---
title: "Creating a Quota"
slug: "creating-quotas-tg"
updated: 2026-10-27T17:23:14Z
published: 2026-10-27T17:23:14Z
canonical: "docs.vastdata.com/creating-quotas-tg"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vastdata.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Creating a Quota

You can create a quota on a directory, with or without specifying quotas for individual users and groups.

## Creating Quotas in VAST Web UI

For a simple directory quota, follow the steps in [Create a Directory Quota](/docs-5-3/docs/creating-quotas-tg#create-a-directory-quota). For a directory quota with user quotas, follow the steps in [Create a Directory Quota](/docs-5-3/docs/creating-quotas-tg#create-a-directory-quota) and [Configure User/Group Quotas](/docs-5-3/docs/creating-quotas-tg#configure-usergroup-quotas).

### Create a Directory Quota

1. From the left navigation menu, select **Element Store** and then **Quotas**.
2. Click **Create Quota** to open the **Add Quota** dialog.
3. In the **Quota Rules** tab, complete the fields:

| **Name** (required) | A unique name for the quota. |
| --- | --- |
| **Default Email** | Emails are sent to users if and when they exceed their user/group quota limits. *Default Email* is a default email address that is used instead of a user's email address in the event that no email address is found for the user on a provider and no email suffix is set in the **Quota Setup** area of the **Notifications** settings. For more information about this feature, see [Managing User Quota Emails](/docs-5-3/docs/managing-user-quota-emails-tg). |
| **Quota Groups** | Optionally, select up to four quota groups to which the new quota will be added. |
| **Path** (required) | The path to the directory to which quota limits apply. The quota applies to the entire directory, including all subdirectories. If a quota configured on a subdirectory is bigger than the quota on its parent directory, the more restrictive quota applies. |
| **Create directory** | Select to create the directory if the quota directory does not exist yet. If this option is disabled and the quota directory doesn't exist, the quota will not be created. |
| **Inherit ACL from parent** | This option is displayed after you've selected the option to create a directory for the quota. If selected, the newly created directory will inherit the ACL of the parent directory. If not selected, and also in case the parent directory does not have an inherited ACL, the newly created directory will be assigned an ACL granting POSIX 777 permissions. |
4. Optionally, set the soft limits for the quota:

| **Capacity** | The soft limit of capacity usage. When this limit is reached, a notification email is sent, and the grace period countdown commences. Writes are blocked only after the grace period expires. |
| --- | --- |
| **Files & Directories** | The soft limit on the number of directories and unique files that can be created in the quota directory. When this limit is reached, a notification email is sent, and the grace period countdown commences. Writes are blocked only after the grace period expires. **NOTE**: A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once. |
| **Grace period** | A period during which writes to the quota directory are not blocked although a soft limit has been exceeded. If the grace period is not set, exceeding a soft limit does not cause blocking of further writes to the quota directory. Specify the grace period as follows: - By entering the number of time units followed by a time unit letter, for example: `10d`, `10h`, `10m` or `10s`. - The value is case-sensitive, entering `10D` or `10H` will return an error. - In the format `[DD] [HH:[MM:]]ss`. For example: - To specify 30 days, 20 hours, 15 minutes and 10 seconds, enter `30 20:15:10.` - To specify 18 minutes, enter `18:00`. - To specify 20 hours, enter `20:00:00`. |
5. Optionally, set the hard limits for the quota:

| **Capacity** | The limit of capacity usage above which no further writes are allowed. When the hard limit is reached, the HARD_EXCEEDED alarm is raised. The value must be an integer followed by a unit of measure (without a space in between). Valid units are: - Base10: *KB*, *MB*, *GB*, *TB*, *PB*, *EB* - Base2: *KiB*, *MiB*, *GiB*, *TiB*, *PiB*, *EiB* The units are case-insensitive. For example, `4gb` is valid. |
| --- | --- |
| **Files & Directories** | The limit on the number of directories and unique files that can be created in the quota directory, above which no further writes are allowed. **NOTE**: A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once. |
6. If you want to enable user and/or group quotas on the directory, toggle **Enable User/Group Quotas** on and [configure](/docs-5-3/docs/creating-quotas-tg#sectionidm4542587904686432874027983757) user and/or group quotas in the **User Rules** and **Group Rules** tabs.

When **Enable User/Group Quotas** is on, you can also define default quota rules that will apply to any user or group for which no individual quota is set. Note that if both default quota rules and individual quotas are defined, the individual quotas override the default ones.

To set default quota rules, complete these fields under **Default User Rule** or **Default Group Rule** as appropriate:
  - In the **Soft limit** pane:

| **Capacity** | The soft limit of capacity usage by the user or group. When this limit is reached, a notification email is sent, and the grace period countdown commences. Writes by this user or group are blocked only after the grace period expires. |
| --- | --- |
| **Files & Directories** | The soft limit on the number of directories and unique files that can be created by the user or group in the quota directory. When this limit is reached, a notification email is sent, and the grace period countdown commences. Writes by the user or group are blocked only after the grace period expires. **NOTE**: A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once. |
| **Grace period** | A period during which writes to the quota directory are not blocked although the user or group has exceeded a soft limit. If the grace period is not set, exceeding a soft limit does not cause blocking of further writes by the user or group to the quota directory. Specify the grace period as follows: - By entering the number of time units followed by a time unit letter, for example: `10d`, `10h`, `10m` or `10s`. - The value is case-sensitive, entering `10D` or `10H` will return an error. - In the format `[DD] [HH:[MM:]]ss`. For example: - To specify 30 days, 20 hours, 15 minutes and 10 seconds, enter `30 20:15:10`. - To specify 18 minutes, enter `18:00`. - To specify 20 hours, enter `20:00:00`. |
  - In the **Hard limit** pane:

| **Capacity** | The capacity usage limit beyond which no further writes by the user or group are allowed. The value must be an integer followed by a unit of measure (without a space in between). Valid units are: - Base10: *KB*, *MB*, *GB*, *TB*, *PB*, *EB*, - Base2: *KiB*, *MiB*, *GiB*, *TiB*, *PiB*, *EiB* The units are case-insensitive. For example, `4gb` is valid. |
| --- | --- |
| **Files & Directories** | The limit on the number of directories and unique files that can be created in the quota directory, above which no further writes by the user or group are allowed. **NOTE**: A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once. |
7. Toggle **Enable Alarms** on or off to enable or disable raising of VMS alarms when users or groups reach their limits. By default, this option is enabled. For more information, see [Enabling or Disabling Quota Alarms](/docs-5-3/docs/overview-of-quotas-tg#enabling-or-disabling-quota-alarms).

This setting does not affect notification emails sent to users when they exceed quota limits. Notification emails continue to be sent when this setting is disabled.
8. Toggle **Enable getting emails from Active Directory/LDAP** on or off to allow or prohibit querying providers for email addresses used to send email notifications when a quota limit is exceeded.
9. Click **Create**.

Quota creation now begins. The process is asynchronous and you can track the quota state in the **Quotas** page.

### Configure User/Group Quotas

If you enabled user/group quotas, you can create rules that restrict the usage of each user and/or group. These rules override the **Default User Rule** and **Default Group Rule**, if configured in the **Quota Rules** tab, for those users and groups bound by these rules.

To configure a user quota or a group quota:

1. Go to the **User Rules** or **Group Rules** tab of the **Add Quota** dialog and click **Add Rule**.
2. Specify how you want to identify the user or group for which a rule is created. Do either of the following:
  - Select *username* or *groupname* in the **Identifier Type** field and type the name of the user or group in the **Identifier** field.
  - Select *uid* or *gid* in the **Identifier Type** field and enter the UID or GID in the **Identifier** field.
3. Under **Soft Limit**, set a soft limit for the quota:

| **Capacity** | The limit of capacity usage by the user or group at which warnings of exceeding the quota are issued, and the grace period countdown commences. |
| --- | --- |
| **Files & Directories** | This is a limit on the number of directories and unique files in the quota directory that the user or group can create, which is not enforced until the grace period is reached. If the user or group exceeds this limit, a warning is sent by email unless alarms are disabled. A file with multiple hard links is counted only once. |
| **Grace period** | Set this value to trigger an alarm and block write operations to the directory if the user or group exceeds either the capacity soft limit or the files and directories soft limit for a specified time period. If the grace period is not set, the user or group is only write blocked if and when the user or group reaches one of the hard limits. Specify the grace period in the format: `[DD] [HH:[MM:]]ss`. For example: - To specify 30 days, 20 hours, 15 minutes and 10 seconds, enter `30 20:15:10`. - To specify 18 minutes, enter `18:00`. - To specify 20 hours, enter `20:00:00`. - You can also specify time in days, hours, minutes or seconds, in the format, for example `10d`, `10h`, `10m` or `10s`. The parameter is case-sensitive, entering `10D` or `10H` will return an error. |
4. Under **Hard Limit**, set a hard limit for the quota:

| **Capacity** | The capacity usage limit beyond which no writes will be allowed for the user. The value must be a complete integer and must be specified with a unit of measurement. Do not insert a space between the value and the unit of measurements. Valid units are: - Base 10: *KB*, *MB*, *GB*, *TB*, *PB*, *EB*, - Base 2: *KiB*, *MiB*, *GiB*, *TiB*, *PiB*, *EiB* The units are case-insensitive. For example: `4gb` is valid. |
| --- | --- |
| **Files & Directories** | The number of directories and unique files in the quota directory that the user can create. **NOTE**: A file with multiple hard links is counted only once. |
5. Repeat as needed for each user or group for which you want to set individual limits.
6. When you complete configuring the rules, click **Create**.

Quota creation now begins. The process is asynchronous and you can track the quota's state in the **Quotas** tab in **Element Store**.