Overview of the /etc/quotas file

Contents of the /etc/quotas file

The /etc/quotas file consists of one or more entries, each entry specifying a default or explicit space or file quota limit for a qtree, group, or user.

The fields of a quota entry in the /etc/quotas file are

quota_target type[@/vol/dir/qtree_path] disk [files] [threshold] 
[soft_disk] [soft_files]

The fields of an /etc/quotas file entry specify the following:

quota_target specifies an explicit qtree, group, or user to which this quota is being applied or an asterisk (*) value that applies this quota as a default to all members of the type specified in this entry that do not have an explicit quota.
type [@/vol/dir/qtree_path] specifies the type of entity (qtree, group, or user) to which this quota is being applied. If the type is user or group, this field can optionally restrict this user or group quota to a specific volume, directory, or qtree.
disk is the disk space limit that this quota imposes on the qtree, group, user, or type in question.
files (optional) is the limit on the number of files that this quota imposes on the qtree, group, or user in question.
threshold (optional) is the disk space usage point at which warnings of approaching quota limits are issued.
soft_disk (optional) is a soft quota space limit that, if exceeded, issues warnings rather than rejecting space requests.
soft_files (optional) is a soft quota file limit that, if exceeded, issues warnings rather than rejecting file creation requests.
Note
For a detailed description of the above fields, see Fields of the /etc/quotas file.

Sample /etc/quotas file entries

The following sample quota entry assigns to user jsmith explicit limitations of 500 MB of disk space and 10,240 files in the /vol/rls volume and directory.

#Quota target  Type           Disk     Files    thold

#------------  -------------  ----     ------   -------

jsmith         user@/vol/rls  500m      10k      -

The following sample quota entry assigns to groups in the /vol/cad directory a default quota of 750 megabytes of disk space and 85,000 files per group. This quota applies to any group in the /vol/cad directory that does not have an explicit quota defined.

#Quota target  Type           Disk     Files    thold

#------------  -------------  ----     ------   -------

*              group@/vol/cad 750M     85K      -

Note
A line beginning with a pound sign (#) is considered a comment.

Each entry in the /etc/quotas file can extend to multiple lines, but the Files, Threshold, Soft Disk, and Soft Files fields must be on the same line as the Disk field. If they are not on the same line as the Disk field, they are ignored.

Order of entries

Entries in the /etc/quotas file can be in any order. After Data ONTAP receives a write request, it grants access only if the request meets the requirements specified by all /etc/quotas entries. That is, if a quota target is affected by several /etc/quotas entries, the most restrictive entry applies.

Rules for a user or group quota

The following rules apply to a user or group quota:

If you do not specify a path name to a volume or qtree to which the quota is applied, the quota takes effect in the root volume.
You cannot impose restrictions on particular quota targets. For the following targets, you can specify quotas entries for tracking purposes only:
- User with UID 0
- Group with GID 0
- BUILTIN\Administrators
A file created by a member of the BUILTIN\Administrators group is owned by the BUILTIN\Administrators group, not by the member. When determining the amount of disk space or the number of files used by that user, Data ONTAP does not count the files that are owned by the BUILTIN\Administrators group.

Character coding of the /etc/quotas file

For information about character coding of the /etc/quotas file, see Contents of the /etc directory.