When quotas take effect

Prerequisite for quotas to take effect

You must turn on quotas on a per-volume basis before Data ONTAP applies quotas to quota targets.

Note
You do not need to turn on quotas using the /etc/rc file.

About quota initialization

After you turn on quotas, Data ONTAP performs quota initialization. This involves scanning the entire file system in a volume and reading from the /etc/quotas file to compute the disk usage for each quota target.

Quota initialization is necessary under these circumstances:

You add an entry to the /etc/quotas file, but the quota target for that entry is not currently tracked by the filer.
You change user mapping in the /etc/usermap.cfg file and you use the QUOTA_PERFORM_USER_MAPPING entry in the /etc/quotas file. For more information about QUOTA_PERFORM_USER_MAPPING, see Special entries for mapping users.
You change the security style of a qtree from UNIX to either mixed or NTFS.
You change the security style of a qtree from mixed or NTFS to UNIX.

Quota initialization can take a few minutes. The amount of time required depends on the size of the file system.

When a change to a quota size takes effect

You can change the size of a quota that is being enforced. Resizing an existing quota, whether it is an explicit quota specified in the /etc/quotas file or a derived quota, does not require quota initialization. To learn about derived quotas, see Understanding derived quotas.