Storage Allocations

How much storage does my group get?

An MSI group gets primary storage when a new group account is created. The storage allocation is good for the calendar year and is renewed when the MSI group is renewed. Storage requests fall into three categories:

groups requesting 150 GB or less (the default)
groups requesting between 150 GB and 5 TB
groups requesting between 5 TB and 20 TB (the maximum)

For new accounts and renewals, groups requesting 150 GB or less will not be required to provide justification for their storage allocation. Groups already using less than 5 TB of data will also not be required to provide justification for their current allocation. Groups requesting between 5 TB and 20 TB will be required to provide detailed justification.

Additionally, 120 TB of Second Tier storage is automatically available to each group. Documentation on accessing and using Second Tier storage can be found here.

For those groups requiring more than 20 TB of primary storage or more than 120 TB of secondary storage, additional storage is available as a paid service.

Note: Justification is always required if you are requesting supplemental/additional storage beyond your current allocation.

What if my group is running out of storage before the end of the year?

To complete a request, users can log into myMSI from the MSI homepage. Then from the dropdown bar under their username in the upper left of the screen, they can select the group for which they would like to request storage. Users can also go directly to msi.umn.edu/group/GROUPNAME, replacing GROUPNAME with the name of the group for which they would like to request storage.

Requests resulting in total storage allocations over 5 TB of storage will require the following information:

Storage justification
- Why do you need this specific amount of storage? (number and size of files)
- How long do you estimate you will need this additional storage?
Why isn't second tier storage suitable for your data?