System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration
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Setting Up Quotas (Task Map)

Task

Description

For Instructions

1. Configure a file system for quotas.

Edit the /etc/vfstab file so that quotas are activated each time the file system is mounted. Also, create a quotas file.

How to Configure File Systems for Quotas

2. Set up quotas for a user.

Use the edquota command to create disk quotas and inode quotas for a single user account.

How to Set Up Quotas for a User

3. (Optional) Set up quotas for multiple users.

Use the edquota command to apply prototype quotas to other user accounts.

How to Set Up Quotas for Multiple Users

4. Check for consistency.

Use the quotacheck command to compare quotas to current disk usage for consistency across one or more file systems.

How to Check Quota Consistency

5. Turn on quotas.

Use the quotaon command to initiate quotas on one or more file systems.

How to Turn On Quotas

How to Configure File Systems for Quotas

  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

    Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

  2. Edit the /etc/vfstab file and add rq to the mount options field for each UFS file system that will have quotas.
  3. Change directory to the root of the file system that will have quotas.
  4. Create a file named quotas.
    # touch quotas
  5. Change permissions to read/write for superuser access only.
    # chmod 600 quotas
Example 7-1 Configuring File Systems for Quotas

The following /etc/vfstab example shows that the /export/home directory from the system pluto is mounted as an NFS file system on the local system. You can tell that quotas are enabled by the rq entry under the mount options column.

# device   device    mount     FS    fsck   mount   mount
# to mount       to fsck  point     type   pass  at boot options
# pluto:/export/home -   /export/home nfs    -     yes    rq

The following example line from the /etc/vfstab file shows that the local /work directory is mounted with quotas enabled, signified by the rq entry under the mount options column.

#device     device        mount  FS   fsck  mount    mount
#to mount         to fsck      point  type  pass  at boot options
#/dev/dsk/c0t4d0s0 /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s0 /work ufs  3    yes     rq
See Also

How to Set Up Quotas for a User

  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

    Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

  2. Use the quota editor to create a temporary file that contains one line of quota information for each mounted UFS file system that has a quotas file in the file system's root directory.
    # edquota username

    where username is the user for whom you want to set up quotas.

  3. Change the number of 1-Kbyte disk blocks, both soft and hard, and the number of inodes, both soft and hard, from the default of 0, to the quotas that you specify for each file system.
  4. Verify the user's quota.
    # quota -v username
    -v

    Displays the user's quota information on all mounted file systems where quotas exist.

    username

    Specifies the user name to view quota limits.

Example 7-2 Setting Up Quotas for a User

The following example shows the contents of the temporary file opened by edquota on a system where /files is the only mounted file system that contains a quotas file in the root directory.

fs /files blocks (soft = 0, hard = 0) inodes (soft = 0, hard = 0)

The following example shows the same line in the temporary file after quotas have been set up.

fs /files blocks (soft = 50, hard = 60) inodes (soft = 90, hard = 100)

How to Set Up Quotas for Multiple Users

  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

    Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

  2. Use the quota editor to apply the quotas you already established for a prototype user to the additional users that you specify.
    # edquota -p prototype-user username ...
    prototype-user

    Is the user name of the account for which you have set up quotas.

    username ...

    Specifies one or more user names of additional accounts. More than one user name is specified by separating each user name with a space.

Example 7-3 Setting Up Prototype Quotas for Multiple Users

The following example shows how to apply the quotas established for user bob to users mary and john.

# edquota -p bob mary john

How to Check Quota Consistency

The quotacheck command is run automatically when a system is rebooted. You generally do not have to run the quotacheck command on an empty file system with quotas. However, if you are setting up quotas on a file system with existing files, you need to run the quotacheck command to synchronize the quota database with the files or inodes that already exist in the file system.

Also keep in mind that running the quotacheck command on large file systems can be time-consuming.


Note - To ensure accurate disk data, the file systems being checked should be quiescent when you run the quotacheck command manually.


  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

    Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

  2. Run a consistency check on UFS file systems.
    # quotacheck [-va] filesystem 
    -v

    (Optional) Identifies the disk quotas for each user on a particular file system.

    -a

    Checks all file systems with an rq entry in the /etc/vfstab file.

    filesystem

    Specifies the file system to check.

    See the quotacheck(1M) man page for more information.

Example 7-4 Checking Quota Consistency

The following example shows how to check quotas for the /export/home file system on the /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 slice. The /export/home file system is the only file system with an rq entry in the /etc/vfstab file.

# quotacheck -va
*** Checking quotas for /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 (/export/home)

How to Turn On Quotas

  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

    Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

  2. Turn on file system quotas.
    # quotaon [-v] -a filesystem ...
    -v

    Displays a message for each file system after quotas are turned on.

    -a

    Turns on quotas for all file systems with an rq entry in the /etc/vfstab file.

    filesystem ...

    Turns on quotas for one or more file systems that you specify. More than one file system is specified by separating each file system name with a space.

Example 7-5 Turning On Quotas

The following example shows how to turn quotas on for the file systems on the /dev/dsk/c0t4d0s7 and /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 slices.

# quotaon -v /dev/dsk/c0t4d0s7 /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7
/dev/dsk/c0t4d0s7: quotas turned on
/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7: quotas turned on
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