Managing disk quotas with fsdisk
Introduction
Disk quotas are a feature of the Linux file system that allows system administrators to control the amount of disk space allocated to users or groups. This can be useful in a multi-user environment where resources need to be managed efficiently. One tool that can be used to manage disk quotas is fsdisk, which is a command-line utility that allows users to set and monitor disk quotas on a Linux system.
Setting up disk quotas
To set up disk quotas using fsdisk, the file system must first be mounted with the ‘usrquota’ and ‘grpquota’ options in the /etc/fstab file. Once this is done, quotas can be enabled on a specific file system using the command ‘quotacheck -cug /dev/sdX’ where /dev/sdX is the device file for the file system. This will create quota files in the root directory of the file system.
Next, quotas can be enabled for a specific user or group using the ‘edquota -u username’ or ‘edquota -g groupname’ commands. This will open a text editor where the user or group quotas can be set. Quotas can be specified in terms of disk space usage or the number of inodes used.
Monitoring disk quotas
Once quotas have been set up, administrators can monitor disk usage using the ‘quota’ command. This will display a summary of disk usage and quotas for each user or group on the system. The ‘repquota’ command can also be used to generate a more detailed report of disk usage and quotas.
If a user exceeds their quota, they will receive a warning message. Administrators can also set up email notifications to be sent when quotas are exceeded. Users who exceed their quota may be prevented from writing to the file system until their disk usage falls below the quota limit.
Managing disk quotas
Administrators can adjust disk quotas using the ‘edquota’ command. This allows quotas to be modified for individual users or groups. Quotas can be increased or decreased as needed to accommodate changes in disk usage patterns.
If quotas need to be removed from a file system, the ‘quotaoff -a’ command can be used to disable quotas. The quota files can then be removed from the file system using the ‘rm’ command. Finally, the ‘quotacheck -avug’ command can be used to clean up any remaining quota files.
