High performance Storage

All MSI researchers have access to a high-performance, high capacity primary storage platform. This system currently provides 3.5 PB (petabytes) of storage. The integrity of the data is protected by daily snapshots and tape backups. It has sustained read and write speeds of up to 25 GB/sec.

There is default access to this storage by any MSI group with an active account. Very large needs can be also met, but need to be approved by the MSI HPC Allocation Committee. More details are available on the Storage Allocations page.

MSI provides each group a shared home directory space on the high performance primary storage that is accessible from all MSI systems. Your use of this space is limited by a storage quota that applies to your group's usage as a whole. See also: How can I check my disk quota? Your quota is allocated by MSI according to our storage allocation guidelines.

Users needing to store and manipulate extremely large files have the option of a contract based, dedicated storage. PIs should email help@msi.umn.edu to explicitly request group storage quota increases or to contract for dedicated storage.

How Do I Access High-Performance Storage?

Any time you are connected to MSI systems you are accessing high performance storage, it is the backbone of all MSI systems.

What is Scratch Storage?

MSI provides large capacity and high performance storage to be used while applications are running on the supercomputer. Depending on the system, scratch space (scratch storage) may be a set-aside area of primary storage, or may consist of separate storage attached via fast data links. See the individual system documentation for details. 

• Access to scratch storage does not need to be requested.
• Starting April 1, 2020, the default quota on Global Scratch will be reduced to 40 TB and 10,000,000 files. MSI will review requests for temporary increases of this quota for individual projects on an ongoing basis.
• Scratch storage should not be used for any valuable data.
• Data is automatically deleted after 30 days.