mdx points

• 1 point costs 1 yen (excluding tax).
• Purchased points are managed on a per-project basis, and cannot be transferred to other projects even if the same user creates multiple projects on mdx.
• When multiple points are registered in a project, the points are consumed based on the following priority order:
  1) Point with the earliest expiration date
  2) If the expiration dates are the same (e.g. March 31), point with earlier registration date.

List of Point Consumption (FY2023)

• Trial projects are free (no point purchase required).
• Consumption points for computing resources vary depending on the project type. (Refer to the table below)
  － For Normal Projects, points are consumed based on the reserved amount for Reserved Virtual Machine Instances (the amount of resources requested through the Project Application Portal or User Portal) and the usage amount for virtual machine.
  － For Node Occupancy Projects, points are consumed based on the reserved amount of resources requested through the Project Application Portal or User portal, regardless of whether virtual machines are power-on or not.
• There is no variation in consumption points for storage resources based on project type.
  － Points are consumed based on the reserved amount of resources requested through the Project Application Portal or User portal, rather than the actual usage amount.
• Global IP addresses are available for free, but must be requested through the Project Application Portal or User Portal.

*For detailed specifications of each resource, please refer to the System Overview.

Computing Resource (CPU, GPU) Point Consumption Overview

There are two types of virtual machines: ‘Reserved Virtual Machine Instances’ and ‘Spot virtual machines’. The point consumption for each computing resource (CPU, GPU) is shown in the table below.

To start as a ‘Reserved Virtual Machine Instances’, you need to first apply (reserve) the required amount of CPU and GPU on the Project Application Portal or User portal. If resources have been allocated for a ‘Reserved Virtual Machine Instances’, please check the ‘Start as Reserved Virtual Machine Instance’ box when booting the virtual machine on the User Portal. If do not check this box, the virtual machine will boot as a ‘Spot virtual machine’.

How to Purchase Points

• Please apply through the “Project Application Portal“.
• Only those who are registered as “Point Purchasers” in the Project Application Portal can apply for point purchases.
• Points can be purchased at any time during the following purchase acceptance period.
    Usage for the current fiscal year: From April 1st to January 31st.　
    Usage for the following fiscal year (Reserved): From February 1st to March 31st. (Except for usage in FY2023)
  * For FY2023, purchase application starts from April 5.
• The price per point is 1 yen (excluding tax).
• The purchase unit for points is 5,000 (5,000 yen / excluding tax).
• Once points are purchased, they will not be refunded for any reason.

Timing of Point Award

Points are awarded at the following times, depending on the payment method.

• Bank transfer (invoice payment): When the purchase application is approved by the mdx administrator.
• Credit card payment: When the purchase application is approved by the mdx administrator, and the credit card payment is completed by the user.
• On-campus transfer: When the purchase application is approved by the mdx administrator.

Validity Period of Points

The validity period of points is either 6 months from the date the points are awarded or until the end of the fiscal year (March 31), whichever comes first.
Points purchased between April 1 and September 30, they will expire after 6 months from the date of award.
Points purchased between October 1 and January 31, they will expire at the end of the fiscal year without waiting for 6 months to pass, and cannot be carried over to the following fiscal year.

How to pay

The following three payment methods are available.

• Bank transfer (invoice payment): In principle, this method is not available for University of Tokyo members *Except for KAKENHI.
• Credit card payment: This method is not available for University of Tokyo members. For credit card payments, users need to make the payment on the external payment page within 5 business days after the purchase request is approved. Please note that for credit card payments, the maximum amount of points that can be purchased per transaction is 5,000,000.
• On-campus transfer: This method is available only for University of Tokyo members. However, for KAKENHI, only bank transfer is available.

List of Issued Documents

Billing Months and Payment Method Change Deadlines

For payment methods using bank transfer (invoice payment) or on-campus transfer, the monthly purchased points will be added up based on the point granting date, and the billig or on-campus transfer will be made in the following billing month.
Cancellation of point purchase application, changes to payment method, and editing of payment information can be made until the deadline below. However, cancellation of point purchase application is possible only if the points have not been used.

• For bank transfer (invoice payment), invoices will be sent out at the beginning of each billing month. Payment is due at the end of the next month of the billing month.
• For on-campus transfer (University of Tokyo members only), interdepartmental transfer will be processed in the billing month.

Actions to be taken when the point balance reaches 0

Project Suspension

If the point balance held reaches 0, the virtual machine running in the project will be stopped and access to the user portal will be disabled.
If you do not plan to continue using the project, please backup the data stored in mdx storage while the project still has a point balance.

How to Resume a Project

If a point purchase is made within 90 days from the day the point balance reaches 0, the project can be resumed.
After the project is restarted, you will be able to use the environment you had before the project was suspended. However, even while the project is suspended, points will be consumed based on the reserved amount of computing resources for Reserved Virtual Machine Instances and storage capacity. When the project is restarted, points will be consumed for them first, so please add points to ensure that there are no shortages.

Automatic Deletion of Project

If no points are purchased within 90 days from the date the point balance reaches 0, the project, including the virtual machine and data stored in mdx storage, will be deleted.