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Quota Management Scenarios

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008

By creating a quota for a volume or folder, you can limit the disk space that is allocated for that volume or folder. The Quota Management node of File Server Resource Manager includes all the necessary options to work with quotas.

There are three groups of scenarios for testing Quota Management:

  • Testing Quotas

    • Scenario 1: Quotas for soft monitoring

    • Scenario 2: Quotas on group shared resources

  • Testing Auto Apply Quotas

    • Scenario 1: Auto apply quotas on user folders

    • Scenario 2: Auto apply quotas on shared folders under a common root

  • Testing Quota Templates

    • Scenario 1: Creating a new template from an existing template

    • Scenario 2: Using a quota template to update quotas

Note

For more information about Quota Management, the different tasks available in this node, and step-by-step procedures, see Working with Quotas earlier in this guide.

Testing Quotas

We recommend using the following two scenarios to familiarize yourself with some of the quota tasks in File Server Resource Manager.

Scenario 1: Quotas for soft monitoring

In some situations, rather than creating a hard limit on the amount of allocated space, you may want to perform soft monitoring of a volume or a folder, so that you receive notifications when predetermined usage thresholds have been exceeded. This is a very useful technique that alerts administrators before a shortage of storage space occurs.

Test setup:

Create a soft quota on one of the volumes in your server (for example, D:\ or E:\) using the following parameters:

  • Quota path: volume root directory

  • Space limit: total volume capacity

  • Quota type: soft quota

  • Notification thresholds:

    • Warning (100%): send e-mail to administrator, send warning to the event log

    • Warning (85%): send e-mail to administrator, send warning to the event log

    • Warning (80%): send e-mail to administrator

    • Warning (50%): send e-mail to administrator

Verification:

  • Verify that it is still possible to save files to the volume.

  • Copy or generate enough data in the volume to exceed any of the notification thresholds and then verify that the notifications that you selected have been created and received.

Note

To generate large files, you can use the fsutil command with the following parameters: fsutil file createnew <file_name> <file_size>, where file_name is the path and name of the file that you want to create and file_size is the size of the file in bytes. For example: fsutil file createnew D:\bigfile.txt 1024000. This will create a file called bigfile.txt on the root directory of volume D, with an approximate size of 1 megabyte (MB).

Scenario 2: Quotas on group shared resources

Several templates for working with quotas are included with File Server Resource Manager. One of these templates is the Monitor 500 MB Share, which is intended to be used when administering a shared folder on your server.

Test setup:

Using the Monitor 500 MB Share quota template*,* create a quota on a shared folder on your server (for example: E:\Scratch). For more information about how to create a quota from a template, see Working with Quotas earlier in this guide.

Verification:

  • Copy or generate enough data in the shared folder to exceed any of the notification thresholds and then verify that the selected notifications have been created and received.

Testing Auto Apply Quotas

We recommend using the following two scenarios to familiarize yourself with some of the auto apply quota tasks in File Server Resource Manager.

Scenario 1: Auto apply quotas on user folders

It is common that each user in an organization has a folder hosted on a file server. Usually, all of these user folders are located under a common root and a new folder is created every time a new user is granted access to the server. Using auto apply quotas can simplify the creation of quotas for user folders, as well as the administration of these quotas.

Test setup:

Create a folder called Users on the root directory of a volume. Under this folder, create subfolders, one for each user. For example:

D:\Users\User01

D:\Users\User02

D:\Users\User03

…

…

…

D:\Users\User10

When you have finished creating all of the Users subfolders, create an auto apply quota on the Users folder, using the 100 MB Limit template. For more information about how to create an auto apply quota, see "Creating an Auto Apply Quota" in Working with Quotas earlier in this guide.

Verification:

  • Under Quotas, click Refresh in the Actions pane.

  • In the Results pane, verify that an individual quota was automatically generated for each subfolder in the Users folder.

  • In the Results pane, verify that the auto apply quota template is linked to the Users (parent) folder.

  • Create a new subfolder in the Users folder (for example: D:\Users\User11) and verify that a new individual quota is automatically generated for the new subfolder. (To see the new quota, under Quotas, click Refresh.)

  • Edit the auto apply quota that you just created and select to derive properties from a different quota template (for example, the 200 MB Limit Reports to User template). Choose to apply the auto apply quota changes to all derived quotas. Then, under Quotas, verify that all of the individual quotas for the Users subfolders have now been updated with the properties of the new quota template.

Scenario 2: Auto apply quotas on shared folders under a common root

Auto apply quotas can also be applied to a volume root. This scenario is especially useful when, for example, a volume is used to directly host a number of folders shared by the organization.

Test setup:

Create several shared folders on the root directory of a volume in your server, for example:

E:\Accounting (shared as: \\Server_name\Accounting)

E:\Finance (shared as: \\Server_name\Finance)

E:\Marketing (shared as: \\Server_name\Marketing)

E:\Payroll (shared as: \\Server_name\Payroll)

E:\Sales (shared as: \\Server_name\Sales)

When you have finished creating the folders and their shares, create an auto apply quota on the volume root (in this example, on E:\), using the 100 MB Limit template. For more information about how to create an auto quota, see "Creating an Auto Apply Quota" in Working with Quotas earlier in this guide.

Verification:

  • Under Quotas, in the Results pane, verify that an individual quota was automatically generated for each of the folders in the volume and that a shared path is listed for it.

  • From a different server in the network, access any of the shared folders that you created, and copy or generate enough data in that shared folder to exceed the 100 MB limit. Verify that the quota limit is enforced on the shared folder.

Testing Quota Templates

We recommend using the following two scenarios to familiarize yourself with some of the quota template tasks in File Server Resource Manager.

Scenario 1: Creating a new template from an existing template

File Server Resource Manager has several default templates that can be easily modified to create templates that are more appropriate for your server environment.

Test setup:

Under Quota Templates, click Create Quota Template in the Actions pane and copy the properties from the 100 MB Limit template. Then modify the following parameters:

  • Template name: 50 MB Limit

  • Space limit: 50 MB

  • Quota type: soft quota

  • Notification thresholds:

    • Warning (100%): send e-mail to administrator, send warning to the event log

    • Warning (85%): send e-mail to administrator, send warning to the event log

    • Warning (50%): send e-mail to administrator

When you are finished performing these changes, click OK to save the new template.

Verification:

  • Under Quota Templates, in the Results pane, verify that the new 50 MB Limit template is listed.

Scenario 2: Using a quota template to update quotas

By basing your quotas on templates, you can automatically update all quotas that are based on a specific template simply by editing that template. This feature simplifies the process of updating quota properties by providing one central point where all changes can be made.

Test setup:

If you have not already done so, perform the first scenario for testing auto apply quotas (Scenario 1: Auto apply quotas on user folders) and the first scenario for testing quota templates (Scenario 1: Creating a new template from an existing template).

When you have completed these two scenarios, under Quotas, edit the auto apply quota for the Users folder and select to derive properties from the 50 MB Limit template. When prompted, choose to apply the auto apply quota changes to all derived quotas.

Verification:

  • Under Quotas, in the Results pane, verify that all the quotas created for the subfolders of the Users folder have now been updated with the properties of the 50 MB Limit template.

  • Next, under Quota Templates, select to edit the 50 MB Limit template and modify the following properties:

    • Space limit: 25 MB

    • Quota type: hard quota

    When prompted, select to apply the template changes to all derived quotas. Finally, under Quotas, verify that all the individual quotas for the Users subfolders have now been updated with the new 25 MB quota limit and that the type of quota has been set to "hard."