Understanding quotas

Types of quotas supported on vFilers

You can apply the same types of quotas--user, group, and tree quotas--on vFilers as you can on a filer.

Who manages quota specifications?

The vFiler administrator specifies the size of each quota in the vFiler's /etc/quotas file. That is, the vFiler administrator tracks and limits the amount of disk space and the number of files each user, group, or qtree uses.

Exception

If a qtree owned by the vFiler resides on a volume owned by the hosting filer, you, the hosting filer administrator, can also specify a quota for the qtree in the hosting filer's /etc/quotas file. The following example shows how the tree quota on the hosting filer affects a vFiler qtree:

Suppose the /vol/vol1/qtree1 qtree is a storage unit of the vFiler, and the /vol/vol1 volume is owned by the hosting filer.

In the /etc/quotas file of the vFiler, the vFiler administrator specifies that this qtree is limited to 20 GB of disk space. In the /etc/quotas file of the hosting filer, you can specify the disk space limit for the qtree to be 10 GB. This means that if quotas are turned on from the hosting filer for the /vol/vol1 volume, the qtree cannot exceed the limit in either /etc/quotas file, whichever is lower. In this example, the qtree cannot exceed 10 GB.

The hosting filer controls the usage of quotas on each volume it owns using the quota allow volume and quota disallow volume commands. Once the hosting filer allows quotas, you can turn quotas on or off using the quota on volume and quota off volume commands, respectively.