implement disk quotas for root file system in linux

shankarLe · 01-02-2011, 08:02 AM

Hi all,

I have a question about disk quota for users in red hat linux. There isn't any separate file system for /home and we have only one (/) root file system for everything else on the system. Is there any way that we can still implement quotas for users through their home directories was mounted on (/) root file system.

Do we need to have a separate file system (/home) compulsory for implementing disk quotas?

I need your suggestions/help on this

Thank you

stress_junkie · 01-02-2011, 08:36 AM

Disk quotas are enabled or not enabled on each partition. Disk quotas can be enabled on the root partition.

Disk quotas are set or not set for each user and/or user group.

You have to install the quota system administration tools to use disk quotas. (quota and quotatools)

Look here for more details:

http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/w...ge_with_Quotas

That article was written in 2010 so it is up to date.

Be careful. Disk quotas can cause problems that are difficult to diagnose if you forget that quotas are enabled. (i.e. user cannot create a file when the partition has plenty of space and other users can create files)

shankarLe · 01-02-2011, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stress_junkie

Disk quotas are enabled or not enabled on each partition. Disk quotas can be enabled on the root partition.

Disk quotas are set or not set for each user and/or user group.

You have to install the quota system administration tools to use disk quotas. (quota and quotatools)

Look here for more details:

http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/w...ge_with_Quotas

That article was written in 2010 so it is up to date.

Be careful. Disk quotas can cause problems that are difficult to diagnose if you forget that quotas are enabled. (i.e. user cannot create a file when the partition has plenty of space and other users can create files)

Hi,
I have already quota tool installed and was able to work fine with /home partition. My only concern is, are the same instructions in the above link will work for (/) partition since I have only two partition on the system (/) and (/boot). I have tried on a test machine but this does not seem to be working

thank you.

sleddog · 01-02-2011, 07:28 PM

Show us the output of the 'mount' command. You should have something like this:

Code:

[root@sun:~] mount
/dev/hda3 on / type ext3 (rw,usrquota,grpquota)
/dev/hda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)

Here, / is mounted on /dev/hda3 with user and group quotas enabled.

User & group quota will apply to /home and all other directories under / with the exception of /boot, which is mounted separately on a partition without quota support.