Lesson 2:Managing Disk Quotas | 70-270: MCSE Guide to Microsoft Windows XP Professional (MCSE/MCSA Guides)

You use disk quotas to manage storage growth in distributed environments. Disk quotas allow you to allocate disk space to users based on the files and folders that they own. You can set disk quotas, quota thresholds, and quota limits for all users and for individual users. You can also monitor the amount of hard disk space that users have used and the amount that they have left against their quota.

After this lesson, you will be able to

Configure and manage disk quotas

Estimated lesson time: 20 minutes

Understanding Disk Quota Management

Windows XP Professional disk quotas track and control disk usage on a per-user, per-volume basis. Windows XP Professional tracks disk quotas for each volume, even if the volumes are on the same hard disk. Because quotas are tracked on a per-user basis, every user's disk space is tracked regardless of the folder in which the user stores files. Table 14.2 describes the characteristics of Windows XP Professional disk quotas.

Table 14.2 Disk Quota Characteristics and Descriptions


Characteristic	Description
Disk usage is basedon file and folder ownership.	Windows XP Professional calculates disk space usage for users based on the files and folders that they own. When a user copies or saves a new file to an NTFS volume or takes ownership of a file on an NTFS volume, Windows XP Professional charges the disk space for the file against the user's quota limit.
Disk quotas do not use compression.	Windows XP Professional ignores compression when it calculates hard disk space usage. Users are charged for each uncompressed byte, regardless of how much hard disk space is actually used. This is done partially because file compression produces different degrees of compression for different types of files. Different uncompressed file types that are the same size might end up being very different sizes when they are compressed.
Free space for applications is based on quota limit.	When you enable disk quotas, the free space that Windows XP Professional reports to applications for the volume is the amount of space remaining within the user's disk quota limit.

Disk quotas can only be applied to Windows XP Professional NTFS volumes.

You use disk quotas to monitor and control hard disk space usage. System administrators can do the following:

Set a disk quota limit to specify the amount of disk space for each user.
Set a disk quota warning to specify when Windows XP Professional should log an event, indicating that the user is nearing his or her limit.
Enforce disk quota limits and deny users access if they exceed their limit, or allow them continued access.
Log an event when a user exceeds a specified disk space threshold. The threshold could be when users exceed their quota limit or when they exceed their warning level.

After you enable disk quotas for a volume, Windows XP Professional collects disk usage data for all users who own files and folders on the volume. This allows you to monitor volume usage on a per-user basis. By default, only members of the Administrators group can view and change quota settings. However, you can allow users to view quota settings.

Setting Disk Quotas

You can enable disk quotas and enforce disk quota warnings and limits for all users or for individual users.

If you want to enable disk quotas, open the Properties dialog box for a disk, click the Quota tab, and configure the options that are described in Table 14.3 and displayed in Figure 14.6.

Table 14.3 Quota Tab Options


Option	Description
Enable Quota Management	Select this check box to enable disk quota management.
Deny Disk Space To Users Exceeding Quota Limit	Select this check box so that when users exceed their hard disk space allocation, they receive an "out of disk space" message and cannot write to the volume.
Do Not Limit Disk Usage	Click this option when you do not want to limit the amount of hard disk space for users.
Limit Disk Space To	Configure the amount of disk space that users can use.
Set Warning Level To	Configure the amount of disk space that users can fill before Windows XP Professional logs an event, indicating that a user is nearing his or her limit.
Log Event When A User Exceeds Their Quota Limit	Select this option if you want Windows XP Professional to log an event in the Security log every time a user exceeds his or her quota limit.
Log Event When A User Exceeds Their Warning Level	Select this option if you want Windows XP Professional to log an event in the Security log every time a user exceeds the warning level.
Quota Entries	Click this button to open the Quota Entries For dialog box, where you can add a new entry, delete an entry, and view the per-user quota information.

Figure 14.6 The Quota tab of the Properties dialog box for a disk

You can enforce identical quota limits for all users as follows:

In the Limit Disk Space To text box and the Set Warning Level To text box, enter the values for the limit and warning levels that you want to set.
Select the Deny Disk Space To Users Exceeding Quota Limit check box.

Windows XP Professional will monitor usage and will not allow users to create files or folders on the volume when they exceed the limit.

Determining the Status of Disk Quotas

You can determine the status of disk quotas in the Properties dialog box for a disk by checking the traffic light icon and reading the status message to its right (see Figure 14.6). The color shown on the traffic light icon indicates the status of disk quotas as follows:

A red traffic light indicates that disk quotas are disabled.
A yellow traffic light indicates that Windows XP Professional is rebuilding disk quota information.
A green traffic light indicates that the disk quota system is active.

You can enforce different quota limits for one or more specific users, as follows:

Open the Properties dialog box for a disk, click the Quota tab, and then click Quota Entries.
In the Quota Entries For dialog box, shown in Figure 14.7, double-click the user account for which you want to set a disk quota limit or create an entry by clicking New Quota Entry on the Quota menu.

Figure 14.7 The Quota Entries For dialog box
Configure the disk space limit and the warning level for each individual user.

Monitoring Disk Quotas

You use the Quota Entries For dialog box (see Figure 14.7) to monitor usage for all users who have copied, saved, or taken ownership of files and folders on the volume. Windows XP Professional scans the volume and monitors the amount of disk space in use by each user. Use the Quota Entries For dialog box to view the following:

The amount of hard disk space that each user uses
Users who are over their quota warning threshold, signified by a yellow triangle
Users who are over their quota limit, signified by a red circle
The warning threshold and the disk quota limit for each user

Best Uses for Disk Quotas

Use the following guidelines for using disk quotas:

If you enable disk quota settings on the volume where Windows XP Professional is installed and your user account has a disk quota limit, log on as Administrator to install additional Windows XP Professional components and applications. In this way, Windows XP Professional will not charge the disk space that you use to install applications against the disk quota allowance for your user account.
You can monitor hard disk usage and generate hard disk usage information without preventing users from saving data. To do so, clear the Deny Disk Space To Users Exceeding Quota Limit check box when you enable disk quotas.
Set more restrictive default limits for all user accounts and then modify the limits to allow more disk space to users who work with large files.
If multiple users share computers running Windows XP Professional, set disk quota limits on computer volumes so that disk space is shared by all users who share the computer.
Generally, you should set disk quotas on shared volumes to limit storage for users. Set disk quotas on public folders and network servers to ensure that users share hard disk space appropriately. When storage resources are scarce, you might want to set disk quotas on all shared hard disk space.
Delete disk quota entries for users who no longer store files on a volume. You can delete quota entries for a user account only after all files that the user owns have been removed from the volume or another user has taken ownership of the files.

Practice: Enabling and Disabling Disk Quotas

In this practice you configure default quota management settings to limit the amount of data users can store on drive C (their hard disk drive). Next, you configure a custom quota setting for a user account. You increase the amount of data the user can store on drive C to 20 MB with a warning level set to 16 MB. Finally, you turn off quota management for drive C.

If you did not install Windows XP Professional on drive C, substitute the NTFS partition on which you did install Windows XP Professional whenever drive C is referred to in the practice.

Run the DiskQuotas file in the Demos folder on the CD-ROM accompanying this book for a demonstration of configuring disk management and disabling disk quotas.

Exercise 1: Configuring Quota Management Settings

In this exercise, you configure the quota management settings for drive C to limit the data that users can store on the volume. You then configure custom quota settings for a user account.

To configure default quota management settings

Log on as Fred or with an account that is a member of the Administrators group.
Use the User Accounts tool in Control Panel to create a user account, User5, and assign it a Limited account type.
In Windows Explorer, right-click the drive C icon, and then click Properties.
Windows XP Professional displays the Local Disk (C:) Properties dialog box with the General tab active.
Click the Quota tab.
Notice that disk quotas are disabled by default.
In the Quota tab, select the Enable Quota Management check box.
Notice that by default, the Do Not Limit Disk Usage option is selected.
Click Limit Disk Usage To.
What is the default disk space limit for new users?

If you wanted to place the same quota limit on all users of this computer, you would use the Limit Disk Usage To option.
Click Do Not Limit Disk Usage.
Select Deny Disk Space To Users Exceeding Quota Limit.
Select Log Event When A User Exceeds Their Quota Limit and Log Event When A User Exceeds Their Warning Limit, and then click Apply.
Windows XP Professional displays the Disk Quota dialog box, telling you that you should enable the quota system only if you are going to use quotas on this disk volume and warning you that the volume will be rescanned to update disk usage statistics if you enable quotas.
Click OK to enable disk quotas.

To configure quota management settings for a user

In the Quota tab of the Local Disk (C:) Properties dialog box, click Quota Entries.
Windows XP Professional displays the Quota Entries For Local Disk (C:) dialog box.

Are any user accounts listed? Why or why not?
On the Quota menu, click New Quota Entry.
Windows XP Professional displays the Select Users dialog box.
Ensure the Look In box says Pro1.
If you did not name your computer Pro1 or if your computer is part of a domain, select the appropriate computer or domain name.
In the Name text box, type User5, and then click OK.
Windows XP Professional displays the Add New Quota Entry dialog box.

What are the default settings for the user you just set a quota limit for?
Increase the amount of data that the user can store on drive C by changing the Limit Disk Space To setting to 10 MB and the Set Warning Level To setting to 6 MB.
Click OK to return to the Quota Entries For Local Disk (C:) dialog box.
Close the Quota Entries For Local Disk (C:) dialog box.
Click OK to close the Local Disk (C:) Properties dialog box.
Log off.

To test quota management settings

Log on as User5 with no password.
Start Windows Explorer and create a User5 folder on drive C.
Insert the CD-ROM you used to install Windows XP Professional into your CD-ROM drive.
If a dialog box appears as a result of inserting the CD-ROM, close it.
Copy the i386 folder from your CD-ROM to the User5 folder.
Windows XP Professional begins copying files from the i386 folder on the CD-ROM to a new i386 folder in the User5 folder on drive C. After copying some files, Windows XP Professional displays the Error Copying File Or Folder dialog box indicating that there is not enough room on the disk.

Why did you get this error message?
Click OK to close the dialog box.
Right-click the User5 folder and then click Properties.
Notice that the Size On Disk value is slightly less than your quota limit of 10 MB.
Close all open windows and log off.

Exercise 2: Disabling Quota Management

In this exercise, you disable quota management settings for drive C.

To disable quota management settings for drive C

Log on as Fred or another account that is a member of the Administrators group.
Start Windows Explorer.
Delete the User5 folder.
Right-click the drive C icon, and then click Properties.
Windows XP Professional displays the Local Disk (C:) Properties dialog box with the General tab active.
Click the Quota tab.
In the Quota tab, clear the Enable Quota Management check box.
All quota settings for drive C are no longer available.
Click Apply.
Windows XP Professional displays the Disk Quota dialog box, warning you that if you disable quotas, the volume will be rescanned if you enable them later.
Click OK to close the Disk Quota dialog box.
Click OK to close the Local Disk (C:) Properties dialog box.
Close all applications and log off Windows XP Professional.

Lesson Review

The following questions will help you determine whether you have learned enough to move on to the next lesson. If you have difficulty answering these questions, review the material in this lesson before beginning the next lesson. The answers are in Appendix A, "Questions and Answers."

What is the purpose of disk quotas?
Which of the following statements about disk quotas in Windows XP Professional is correct?
1. Disk quotas track and control disk usage on a per-user, per-disk basis.
2. Disk quotas track and control disk usage on a per-group, per-volume basis.
3. Disk quotas track and control disk usage on a per-user, per-volume basis.
4. Disk quotas track and control disk usage on a per-group, per-disk basis.
Which of the following statements about disk quotas in Windows XP Professional is correct? (Choose all answers that are correct.)
1. Disk quotas can only be applied to Windows XP Professional NTFS volumes.
2. Disk quotas can be applied to any Windows XP Professional volume.
3. You must be logged on with the Administrator user account to configure default quota management settings.
4. Members of the Administrators and Power Users groups can configure default quota management settings.
You get a call from an administrator who cannot delete a quota entry for a user account. What would you tell the administrator to check?

Lesson Summary

Use Windows XP Professional disk quotas to allocate disk space usage to users.
You can set disk quotas, quota thresholds, and quota limits for all users and for individual users.
Windows XP Professional ignores compression when it calculates hard disk space usage.
You can apply disk quotas only to Windows XP Professional NTFS volumes.
Windows XP Professional disk quotas track and control disk usage on a per-user, per-volume basis.
Windows XP Professional tracks disk quotas for each volume, even if the volumes are on the same hard disk.
Windows XP Professional quotas track every user's disk space regardless of the folder in which the user stores files.