Fields of the /etc/quotas file

Quota Target field  

The quota target specifies the user, group, or qtree to which you apply the quota. If the quota is a user or group quota, the same quota target can be in multiple /etc/quotas entries. If the quota is a tree quota, the quota target can be specified only once.

For a user quota

Data ONTAP applies a user quota to the user whose ID is specified in any format described in How Data ONTAP identifies users for quotas.

For a group quota

Data ONTAP applies a group quota to a GID, which you specify in the Quota Target field in any of these formats:

• The group name, such as publications
• The GID, such as 30
• A file or subdirectory whose GID matches the group, such as /vol/vol1/archive

  Note
  Specifying a file or directory name only enables Data ONTAP to obtain the GID. Data ONTAP does not apply quotas to that file or directory, or to the volume in which the file or directory resides.

For a tree quota

The quota target is the complete path name to an existing qtree (for example, /vol/vol0/home).

For default quotas

Use an asterisk (*) in the Quota Target field to specify a default quota. The quota is applied to the following users, groups, or qtrees:

• New users or groups that are created after the default entry takes effect. For example, if the maximum disk space for a default user quota is 500 MB, any new user can use up to 500 MB of disk space.
• Users or groups that are not explicitly mentioned in the /etc/quotas file. For example, if the maximum disk space for a default user quota is 500 MB, users for whom you have not specified a user quota in the /etc/quotas file can use up to 500 MB of disk space.

Type field  

The Type field specifies the quota type, which can be

• User or group quotas, which specify the amount of disk space and the number of files that particular users and groups can own.
• Tree quotas, which specify the amount of disk space and the number of files that particular qtrees can contain.

For a user or group quota

The following table lists the possible values you can specify in the Type field, depending on the volume or the qtree to which the user or group quota is applied.

user@/vol/volume

user@/vol/vol1

user@/vol/volume/qtree

user@/vol/vol0/home

group@/vol/volume

group@/vol/vol1

group@/vol/volume/qtree

group@/vol/vol0/home

For a tree quota

The following table lists the values you can specify in the Type field, depending on whether the entry is an explicit tree quota or a default tree quota.

tree

tree@/vol/volume

tree@/vol/vol0

Disk field  

The Disk field specifies the maximum amount of disk space that the quota target can use. The value in this field represents a hard limit that cannot be exceeded. The following list describes the rules for specifying a value in this field:

• K is equivalent to 1,024 bytes, M means 2²⁰ bytes, and G means 2³⁰ bytes.

  Note
  The Disk field is not case-sensitive. Therefore, you can use K, k, M, m, G, or g.

• The maximum value you can enter in the Disk field is 16 TB, or
  • 16,383G
  • 16,777,215M
  • 17,179,869,180K

    Note
    If you omit the K, M, or G, Data ONTAP assumes a default value of K.

• Your quota limit can be larger than the amount of disk space available in the volume. In this case, a warning message is printed to the console when quotas are initialized.
• The value cannot be specified in decimal notation.
• If you want to track the disk usage but do not want to impose a hard limit on disk usage, type a hyphen (-).
• Do not leave the Disk field blank. The value that follows the Type field is always assigned to the Disk field; thus, for example, Data ONTAP regards the following two quota file entries as equivalent:

    #Quota Target         type           disk      files

     /export              tree           75K       

     /export              tree                     75K

Note
If you do not specify disk space limits as a multiple of 4 KB, disk space fields can appear incorrect in quota reports. This happens because disk space fields are always rounded up to the nearest multiple of 4 KB to match disk space limits, which are translated into 4-KB disk blocks.

Files field  

The Files field specifies the maximum number of files that the quota target can use. The value in this field represents a hard limit that cannot be exceeded. The following list describes the rules for specifying a value in this field:

• K is equivalent to 1,024, M means 2²⁰, and G means 2³⁰. You can omit the K, M, or G. For example, if you type 100, it means that the maximum number of files is 100.

  Note
  The Files field is not case-sensitive. Therefore, you can use K, k, M, m, G, or g.

• The maximum value you can enter in the Files field is 3GB, or
  • 4,294,967,295
  • 4,194,303K
  • 4,095M
  • 3G
• The value cannot be specified in decimal notation.
• If you want to track the number of files but do not want to impose a hard limit on the number of files that the quota target can use, type a hyphen (-). If the quota target is root, or if you specify 0 as the UID or GID, you must type a hyphen.
• A blank in this field means there is no restriction on the number of files that the quota target can use. If you leave this field blank, you cannot specify values for the Threshold, Soft Disk, or Soft Files fields.
• The Files field must be on the same line as the Disk field. Otherwise, the Files field is ignored.

Threshold field  

The Threshold field specifies the disk space threshold. If a write causes the quota target to exceed the threshold, the write still succeeds, but a warning message is logged to the storage system console and an SNMP trap is generated. Use the Threshold field to specify disk space threshold limits for CIFS.

The following list describes the rules for specifying a value in this field:

• The use of K, M, and G for the Threshold field is the same as for the Disk field.
• The maximum value you can enter in the Threshold field is 16 TB, or
  • 16,383G
  • 16,777,215M
  • 17,179,869,180K

    Note
    If you omit the K, M, or G, Data ONTAP assumes the default value of K.

• The value cannot be specified in decimal notation.
• The Threshold field must be on the same line as the Disk field. Otherwise, the Threshold field is ignored.
• If you do not want to specify a threshold limit on the amount of disk space the quota target can use, enter a hyphen (-) in this field or leave blank.

  Note
  Threshold fields can appear incorrect in quota reports if you do not specify threshold limits as multiples of 4 KB. This happens because threshold fields are always rounded up to the nearest multiple of 4 KB to match disk space limits, which are translated into 4-KB disk blocks.

Soft Disk field  

The Soft Disk field specifies the amount of disk space that the quota target can use before a warning is issued. If the quota target exceeds the soft limit, a warning message is logged to the storage system console and an SNMP trap is generated. When the soft disk limit is no longer being exceeded, another syslog message and SNMP trap are generated.

The following list describes the rules for specifying a value in this field:

• The use of K, M, and G for the Threshold field is the same as for the Disk field.
• The maximum value you can enter in the Soft Disk field is 16 TB, or
  • 16,383G
  • 16,777,215M
  • 17,179,869,180K
• The value cannot be specified in decimal notation.
• If you do not want to specify a soft limit on the amount of disk space that the quota target can use, type a hyphen (-) in this field (or leave this field blank if no value for the Soft Files field follows).
• The Soft Disk field must be on the same line as the Disk field. Otherwise, the Soft Disk field is ignored.

  Note
  Disk space fields can appear incorrect in quota reports if you do not specify disk space limits as multiples of 4 KB. This happens because disk space fields are always rounded up to the nearest multiple of 4 KB to match disk space limits, which are translated into 4-KB disk blocks.

Soft Files field  

The Soft Files field specifies the number of files that the quota target can use before a warning is issued. If the quota target exceeds the soft limit, a warning message is logged to the storage system console and an SNMP trap is generated. When the soft files limit is no longer being exceeded, another syslog message and SNMP trap are generated.

The following list describes the rules for specifying a value in this field.

• The format of the Soft Files field is the same as the format of the Files field.
• The maximum value you can enter in the Soft Files field is 4,294,967,295.
• The value cannot be specified in decimal notation.
• If you do not want to specify a soft limit on the number of files that the quota target can use, type a hyphen (-) in this field or leave the field blank.
• The Soft Files field must be on the same line as the Disk field. Otherwise, the Soft Files field is ignored.

Copyright © 1994-2005, Network Appliance, Inc. All rights reserved.
Part No. 210-01085_B0
File: 8quot10.htm
Last updated: 01-Dec-2005 16:51:45