Disk Quotas

You can't offer open access to storage resources and then hope for efficient usage. Controlling and allocating space is essential to any successful storage strategy. If you control the access, you will control the costs.

Disk Quotas (managed in NSS:Quota Server) is the most natural starting point in building a solid storage strategy. Setting quotas will easily let you:
- Show users what reasonable storage use is – define an upper limit.
- Allow storage to grow in a controlled and sustainable manner.
- Promote efficient usage and streamline backup/restore times.

Below you will find a comprehensive list of the disk quota features within Northern Storage Suite:

The start-up screen from NSS: Quota Server with the main disk quota view in the background.

Advanced quantity control policies allow you to minimise usage and growth rates:

• Notify offender - quota notifications to the single individual who most recently wrote into the quota path (available for EMC Celerra/VNX, Netapp NAS and HDS/HNAS)
• Notify last writers - quota notifications to last X number of users who most recently wrote into the quota path (available for EMC Celerra/VNX, Netapp NAS and HDS/HNAS)
• Automatic deployment of user quotas with filtering according to group membership
• Binary-level content control - scan files immediately after they are saved and lock prohibited files according to their digital signature
• Unicode Support - increased support for environments that concurrently use multiple character set
• High performance NAS quotas – a cached fast access list of file sizes ensures zero impact on NAS performance
• Hybrid EMC Celerra quotas – advanced asynchronous monitoring and synchronous locking guarantees a secure quota policy and maximizes filer performance
• Hybrid NetApp NAS quotas – asynchronous monitoring and synchronous locking warrants a secure quota policy and preserves filer performance
• Hybrid HDS/HNAS - asynchronous monitoring and synchronous locking ensures a secure quota policy and preserves filer performance
• User-based quotas – set quotas on individual user accounts
• Directory and object level quotas - set quotas on all levels of file structure
• User exclusion – lift quota restrictions for specific users within a quota [available for Windows, Windows Cluster, EMC Celerra, NetApp NAS, HDS/HNAS and SAN]
• Path exclusion – lift quota restrictions for specific paths within a quota [available for Windows, Windows Cluster, EMC Celerra, NetApp NAS, HDS/HNAS and SAN]
• Group-based quotas – make quota settings dependant on a users Primary Group membership [available for Windows, Windows Cluster and SAN]
• HSM quotas - calculate quotas using physical file sizes
• Real-Time Quota and File Block editing - add, remove or edit paths lie in both quota anf file block policies
• Set quota wizard – a more efficient tool for designing and implementing quota policies
• Smart quota columns – pick up Active directory data in the quota view for mass and micro management
• Automated user quotas - create a template quota that automatically controls all existing and any new users [available for Windows, Windows Cluster and SAN]
• Automated directory quotas - create a template quota that automatically controls all existing and any new directories
• Asynchronous quota monitoring - user and device activity are not stalled by quota processes
• Real-time quota controls - quotas are evaluated, displayed and enforced in real-time
• Hard quotas - set a hard limit on how much the users are allowed to save
  (Note: In order to avoid data corruption and maintain system performance, quota limits are put into force after initial breaching of a locking threshold has occurred, i.e. the last save is always allowed.)
• Soft quotas - encourage compliance with notifications only
• Active quotas - execute programs at quota thresholds to take remedial action when a quota is exceeded
• Trigger notifications at usage intervals - send emails and popup messages at thresholds of quota usage
• Customizable notification templates - localize quota notification templates to suit your specific needs

The main views from the "Set Quota Wizard".

Advanced quota management to achieve specific results:

• Customizable quota workspaces - edit existing or create new workspaces, include or exclude columns, filter, subtotal and group
• Delegate permissions - allow user groups controlled access to manage certain aspects of the quota policy
• Storing quota settings - quota configurations can be stored in the local registry, in MS SQL or in Active Directory
• Command-line tools - utilities offer straightforward integration into batch operations
• Custom quota labels - label quotas for quick recognition and mass-management
• Automated notification setup - use LDAP queries and custom variables to automate notification configuration