preservation. The HEP experiments based at the HERA accelerator at DESY collected large and unique datasets during the period from 1992 to 2007. As part of the ongoing DPHEP data preservation efforts at DESY, these datasets must be transferred into storage systems that keep the data available for ongoing studies and guarantee safe long term access. To achieve a high level of reliability, we use the dCache distributed storage solution and make use of its replication capabilities and tape interfaces. We also investigate a recently introduced Small File Service that allows for the fully automatic creation of tape friendly container files.