You can specify hard, soft, and threshold limit quotas for FlexGroup volumes.

You can specify these limits to constrain the amount of space, the number of files that a specific user, group, or qtree can create, or both. Quota limits generate warning messages in the following scenarios:
- When usage exceeds a configured soft limit, ONTAP issues a warning message, but further traffic is still allowed.
  
  If usage later drops below the configured soft limit again, an all-clear message is issued.
- When usage exceeds a configured threshold limit, ONTAP issues a second warning message.
  
  No all-clear administrative message is issued when usage later drops below a configured threshold limit.
- If usage reaches a configured hard limit, ONTAP prevents further resource consumption by rejecting traffic.
During quota initialization, quotas are not enforced, and there are no notifications of breached quotas following quota initialization.

To check if quotas were breached during quota initialization, you can use the volume quota report command.

Quota targets and types

Quotas have a type: they can be either user, group, or tree. Quota targets specify the user, group, or qtree for which the quota limits are applied.

The following table lists the kinds of quota targets, what types of quotas each quota target is associated with, and how each quota target is represented:

Quota target

Quota type

How target is represented

Notes

user

user quota

UNIX user name UNIX UID

Windows user name in pre-Windows 2000 format

Windows SID

User quotas can be applied for a specific volume or qtree.

group

group quota

UNIX group name UNIX GID

Group quotas can be applied for a specific volume or qtree.

ONTAP does not apply group quotas based on Windows IDs.

qtree

tree quota

qtree name

Tree quotas are applied to a particular volume and do not affect qtrees in other volumes.

""

user quotagroup quota

tree quota

Double quotation marks ("")

A quota target of "" denotes a default quota. For default quotas, the quota type is determined by the value of the type field.

Behavior of FlexGroup volumes when quota limits are exceeded

Quota limits are supported on FlexGroup volumes. There are some differences in the way quota limits are enforced on a FlexGroup volume when compared to a FlexVol volume.

FlexGroup volumes might show the following behaviors when the quota limits are exceeded:

The space and file usage in a FlexGroup volume might reach up to 5 percent higher than the configured hard limit before the quota limit is enforced by rejecting further traffic.

To provide the best performance, ONTAP might allow the space consumption to exceed the configured hard limit by a small margin before the quota enforcement begins. This additional space consumption does not exceed 5 percent of the configured hard limits, 1 GB, or 65536 files, whichever is lower.
After the quota limit is reached, if a user or administrator deletes some files or directories such that the quota usage is now below the limit, the subsequent quota-consuming file operation might resume with a delay (might take up to 5 seconds to resume).
When the total space and file usage of a FlexGroup volume exceed the configured quota limits, there might be a slight delay in logging an event log message.
You might get “no space” errors if some constituents of the FlexGroup volume get full, but the quota limits are not reached.
Operations, such as renaming a file or directory or moving files between qtrees, on quota targets, for which quota hard limits are configured, might take longer when compared to similar operations on FlexVol volumes.

Examples of quota enforcement for FlexGroup volumes

You can use the examples to understand how to configure quotas with limits in ONTAP 9.7 and later.

Example 1: Enforcing a quota rule with disk limits

You should create a quota policy rule of type user with both an achievable soft disk limit and hard disk limit.

cluster1::> volume quota policy rule create -vserver vs0 -policy-name default -volume FG -type user -target "" -qtree "" -disk-limit 1T -soft-disk-limit 800G

You can view the quota policy rule:

cluster1::> volume quota policy rule show -vserver vs0 -policy-name default -volume FG

Vserver: vs0               Policy: default           Volume: FG

                                               Soft             Soft
                         User         Disk     Disk   Files    Files
Type   Target    Qtree   Mapping     Limit    Limit   Limit    Limit  Threshold
-----  --------  ------- -------  --------  -------  ------  -------  ---------
user   ""        ""      off           1TB    800GB       -        -          -

To activate the new quota rule, you initialize quotas on the volume:

cluster1::> volume quota on -vserver vs0 -volume FG -foreground true
[Job 49] Job succeeded: Successful

You can view the disk usage and file usage information of the FlexGroup volume by using the quota report.

cluster1::> volume quota report -vserver vs0 -volume FG
Vserver: vs0

                                    ----Disk----  ----Files-----   Quota
Volume   Tree      Type    ID        Used  Limit    Used   Limit   Specifier
-------  --------  ------  -------  -----  -----  ------  ------   ---------
FG                 user    root      50GB      -       1       -
FG                 user    *         800GB    1TB      0       -   *
2 entries were displayed.

After the hard disk limit is reached, the quota policy rule target (user, in this case) is blocked from writing more data to the files.

Example 2: Enforcing a quota rule for multiple users

You should create a quota policy rule of type user, where multiple users are specified in the quota target (UNIX users, SMB users, or a combination of both) and where the rule has both an achievable soft disk limit and hard disk limit.
```
cluster1::> quota policy rule create -vserver vs0 -policy-name default -volume FG -type user -target "rdavis,ABCCORP\RobertDavis" -qtree "" -disk-limit 1TB -soft-disk-limit  800GB
```

You can view the quota policy rule:

cluster1::> quota policy rule show -vserver vs0 -policy-name default -volume FG

Vserver: vs0               Policy: default           Volume: FG

                                               Soft             Soft
                         User         Disk     Disk   Files    Files
Type   Target    Qtree   Mapping     Limit    Limit   Limit    Limit  Threshold
-----  --------  ------- -------  --------  -------  ------  -------  ---------
user   "rdavis,ABCCORP\RobertDavis"  "" off  1TB  800GB  -  -

To activate the new quota rule, you initialize quotas on the volume:

cluster1::> volume quota on -vserver vs0 -volume FG -foreground true
[Job 49] Job succeeded: Successful

You can verify that the quota state is active:

cluster1::> volume quota show -vserver vs0 -volume FG
              Vserver Name: vs0
               Volume Name: FG
               Quota State: on
               Scan Status: -
          Logging Messages: on
          Logging Interval: 1h
          Sub Quota Status: none
  Last Quota Error Message: -
Collection of Quota Errors: -

You can view the disk usage and file usage information of the FlexGroup volume by using the quota report.

cluster1::> quota report -vserver vs0 -volume FG
Vserver: vs0

                                    ----Disk----  ----Files-----   Quota
Volume   Tree      Type    ID        Used  Limit    Used   Limit   Specifier
-------  --------  ------  -------  -----  -----  ------  ------   ---------
FG                 user    rdavis,ABCCORP\RobertDavis  0B  1TB  0  -   rdavis,ABCCORP\RobertDavis

The quota limit is shared among all users listed in the quota target.

After the hard disk limit is reached, users listed in the quota target are blocked from writing more data to the files.

Example 3: Enforcing quota with user mapping enabled

You should create a quota policy rule of type user, specify a UNIX user or a Windows user as the quota target with user-mapping set to on, and create the rule with both an achievable soft disk limit and hard disk limit.

The mapping between UNIX and Windows users must be configured earlier by using the vserver name-mapping create command.
```
cluster1::> quota policy rule create -vserver vs0 -policy-name default -volume FG -type user -target rdavis -qtree "" -disk-limit 1TB -soft-disk-limit  800GB -user-mapping on
```

You can view the quota policy rule:

cluster1::> quota policy rule show -vserver vs0 -policy-name default -volume FG

Vserver: vs0               Policy: default           Volume: FG

                                               Soft             Soft
                         User         Disk     Disk   Files    Files
Type   Target    Qtree   Mapping     Limit    Limit   Limit    Limit  Threshold
-----  --------  ------- -------  --------  -------  ------  -------  ---------
user   rdavis    ""      on           1TB    800GB       -        -          -

To activate the new quota rule, you initialize quotas on the volume:

cluster1::> volume quota on -vserver vs0 -volume FG -foreground true
[Job 49] Job succeeded: Successful

You can verify that the quota state is active:

cluster1::> volume quota show -vserver vs0 -volume FG
              Vserver Name: vs0
               Volume Name: FG
               Quota State: on
               Scan Status: -
          Logging Messages: on
          Logging Interval: 1h
          Sub Quota Status: none
  Last Quota Error Message: -
Collection of Quota Errors: -

You can view the disk usage and file usage information of the FlexGroup volume by using the quota report.

cluster1::> quota report -vserver vs0 -volume FG
Vserver: vs0

                                    ----Disk----  ----Files-----   Quota
Volume   Tree      Type    ID        Used  Limit    Used   Limit   Specifier
-------  --------  ------  -------  -----  -----  ------  ------   ---------
FG                 user    rdavis,ABCCORP\RobertDavis  0B  1TB  0  -   rdavis

The quota limit is shared between the user listed in the quota target and its corresponding Windows or UNIX user.

After the hard disk limit is reached, both the user listed in the quota target and its corresponding Windows or UNIX user is blocked from writing more data to the files.

Example 4: Verifying the qtree size when quota is enabled

You should create a quota policy rule of type tree and where the rule has both an achievable soft disk limit and hard disk limit.

cluster1::> quota policy rule create -vserver vs0 -policy-name default -volume FG -type tree -target tree_4118314302 -qtree "" -disk-limit 48GB -soft-disk-limit 30GB

You can view the quota policy rule:

cluster1::> quota policy rule show -vserver vs0

Vserver: vs0               Policy: default           Volume: FG

                                               Soft             Soft
                         User         Disk     Disk   Files    Files
Type   Target    Qtree   Mapping     Limit    Limit   Limit    Limit  Threshold
-----  --------  ------- -------  --------  -------  ------  -------  ---------
tree   tree_4118314302  "" -          48GB        -      20        -

To activate the new quota rule, you initialize quotas on the volume:

cluster1::> volume quota on -vserver vs0 -volume FG -foreground true
[Job 49] Job succeeded: Successful

You can view the disk usage and file usage information of the FlexGroup volume by using the quota report.

cluster1::> quota report -vserver vs0
Vserver: vs0
----Disk---- ----Files----- Quota
Volume Tree Type ID Used Limit Used Limit Specifier
------- -------- ------ ------- ----- ----- ------ ------ ---------
FG tree_4118314302 tree 1 30.35GB 48GB 14 20 tree_4118314302

The quota limit is shared between the user listed in the quota target and its corresponding Windows or UNIX user.

From an NFS client, use the df command to view the total space usage, available space, and the used space.
```
scsps0472342001# df -m /t/10.53.2.189/FG-3/tree_4118314302
Filesystem 1M-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
10.53.2.189/FG-3 49152 31078 18074 63% /t/10.53.2.189/FG-3
```
With hard limit, the space usage is calculated from an NFS client as follows:
- Total space usage = hard limit for tree
- Free space = Hard limit minus qtree space usage Without hard limit, the space usage is calculated from an NFS client as follows:
- Space usage = quota usage
- Total space = Sum of quota usage and physical free space in the volume
From the SMB share, use Windows Explorer to view the total space usage, available space, and the used space.

From an SMB share, you should be aware of the following considerations for calculating the space usage:
- The user quota hard limit for the user and group is taken into consideration for calculating the total available space.
- The minimum value among the free space of the tree quota rule, the user quota rule, and the group quota rule is considered as the free space for the SMB share.
- The total space usage is variable for SMB and depends on the hard limit that corresponds to the minimum free space among the tree, user, and group.

Apply rules and limits on the FlexGroups volume

Steps

Create quota rules for targets : volume quota policy rule create -vserver vs0 -policy-name quota_policy_of_the_rule -volume flexgroup_vol -type {tree|user|group} -target target_for_rule -qtree qtree_name [-disk-limit hard_disk_limit_size] [-file-limit hard_limit_number_of_files] [-threshold threshold_disk_limit_size] [-soft-disk-limit soft_disk_limit_size] [-soft-file-limit soft_limit_number_of_files]
- In ONTAP 9.7 and later, the quota target type can be user, group, or tree for FlexGroup volumes.
- A path is not supported as the target when creating quota rules for FlexGroup volumes.
- You can specify hard disk limit, hard file limit, soft disk limit, soft file limit, and threshold limit quotas for FlexGroup volumes.

The following example shows a default quota rule being created for the user target type:

cluster1::> volume quota policy rule create -vserver vs0 -policy-name quota_policy_vs0_1 -volume fg1 -type user -target "" -qtree ""

The following example shows a tree quota rule being created for the qtree named qtree1:

cluster1::> volume quota policy rule create -policy-name default -vserver vs0 -volume fg1 -type tree -target "qtree1"

Activate the quotas for the specified FlexGroup volume: volume quota on -vserver svm_name -volume flexgroup_vol -foreground true
```
cluster1::> volume quota on -vserver vs0 -volume fg1 -foreground true
```

Monitor the state of quota initialization: volume quota show -vserver svm_name

FlexGroup volumes might show the mixed state, which indicates that all of the constituent volumes are not in the same state yet.

cluster1::> volume quota show -vserver vs0
                                          Scan
Vserver    Volume        State            Status
---------  ------------  ---------------  ------
vs0        fg1           initializing         95%
vs0        vol1          off                   -
2 entries were displayed.

View the quota report for the FlexGroup volume with active quotas: volume quota report -vserver svm_name -volume flexgroup_vol

You cannot specify a path with the volume quota report command for FlexGroup volumes.

The following example shows the user quota for the FlexGroup volume fg1:

cluster1::> volume quota report -vserver vs0 -volume fg1
  Vserver: vs0
                                      ----Disk----  ----Files-----   Quota
  Volume   Tree      Type    ID        Used  Limit    Used   Limit   Specifier
  -------  --------  ------  -------  -----  -----  ------  ------   ---------
  fg1                user    *           0B      -       0       -   *
  fg1                user    root       1GB      -       1       -   *
  2 entries were displayed.

The following example shows the tree quota for the FlexGroup volume fg1:

cluster1::> volume quota report -vserver vs0 -volume fg1
Vserver: vs0

                                    ----Disk----  ----Files-----   Quota
Volume   Tree      Type    ID        Used  Limit    Used   Limit   Specifier
-------  --------  ------  -------  -----  -----  ------  ------   ---------
fg1      qtree1  tree      1         68KB      -      18       -   qtree1
fg1              tree      *           0B      -       0       -   *
2 entries were displayed.

Results

The quota rules and limits are applied on the FlexGroups volume.

The usage might reach up to 5 percent higher than a configured hard limit before ONTAP enforces the quota by rejecting further traffic.

Related information

ONTAP 9 command reference