Effective storage management strategies allow Administrators to allocate storage efficiently among users and Group projects, ensuring that all researchers have adequate space for their data without exceeding capacity limits. This not only helps in controlling costs associated with additional storage but also promotes responsible data management practices. By monitoring and adjusting storage quotas, Administrators can identify and address potential issues before they escalate, ensuring a seamless user experience.
Your Figshare for Institutions portal will have a set amount of storage available for use. This is set through your contract and can be divided between users and Group projects. Each upload will use a specific amount of storage equal to the size of the file. If you run out of storage then you can purchase more by contacting support@figshare.com.
Visualising used and available storage
Storage quota is central to your use of Figshare and can be allocated and used through two storage ‘spaces’:
Storage can be assigned to the user space
Or, it can be assigned to the Group project space.
To see how much storage you have and how much has been used, navigate to the ‘Storage’ tab within the Administration area.
Allocating institutional storage
Under the ‘General allocation’ section Administrators can choose how to divide the available institution storage between users and Group projects. Storage that is assigned to the user space will be consumed when a user uploads content directly onto the institutional repository, into a Group (not as part of a Group project), or when creating and uploading to an individual project. Alternatively, storage assigned to the Group projects space will be used when any user uploads content to an open Group project.
This means that quota allocated to Groups can only be used (consumed) by the content uploaded in Group projects, not by content uploaded directly into a Group or uploaded via an individual project. For more information about configuring projects please see this support article.
Administrators can choose how to divide the overall free quota between the user space and Group projects space. This can be done by either moving the slider or by updating either the Group project space or the User space text box. The slider indicates the amount of storage that has been used (shown in grey) and the storage that is free to assign (shown in white).
When the quota allocation is done using the slider, the value in the input boxes is also updated. When the quota allocation is done using the input box, the slider will be automatically repositioned to indicate the change.
Note: It is only possible to allocate storage up to the amount of free space available, so any change to the storage allocation in one category will automatically update the other in-line with the available space.
Setting initial quotas
Once the general allocation of storage between the User space and Group projects space has been determined, the next step is to consider how that allocation should be shared between users and Group projects. The storage amounts set at the institutional level can be overridden at the Group level.
Initial quota per user
The ‘Initial quota per user’ is the storage amount given to any user in the institution at account creation. This can be updated at a later date and users can request additional quota at any time. Please be aware of quota limits when creating accounts through a HR feed as all created accounts will be assigned the initial user quota. Alternatively, If the user quota is handled via the HR feed, then the initial quota per user configured here will be disregarded. If this value is modified, the change will only apply to users created after the change.
Initial quota per group project space
The ‘Initial quota per Group project space’ is the storage amount given to each Group project within this Group. If this value is modified, the change will only apply to Group projects created after the change.
Group storage configuration options
While the initial quota for users and Group projects is configured at a portal wide level on the ‘Storage’ tab it is possible to override these values on a per Group basis. Initial storage quotas can also be assigned when creating/configuring a Group. To do this navigate to the Group tab within the Administrative portal and select ‘Configure group’ on the Actions menu. The storage section here also allows you to set initial quotas for users and Group projects related to this Group.
Initial quota per user - This value will override the institution initial quota for a user. All users that belong to this Group will have this value for initial quota rather than the institutional one.
Total quota for projects - The value defined here will be used for all projects associated with this group and also for allocation to the subgroups. Please be careful when defining this quota, as it will be divided to serve the entire subgroup structure below this Group.
Initial quota per project - This quota will be initially given to any project associated with this Group. In case this value is not modified in this context, then the project will inherit the institution default project quota.
Requesting more storage
Users
To request more quota, users need to go to the ‘My data’ page in their account and ‘request more storage’.
The request for more storage will be received by both Administrators and the Group owner of the Group that the user belongs to. This request will appear in the activity tab and will be visible in the header after the administrator logs in. The administrator can approve, decline, or configure the value that was requested if the value is not appropriate. If the requester is an Administrator of the Group he is assigned to, the request is automatically approved.
Projects
Group projects are projects that will have their storage allocated from a Group. Anyone can create a Group project by selecting a Group from the drop down in the ‘Allocate storage’ section of the ‘Create project’ page. For more information about projects please see the support article.
After selecting the Group, the user will see the default initial value allocated for his project. This value cannot be edited on this screen.
Only the project owner can request more space from the project edit page. To approve, the administrator should follow the exact same steps as for the quota for users.
Assigning newly purchased storage
The ‘New storage distribution’ section allows administrators to pre-determine how any newly purchased storage will be assigned. The available breakdowns are as follows:
Even distribution will split the new allocation evenly between users and Group projects
Fixed for users will split the allocation across user accounts only
Fixed per Group project will split the allocation across Group projects only.
Any additional quota that is purchased will be uploaded to the account according to the new storage distribution selected and will be combined with the existing storage details once your portal is live. The storage breakdown can then be updated at any time as described previously.