Turning quotas on and off

What happens to quotas when you create a vFiler unit  

When you create a vFiler unit, quotas are automatically turned off, on both the hosting storage system and the new vFiler unit, for all the volumes you assign to the new vFiler unit, and for all volumes from which you assign qtrees to the new vFiler unit. (Quotas are also turned off for volumes that you move from one vFiler unit to another.)

Example of assigning a qtree to a new vFiler unit

If quotas have been turned on for the volume /vol/vol1 on the hosting storage system vFiler0, and you then assign a qtree in that volume, /vol/vol1/qtree1, to a different vFiler unit, vFiler1, then the following occurs:

• Quotas are turned off for the entire volume /vol/vol1on vFiler0.
• Turning quotas on again for /vol/vol1 on vFiler0 reapplies quotas for /vol/vol1 as specified in vFiler0's /etc/quotas file, except that user and group quotas no longer apply to qtree1. But any specified qtree quota does apply.
• If you now apply user, group, and qtree quotas to /vol/vol1/qtree1 on vFiler1, these quotas will be enforced along with any qtree quota set from vFiler0 (the more restrictive qtree quota takes precedence).

Prerequisite for turning quotas on and off  

On a hosting storage system licensed for vFiler units, the hosting storage system administrator must allow quotas for a volume before you can turn quotas on and off for the volume. By default, quotas are allowed on all volumes.

Only hosting storage system administrators can allow or disallow quotas for a volume.

Effects of disallowing quotas  

Disallowing quotas on a volume has these effects on all vFiler units that have storage units in the volume:

• If quotas are currently turned off, you or the vFiler unit administrator are prevented from turning quotas on for that volume.
• If quotas are currently turned on, they are turned off immediately and are prevented from being turned back on.

Allowing or disallowing quotas for a volume  

To allow or disallow quotas for a volume, complete the following step.

quota allow | disallow volume 

How turning quotas on and off affects a vFiler unit  

Turning quotas on using the quota on volume command activates quotas on the specified volume based on the contents of /etc/quotas. Changes made to /etc/quotas do not take effect the next time the quota on or quota resize command is executed.

Turning quotas off using the quota off volume command deactivates the specified volume.

You can turn quotas on and off on a per-volume basis for a vFiler unit. After you turn quotas on for a particular volume, Data ONTAP initializes quotas for the storage units residing on the volume, which are owned by the vFiler unit. Quota on or off states are persistent and stay set after reboots.

Who can turn quotas on and off?  

Hosting storage system administrators and vFiler unit administrators can turn quotas on and off for a volume as long as they own some storage space in the volume. For example, from the hosting storage system, you can turn quotas on for the /vol/vol1 volume if vFiler0, which is the hosting storage system, owns some storage space in the volume.

You can turn quotas on and off for a volume from a vFiler unit regardless of how the quota status for that volume is set from other vFiler units, including vFiler0. For example, if vFiler1 owns the /vol/vol1/qtree1 qtree and the hosting storage system owns the rest of the /vol/vol1 volume, you can turn quotas on and off from vFiler1 for the volume regardless of whether the hosting storage system has quotas on or off for the same volume.

Turning quotas on or off from a vFiler unit  

To turn quotas on or off for a volume from a vFiler unit, complete the following step.

vfiler run vfilertemplate quota on | 
off volume

quota on | off volume

For more information  

For more information about modifying and turning quotas on and off, see the Data ONTAP Storage Management Guide.

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Part No. 210-01078-B0
File: quota3.htm
Last updated: 08-Dec-2005 13:31:52