Creating a Quota

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You can create a quota on a directory, with or without specifying quotas for individual users and groups.

Creating Quotas in VAST Web UI

For a simple directory quota, follow the steps in Create a Directory Quota. For a directory quota with user quotas, follow the steps in Create a Directory Quota and Configure User/Group Quotas.

Create a Directory Quota

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Element Store and then Quotas.

  2. Click Create Quota to open the Add Quota dialog.

  3. In the Quota Rules tab, complete the fields:

    Tenant (required)

    Select a tenant for the quota.

    Note

    This field is displayed only when there are multiple tenants configured on the cluster.

    Name (required)

    A unique name for the quota.

    Default Email

    Emails are sent to users if and when they exceed their user/group quota limits. Default Email is a default email address that is used instead of a user's email address in the event that no email address is found for the user on a provider and no email suffix is set in the Quota Setup area of the Notifications settings.

    For more information about this feature, see Managing User Quota Emails.

    Quota Groups

    Optionally, select up to four quota groups to which the new quota will be added.

    Path (required)

    The path to the directory to which quota limits apply.

    The quota applies to the entire directory, including all subdirectories. If a quota configured on a subdirectory is bigger than the quota on its parent directory, the more restrictive quota applies.

    Create directory

    Select to create the directory if the quota directory does not exist yet. If this option is disabled and the quota directory doesn't exist, the quota will not be created.

    Inherit ACL from parent

    This option is displayed after you've selected the option to create a directory for the quota.

    If selected, the newly created directory will inherit the ACL of the parent directory.

    If not selected, and also in case the parent directory does not have an inherited ACL, the newly created directory will be assigned an ACL granting POSIX 777 permissions.

  4. Optionally, set the soft limits for the quota:

    Capacity

    The soft limit of capacity usage.

    When this limit is reached, a notification email is sent, and the grace period countdown commences. Writes are blocked only after the grace period expires.

    Files & Directories

    The soft limit on the number of directories and unique files that can be created in the quota directory.

    When this limit is reached, a notification email is sent, and the grace period countdown commences. Writes are blocked only after the grace period expires.

    NOTE: A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once.

    Grace period

    A period during which writes to the quota directory are not blocked although a soft limit has been exceeded. 

    If the grace period is not set, exceeding a soft limit does not cause blocking of further writes to the quota directory. 

    Specify the grace period as follows:

    • By entering the number of time units followed by a time unit letter, for example: 10d, 10h, 10m or 10s.

    • The value is case-sensitive, entering 10D or 10H will return an error.

    • In the format [DD] [HH:[MM:]]ss. For example:

      • To specify 30 days, 20 hours, 15 minutes and 10 seconds, enter 30 20:15:10.

      • To specify 18 minutes, enter 18:00.

      • To specify 20 hours, enter 20:00:00.

  5. Optionally, set the hard limits for the quota:

    Capacity

    The limit of capacity usage above which no further writes are allowed.

    When the hard limit is reached, the HARD_EXCEEDED alarm is raised.

    The value must be an integer followed by a unit of measure (without a space in between). Valid units are:

    • Base10: KB, MB, GB, TB, PB, EB

    • Base2: KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB

    The units are case-insensitive. For example, 4gb is valid. 

    Files & Directories

    The limit on the number of directories and unique files that can be created in the quota directory, above which no further writes are allowed.

    NOTE: A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once.

  6. If you want to enable user and/or group quotas on the directory, toggle Enable User/Group Quotas on and configure user and/or group quotas in the User Rules and Group Rules tabs.

    When Enable User/Group Quotas is on, you can also define default quota rules that will apply to any user or group for which no individual quota is set. Note that if both default quota rules and individual quotas are defined, the individual quotas override the default ones.

    To set default quota rules, complete these fields under Default User Rule or Default Group Rule as appropriate:

    • In the Soft limit pane:

      Capacity

      The soft limit of capacity usage by the user or group.

      When this limit is reached, a notification email is sent, and the grace period countdown commences. Writes by this user or group are blocked only after the grace period expires.

      Files & Directories

      The soft limit on the number of directories and unique files that can be created by the user or group in the quota directory.

      When this limit is reached, a notification email is sent, and the grace period countdown commences. Writes by the user or group are blocked only after the grace period expires.

      NOTE: A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once.

      Grace period

      A period during which writes to the quota directory are not blocked although the user or group has exceeded a soft limit.

      If the grace period is not set, exceeding a soft limit does not cause blocking of further writes by the user or group to the quota directory. 

      Specify the grace period as follows:

      • By entering the number of time units followed by a time unit letter, for example: 10d, 10h, 10m or 10s.

      • The value is case-sensitive, entering 10D or 10H will return an error.

      • In the format [DD] [HH:[MM:]]ss. For example:

        • To specify 30 days, 20 hours, 15 minutes and 10 seconds, enter 30 20:15:10.

        • To specify 18 minutes, enter 18:00.

        • To specify 20 hours, enter 20:00:00.

    • In the Hard limit pane:

      Capacity

      The capacity usage limit beyond which no further writes by the user or group are allowed.

      The value must be an integer followed by a unit of measure (without a space in between). Valid units are:

      • Base10: KB, MB, GB, TB, PB, EB,

      • Base2: KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB

      The units are case-insensitive. For example, 4gb is valid. 

      Files & Directories

      The limit on the number of directories and unique files that can be created in the quota directory, above which no further writes by the user or group are allowed.

      NOTE: A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once.

  7. Toggle Enable Alarms on or off to enable or disable raising of VMS alarms when users or groups reach their limits. By default, this option is enabled. For more information, see Enabling or Disabling Quota Alarms.

    This setting does not affect notification emails sent to users when they exceed quota limits. Notification emails continue to be sent when this setting is disabled.

  8. Toggle Enable getting emails from Active Directory/LDAP on or off to allow or prohibit querying providers for email addresses used to send email notifications when a quota limit is exceeded.

  9. Click Create

    Quota creation now begins. The process is asynchronous and you can track the quota state in the Quotas page.

Configure User/Group Quotas

If you enabled user/group quotas, you can create rules that restrict the usage of each user and/or group. These rules override the Default User Rule and Default Group Rule, if configured in the Quota Rules tab, for those users and groups bound by these rules.

To configure a user quota or a group quota:

  1. Go to the User Rules or Group Rules tab of the Add Quota dialog and click Add Rule.

  2. Specify how you want to identify the user or group for which a rule is created. Do either of the following:

    • Select username or groupname in the Identifier Type field and type the name of the user or group in the Identifier field.

    • Select uid or gid in the Identifier Type field and enter the UID or GID in the Identifier field.

  3. Under Soft Limit, set a soft limit for the quota:

    Capacity

    The limit of capacity usage by the user or group at which warnings of exceeding the quota are issued, and the grace period countdown commences.

    Files & Directories

    This is a limit on the number of directories and unique files in the quota directory that the user or group can create, which is not enforced until the grace period is reached.

    If the user or group exceeds this limit, a warning is sent by email unless alarms are disabled. A file with multiple hard links is counted only once.

    Grace period

    Set this value to trigger an alarm and block write operations to the directory if the user or group exceeds either the capacity soft limit or the files and directories soft limit for a specified time period. 

    If the grace period is not set, the user or group is only write blocked if and when the user or group reaches one of the hard limits. 

    Specify the grace period in the format: [DD] [HH:[MM:]]ss. For example:

    • To specify 30 days, 20 hours, 15 minutes and 10 seconds, enter 30 20:15:10.

    • To specify 18 minutes, enter 18:00.

    • To specify 20 hours, enter 20:00:00.

    • You can also specify time in days, hours, minutes or seconds, in the format, for example 10d, 10h, 10m or 10s. The parameter is case-sensitive, entering 10D or 10H will return an error.

  4. Under Hard Limit, set a hard limit for the quota:

    Capacity

    The capacity usage limit beyond which no writes will be allowed for the user.

    The value must be a complete integer and must be specified with a unit of measurement. Do not insert a space between the value and the unit of measurements. Valid units are:

    • Base 10: KB, MB, GB, TB, PB, EB,

    • Base 2: KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB

    The units are case-insensitive. For example: 4gb is valid. 

    Files & Directories

    The number of directories and unique files in the quota directory that the user can create.

    NOTE: A file with multiple hard links is counted only once.

  5. Repeat as needed for each user or group for which you want to set individual limits.

  6. When you complete configuring the rules, click Create.

    Quota creation now begins. The process is asynchronous and you can track the quota's state in the Quotas tab in Element Store.

Creating Quotas in VAST CLI

To create a directory quota, use the quota create command. This includes creating default user and group quotas but not any additional user or group quotas.

To add non-default user or group quota rules to a directory quota, use the userquota create command.