--- title: "Managing Quotas" slug: "managing-quotas" tags: ["5.5"] updated: 2026-10-27T23:00:54Z published: 2026-10-27T23:00:54Z canonical: "docs.vastdata.com/managing-quotas" --- > ## 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. # Managing Quotas ## Viewing Quotas - [Viewing Quotas in VAST Web UI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#viewing-quotas-in-vast-web-ui) - [Viewing Quotas in VAST CLI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#viewing-quotas-in-vast-cli) ### Viewing Quotas in VAST Web UI - From the left navigation menu, select Element Store and then Quotas to open the Quotas page. The following information can be displayed for each quota: > [!TIP] > Tip > > To display or hide fields, click ![column_menu.png](https://cdn.us.document360.io/89b91113-5dc6-49db-86ec-57b16dc8ce56/Images/Documentation/img-7f1bcc5ffaeed9cbf182efe768970783(190).png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-08T08%3A56%3A02Z&se=2026-11-08T09%3A56%3A02Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=ULukwoL%2Fds4V%2BdSVu1YPW9gu5CO7lzS2tnTNUQMqatg%3D) to the right of a column title, and then click ![columns.png](https://cdn.us.document360.io/89b91113-5dc6-49db-86ec-57b16dc8ce56/Images/Documentation/img-918b4797fca5961ded0a6026c39d1bb1(199).png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-08T08%3A56%3A02Z&se=2026-11-08T09%3A56%3A02Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=ULukwoL%2Fds4V%2BdSVu1YPW9gu5CO7lzS2tnTNUQMqatg%3D) to open a dropdown where you can select or unselect fields. | ID | The ID of the quota. | | --- | --- | | Name | The name of the quota. | | Path | The directory path controlled by the quota. | | State | The status of the quota. See [Quota Statuses](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#quota-statuses) for details. | | Quota Groups | Shows quota groups associated with the quota. | | Capacity Type | Indicates whether the quota is based on logical capacity or usable capacity. | | Logical Capacity | For logical-capacity-based quotas, shows the percentage of the quota capacity in use relative to the quota limits. Hovering over a percentage displays a popup with precise used capacity values (e.g. in TB) and the soft and hard limits in effect. | | Usable Capacity | For usable-capacity-based quotas, shows the percentage of the quota capacity in use relative to the quota limits. Hovering over a percentage displays a popup with precise used capacity values (e.g. in TB) and the soft and hard limits in effect. | | File & Directories Percentage | The percentage of the number of files and directories inside the directory controlled by the quota, relative to the quota limits. Hovering over a percentage displays a popup with precise counts of file and directories and the soft and hard limits in effect. | | Grace Period | The grace period, if configured, during which exceeding of the soft limit is tolerated. | | Time Left | The time remaining until the end of the grace period. Displayed when soft limit is exceeded. | | Exceeding Users | The number of users which are currently exceeding a soft or hard limit set in a user or group quota. | | Blocked Users | Number of users blocked due to exceeding the hard limit set in the quota. | | User Quota Support | Shows if user/group quotas are enabled or disabled for the quota. | | Tenant | Shows the tenant associated with the quota. | | Capacity | The amount of quota capacity in use. | | Soft Capacity Limit | The capacity usage limit beyond which warnings are issued. | | Hard Capacity Limit | The capacity usage limit beyond which writes are blocked. | | Files/Directories | The current count of files and directories inside the directory controlled by the quota. | | Soft Files & Directories Limit | The soft limit on files and directories in the directory controlled by the quota. | | Hard Files & Directories Limit | The hard limit on files and directories in the directory controlled by the quota. | #### Quota Statuses A quota can have one of the following statuses: - OK. The quota was created. The directory is not exceeding any of the limits. - Failed. Quota creation failed. - Soft limit (capacity) exceeded. The current size of the quota directory has exceeded the specified capacity soft limit. - Soft limit (files and directories) exceeded. The combined number of files and directories (or objects) has exceeded the directory's soft limit for files and directories. - Soft Limits both exceeded. Both the quota directory's size, and the number of files and directories (or objects) in the quota directory have exceeded the quota soft limit. - Hard limit (capacity) exceeded. The capacity of the quota directory has exceeded the quota hard limit. - Hard limit (files and directories)exceeded. The combined number of files and directories (or objects) have exceeded the quota hard limit for files and directories. - Hard Limits both exceeded. Both the capacity, and files and directories (or objects) have exceeded the quota hard limit. - Grace Period expired. The soft limit was exceeded for the whole duration of the grace period. ### Viewing Quotas in VAST CLI To list all quotas, run the [quota list](/docs-5-5/docs/quota-list) command. To view details of a specific quota, run the [quota show](/docs-5-5/docs/quota-show) command. To list user quotas, run the [userquota list](/docs-5-5/docs/userquota-list) command. To view details of a specific user quota, run the [userquota show](/docs-5-5/docs/userquota-show) command. ## Creating Quotas You can create a quota on a directory, with or without specifying quotas for individual users and groups. - [Creating Quotas in VAST Web UI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#creating-quotas-in-vast-web-ui) - [Creating Quotas in VAST CLI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#creating-quotas-in-vast-cli) ### Creating Quotas in VAST Web UI For a simple directory quota, follow the steps in [Create a Directory Quota](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#create-a-directory-quota). For a directory quota with user and group quotas, follow the steps in [Create a Directory Quota](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#create-a-directory-quota) and [Configure User/Group Rules](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#configure-usergroup-rules). #### 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 General Configuration tab, complete the fields: | Logical capacity or Usable capacity | Select whether the quota limits will be [based on logical capacity or usable capacity](/docs-5-5/docs/overview-of-quotas#logical-or-usable-capacitybased-limits). By default, logical capacity is used. The capacity type cannot be changed for an existing quota. | | --- | --- | | Quota Name (required) | A unique name for the quota. | | Quota Groups | Optionally, select up to four quota groups to which the new quota will be added. | | Tenant (required) | Select a tenant for the quota. This field is displayed only when there are multiple tenants configured on the cluster. | | 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. Under Quota Target, define the scope for the quota: - Directory (default) - The quota limits will be applied to the quota directory only. - Mix: Directory, User, Group - The quota will set limits applicable to the quota directory, as well as to user and/or group of users. If you select this option, you'll be able to [configure](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#configure-usergroup-rules) user and/or group quotas in the User Rules and Group Rules tabs, as well as to set default rules for users and/or groups. 5. If you want to set soft limits, under Limits & Thresholds select Set soft limit and complete the fields: - 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] > 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**. 6. If you want to set hard limits, under Limits & Thresholds select Set hard limit and complete the fields: - 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: The units are case-insensitive. For example, `4gb` is valid. - Base10: *KB*, *MB*, *GB*, *TB*, *PB*, *EB* - Base2: *KiB*, *MiB*, *GiB*, *TiB*, *PiB*, *EiB* - 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] > Note > > A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once. 7. Toggle Trigger System Alerts 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 [Overview of Quotas](/docs-5-5/docs/overview-of-quotas). 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 Send notification emails based on addresses 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. If you selected Mix: Directory, User, Group as the quota scope, 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] > 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] > Note > > A file with multiple hardlinks is counted only once. 10. Click Create. Quota creation now begins. The process is asynchronous and you can track the quota state in the Quotas page. #### Configure User/Group Rules If you selected Mix: Directory, User, Group as the quota scope, you can create rules that restrict the usage by each user and/or group. These rules override the Default User Rule and Default Group Rule, if configured in the General Configuration 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. In the User Rules tab only, optionally enter the Default Email address for the user. 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-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#managing-user-quota-emails). 3. 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. 4. 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. Enter an integer number and choose the capacity unit of measure. - 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 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. 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. Enter an integer number and choose the capacity unit of measure. - Files & Directories The number of directories and unique files in the quota directory that the user can create. A file with multiple hard links is counted only once. 6. Repeat as needed for each user or group for which you want to set individual limits. 7. 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**. ### Creating Quotas in VAST CLI To create a directory quota, run the [quota create](/docs-5-5/docs/quota-create) command. This includes creating default user and group quotas but not any additional user or group quotas. To add non-default user or group quota rules to a directory quota, run the [userquota create](/docs-5-5/docs/userquota-create) command. ## Modifying Quotas - [Modifying Quotas in VAST Web UI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#modifying-quotas-in-vast-web-ui) - [Modifying Quotas in VAST CLI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#modifying-quotas-in-vast-cli) ### Modifying Quotas in VAST Web UI 1. From the left navigation menu, select Element Store and then Quotas. 2. In the Quotas page, right-click the quota you want to change, and select Edit. 3. In the Update Quota dialog that opens, make changes you want in the Quota Rules tab. For an explanation of each setting, see [Creating Quotas](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#creating-quotas). To view the current usage in the directory before you set quotas, select the User Accounting tab to see usage per user and/or the Group Accounting tab to see usage per group. 4. When finished, click Update. The quota is updated. ### Modifying Quotas in VAST CLI To modify a directory quota, run the [quota modify](/docs-5-5/docs/quota-modify) command. This includes modifying or creating default user and group quotas but not any additional user or group quotas. To add non-default user or group quota rules to a directory quota, run the [userquota create](/docs-5-5/docs/userquota-create) command. To delete a user or group quota rule, run the [userquota delete](/docs-5-5/docs/userquota-delete) command. To modify non-default user and group quotas, run the [userquota modify](/docs-5-5/docs/userquota-modify) command. ## Deleting Quotas > [!NOTE] > Note > > Deleting a quota that is included in a quota group is not allowed. ### Deleting Quotas in VAST Web UI 1. From the left navigation menu, select Element Store and then Quotas. 2. In the Quotas page that opens, right-click the quota you want to delete and select Remove. 3. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. ### Deleting Quotas in VAST CLI To delete a quota, run the [quota delete](/docs-5-5/docs/quota-delete) command. ## Viewing Quota Consumption by Users, IAM Roles and Groups - [Viewing Quota Consumption in VAST Web UI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#viewing-quota-consumption-in-vast-web-ui) - [Viewing Quota Consumption in VAST CLI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#viewing-quota-consumption-in-vast-cli) ### Viewing Quota Consumption in VAST Web UI 1. From the left navigation menu, select Element Store and then Quotas to open the Quotas page. 2. Right-click a quota for which you want to view consumption details and select View. 3. In the dialog that opens, go to the tab for the type of quota accounting you need: Users Accounting , IAM Roles Accounting, or Groups Accounting.. The Users Accounting , IAM Roles Accounting and Groups Accounting tabs display a list of all users, IAM roles or groups respectively that own files/directories in the quota directory. To filter the list, enter a text string into the Search field at the top of the Identifier or State column. The list is filtered responsively as you type. (Do not press Enter when searching because that will create the quota immediately.) The following information is displayed for each user, IAM role or group: | Identifier | The name of the user, IAM role or group, the user's UID, the IAM role ID, or the group's GID. If a group does not show up, check that the Group login name field in the provider's Attribute mapping settings is set to a value that is valid for your environment. | | --- | --- | | State | The state of the quota. See [Quota Statuses](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#quota-statuses) for details. | | Percent → Capacity | The percentage of the user, IAM role or group capacity hard limit that the user, IAM role or group has consumed in the directory, if such a hard limit is defined for them. | | Percent → Files & Directories | The percentage of the user, IAM role or group hard limit for files and directories that the user, IAM role or group has consumed in the directory, if such a hard limit is defined for them. | | Usage → Capacity | The capacity used by files or directories under the quota directory that are owned by the user, IAM role or group. | | Usage → Files & Directories | The number of files and directories under the quota directory owned by the user, IAM role or group. | | Soft Limit → Capacity | The capacity soft limit defined for the user, IAM role or group, if defined. | | Soft Limit → Files & Directories | The files and directories soft limit defined for the user, IAM role or group, if defined. | | Hard Limit → Capacity | The capacity hard limit defined for the user, IAM role or group, if defined. | | Hard Limit → Files & Directories | The files and directories hard limit defined for the user, IAM role or group, if defined. | | Grace Period | The grace limit defined for the user, IAM role or group, if defined. | | Time left | If a grace period is configured for the user, IAM role or group, and the user, IAM role or group has exceeded the soft capacity limit, then this field shows how much time remains until the grace period expires, at which time the user, IAM role or group will be blocked from writing to the directory. | ### Viewing Quota Consumption in VAST CLI To view quota consumption, use the `quota show` command with the `--user-accounting` or `--group-accounting` option specified. ## Managing User Quota Emails Emails are sent to users to notify them if they have exceeded a user quota limit or if they belong to a group that has exceeded its group quota limit. > [!NOTE] > Note > > These emails are not controlled by the *Trigger System Alerts* setting for user/group quota alarms in the directory quota configuration. This setting controls alerts that are raised per directory quota if any users or groups exceed their limits or are blocked from writing on the quota. The email is sent to an email address determined by one of the following, listed here in priority order: 1. A provider query for the user's email address. The context for this provider query can be defined using a global setting (see [Configuring the User Quota Email Settings in VAST CLI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#configuring-the-user-quota-email-settings-invast-cli)). To enable or disable querying of providers for user email addresses per directory quota, run a VAST CLI [eventdefinitionconfig modify](/docs-5-5/docs/eventdefinitionconfig-modify) or [quota modify](/docs-5-5/docs/quota-modify) command with the `--enable-email-providers` or `--disable-email-providers` option specified. 2. A configurable suffix is used to form an email address with the user's user name. The suffix can be defined using a global setting (see [Configuring the User Quota Email Settings in VAST CLI](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-quotas#configuring-the-user-quota-email-settings-in-vast-cli)). 3. A configurable default email address for all such user quota emails. This address is set per directory quota. To set a default email address via VAST Web UI, use the Default Email field in the User Rules tab of quota settings (Element Store -> Quotas -> choose to create or edit a quota). There is a globally configurable limit on the rate at which these quota emails are sent to users. ### Configuring the User Quota Email Settings in VAST Web UI 1. From the left navigation menu, select Settings -> Notifications -> Quota Setup. 2. In the Quota Setup pane, complete the following fields: | Email Suffix | Specify the suffix to append to user names to form an email address. This is used as the email recipient address for sending a user an email if they exceed a user quota limit. It is only used if an email address is not found for the user on a provider. | | --- | --- | | Email Interval | Specify the minimal interval time between quota emails sent to a user. Format: `<days> <hours>:<minutes>:<seconds>`. For example, if you specify *1 00:00:00*, a user will not receive more than one email each day. | | Email Hourly Limit | The hourly limit is the maximum allowable number of all the quota emails sent to all the users, per hour. | | Email Provider | From the dropdown, select the query context that should be used to query providers for user emails. You can choose from Aggregated which will perform an aggregated query of all providers, or you can select any specific provider that is configured on the cluster. | 3. Click Save to save your changes. ### Configuring the User Quota Email Settings in VAST CLI To configure global user quota email settings, use the [eventdefinitionconfig modify](/docs-5-5/docs/eventdefinitionconfig-modify) command. ## Monitoring Quota Allocation and Usage To monitor the cluster capacity allocated to quotas via VAST Web UI, run a predefined [analytics report](/docs-5-5/docs/overview-of-analytics-reports) named Cluster Quota Capacity. To access the report, choose Analytics > Analytics in the left navigation menu and in the Analytics page that opens, select the report from the Predefined Analytics list. The report shows two metrics sampled over time: - Quota Used Capacity. The total cluster capacity that has been allocated to quotas and is used. - Quota Allocated Capacity. The total cluster capacity allocated to quotas.