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How quotas work with users and groups

When you specify a user or group as the target of a quota, the limits imposed by that quota are applied to that user or group. However, some special groups and users are handled differently. There are different ways to specify IDs for users, depending on your environment.

  • How you specify Linux users for quotas
    You can specify a Linux user for a quota using one of three formats: the user name, the UID, or a file or directory owned by the user.
  • How you specify Windows users for quotas
    You can specify a Windows user for a quota using one of three formats: the Windows name in pre-Windows 2000 format, the SID, or a file or directory owned by the SID of the user.
  • How default user and group quotas create derived quotas
    When you create default user or group quotas, corresponding derived user or group quotas are automatically created for every user or group that owns files at the same level.
  • How quotas are applied to the root user
    The root user (UID=0) on Linux clients is subject to tree quotas, but not user quotas or group quotas. This allows the root user to take actions on behalf of other users that would otherwise be prevented by a quota.
  • How quotas work with special Windows groups
    Quotas are applied to the Everyone group and the BUILTIN\Administrators group differently than to other Windows groups.
  • How quotas are applied to users with multiple IDs
    A user can be represented by multiple IDs. You can set up a single user quota for such a user by specifying a list of IDs as the quota target. A file owned by any of these IDs is subject to the restriction of the user quota.
  • How ONTAP determines user IDs in a mixed environment
    If you have users accessing your ONTAP storage from both Windows and Linux clients, then both Windows and other OS security are used to determine file ownership. Several factors determine whether ONTAP uses a Linux or Windows ID when applying user quotas.
  • How quotas with multiple users work
    When you put multiple users in the same quota target, the quota limits defined by that quota are not applied to each individual user; in this case, the quota limits are shared among all users listed in the quota target.
  • How you link Linux and Windows names for quotas
    In a mixed environment, users can log in as either Windows users or Linux users. You can configure quotas to recognize that a user's Linux id and Windows ID represent the same user.