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A disk quota is a system administration tool that limits the amount of disk space that users or groups can utilize on a file system. It is used to manage and allocate resources fairly, prevent the monopolization of storage space, and ensure system performance remains consistent.
There are two main components of disk quotas:
Usage limits: a. Soft limit: A threshold for disk space usage that, when exceeded, triggers a warning to the user. Users can still write data beyond this limit, but they will be reminded to reduce their usage. b. Hard limit: An absolute cap on disk space usage. Once this limit is reached, the user cannot write any more data to the file system. This prevents a user from consuming too much disk space and impacting others.
Grace period: A period during which users can reduce their disk usage after exceeding the soft limit without being restricted by the hard limit. If the user fails to reduce their usage below the soft limit within the grace period, they will be treated as if they had reached the hard limit.
Disk quotas are commonly implemented on UNIX-based systems (e.g., Linux) using the "quota" utility, and on Windows systems through the File Server Resource Manager (FSRM).
To enable and manage disk quotas, system administrators need to perform the following steps: