Understanding quotas

Types of quotas supported on a vFiler unit

You can apply the same types of quotas--user, group, and tree quotas--on a vFiler unit as you can on a storage system.

Who manages quota specifications?

The vFiler unit administrator specifies the size of each quota in the vFiler unit's /etc/quotas file. That is, the vFiler unit 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 unit resides on a volume owned by the hosting storage system, you, the hosting storage system administrator, can also specify a quota for the qtree in the hosting storage system's /etc/quotas file. The following example shows how the tree quota on the hosting storage system affects a vFiler unit qtree.

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

In the /etc/quotas file of the vFiler unit, the vFiler unit administrator specifies that this qtree is limited to 20 GB of disk space. In the /etc/quotas file of the hosting storage system, 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 storage system 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 storage system administrator controls the usage of quotas on each volume that the storage system owns using the quota allow volume and quota disallow volume commands. Once the hosting storage system administrator allows quotas, you can turn quotas on or off on the vFiler units using the quota on volume and quota off volume commands, respectively.

For more information

For detailed information about quotas, see the Data ONTAP Storage Management Guide.