How can I check my storage quota?
For all MSI users, there are two primary storage allocations to be aware of, user directory and project space. These allocations are independent of each other.
User directories have a storage limit of 200 GB and 1 Million Object count limit. This quota cannot be increased, users are advised to make use of their projects /shared directory.
For more information on primary storage allocations, please visit our page on Tier 1 storage.
User Quota
Your user quota pertains to data in your personal home directory at /home/<username>. This space is intended for individual files and configurations related to your MSI account, such as scripts, job submission files, and small datasets for personal use. It is not meant for storing large research data—those should be kept within your project directories under /projects/standard/<project_name>.
Each MSI user has one home directory and one user quota, regardless of how many project groups they belong to. Your user quota is separate from any project quotas and counts only the data you store in your own home directory.
Checking usage and quota through the command line
You can check your user quota by logging in to the MSI login nodes and typing the command:
userquota
This command displays your total quota and current usage for your home directory.
userquota Options
Print your quota report in CSV format (useful for spreadsheets):
userquota -c
Specify storage units for the CSV output (choose from k, M, G, T):
userquota -c -U G
Skip CSV header lines in the output (useful for appending reports):
userquota -c -H
View version information or display help text:
userquota -vuserquota -h
For example, to create a report of your current quota in gigabytes suitable for spreadsheets:
userquota -c -U G > userquotareport.csv
Project Quota
Your project quota pertains to data in your project directory at /projects/standard/<project_name> (or /home/<project_name> in the old PanFS file system). You may have more than one project quota if you are a member of several project groups—each group has an attached project quota. Additionally, each project has an associated scratch quota, limiting how much data it can have in Global Scratch (/scratch.global/).
Checking usage and quota online
Your MyMSI user portal contains information on project-related disk quota and usage. Once logged in, to check your project's disk usage and quota, first click on the group name in the list. Then, scroll down and click on "Storage Dashboard".
Checking usage and quota through the command line
You can check your storage quota by logging in to the MSI login nodes and typing the command:
groupquota
groupquota Options
You can see your individual utilization in addition to the group's usage with:
groupquota -u
You can see an approximate report of usage by user in the group with:
groupquota -a
You can view the all-user quota report sorted by file count rather than bytes with:
groupquota -a -s files
You can create a .csv file of the quota report suitable for viewing in spreadsheet programs with the following ('quotareport.csv' is an output filename of your choice):
groupquota -ac > quotareport.csv
All options can be viewed with:
groupquota -h
HPC
HPC systems share storage space with all other systems; the procedure is the same as above.
In all these cases, if you need an increase in quota, visit the FAQ on increasing your storage allocation.