HP JFS 3.3 and HP OnLineJFS 3.3 VERITAS File System 3.3 System Administrator's Guide

Chapter 7 121
Quotas
Quota Limits
Quota Limits
Quota limits for individual users can be set up for file and data block
usage on a file system. A user quota consists of limits for these resources.
The following limits can be set for each resource:
• The hard limit is an absolute limit that cannot be exceeded under
any circumstances.
• The soft limit (which is lower thanthe hard limit) can be exceeded,
but only for a limited time. The time limit can be configured on a
per-file system basis, and a default value of seven days is set by VxFS.
There are separate time limits for files and data blocks.
An example of the use of soft limits is when the user needs to run
applications that might generate large temporary files. In cases like
these, quota limit violations may be allowed for a limited duration.
However, if the user continuously exceeds the soft limit, no further
allocations are allowed after the expiration of the time limit.
The system administrator is responsible for assigning hard and soft
limits to the users, as well as setting associated time limits. Although file
and data block limits can be set individually for each user, the time
limits apply to the file system as a whole. Quota information associated
with user IDs is stored in a quotas file, as described in “Quotas File”.