Enabling quotas
The IBM Storage Scale quota system can help you control file system usage.
Quotas can be defined for individual users, groups of users, or filesets. Quotas can be set on the total number of files and on the total amount of data space that is used.
If data replication is configured, be sure to include the size of the replicated data in your calculation of the proper size for a quota limit. For more information, see Listing quotas.
- When you create the file system, issue the mmcrfs command with the -Q option included.
- After the file system is created, issue the mmchfs command with the -Q option included.
After the file system is mounted, you can set quota values by issuing the mmedquota command and activate quotas by issuing the mmquotaon command. By default, quota values are not automatically activated when they are set.
- Soft limit
- Defines levels
of disk space and files below which the user, group, or fileset can safely operate.
Specified in units of KiB (k or K), MiB (m or M), or GiB (g or G). If no suffix is provided, the number is assumed to be in bytes.
- Hard limit
- Defines the maximum amount of disk space and number of files that the user, group, or fileset
can accumulate.
Specified in units of KiB (k or K), MiB (m or M), or GiB (g or G). If no suffix is provided, the number is assumed to be in bytes.
- Grace period
- Allows the user, group, or fileset to exceed the soft limit for a specified period of time. The default period is one week. If usage is not reduced to a level below the soft limit during that time, the quota system interprets the soft limit as the hard limit and no further allocation is allowed. The user, group, or fileset can reset this condition by reducing usage enough to fall below the soft limit; or the administrator can increase the quota levels with the mmedquota or mmdefedquota.
The use of SMB, NFS, and object protocols affects the operation of quotas. For more information, see Implications of quotas for different protocols.