Managing Windows Server 2008 Disk Quotas

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http://www.petri.co.il/managing-windows-server-2008-disk-quotas.htm

PART-1

Disk quotas were originally introduced in Windows 2000, but have improved in each subsequent version of Windows. Of course these constant improvements mean that the way that this quotas are implemented have changed from one version of Windows to the next. In this article, I will show you how disk quota management works in Windows Server 2008.
Installing the File Server Resource Manager

Before you can manage the disk quotas for a server, you will have to install the File Server role, and the File Server Resource Manager. To install the File Server role, open the Server Manager, right click on the Roles container, and then choose the Add Roles container from the resulting shortcut menu. Follow the prompts to install the File Server role.
After the file server role is installed, you will have to install the File Server Resource Manager. To do so, open the Server Manager, and then select the Features container. Next, click the Add Features link, found in the console’s Details pane. When you do, Windows will display a series of check boxes corresponding to the various server features. You won’t immediately see the File Server Resource Manager on the list, but you can find it by expanding the following options: Remote Server Administration Tools | Role Administration Tools | File Services Tools | File Server Resource Manager Tools. Select the File Server Resource Manager Tools check box, and then click the Install button.
Quota Templates

Now that the File System Resource Manager is installed, I want to show you how quota templates work. Quota templates are designed to make the process of creating quotas easier. The basic idea behind these templates is that they allow you to develop a model for setting quotas. Once you have constructed a template, you can use that template as a way of applying a quota to the various folders on your server. Windows Server 2008 ships with half a dozen predefined templates, but you've always got the option of creating your own.
To access the quota templates, open the File Server Resource Manager and navigate through the console tree to File Server Resource Manager | Quota Management | Quota Templates. Upon doing so, the details pane will show you the predefined templates.
The Anatomy of a Quota Template

To see what a quota template is made of, right-click on the quota template and choose the Edit Template Properties command from the resulting shortcut menu. When you do, you will see a dialog box similar to the one that is shown in Figure A.




Figure A You can define template settings through the quota templates.
As you can see in the figure, the first thing that you will have to enter is a template name. Generally, you will want to use a descriptive name just as Microsoft has for the built-in templates. Just beneath the Template Name field is a field where you can enter an optional label. This field just gives you extra space for entering a description of the template.
The next section of the dialog box allows you to define the space limit that is associated with the quota. When you define the space limit, you must also tell Windows whether the template will define a hard quota or a soft quota. A hard quota is a quota that users are not allowed to exceed. A soft quota is generally used for monitoring purposes and is not actually enforced.
If you were thinking about implementing quotas in your organization, then I would recommend starting out with soft quotas. This gives you a chance to test all of your quotas without actually impacting the end users. Once you are confident that the quotas work the way that you think they should, you can make the switch to hard quotas.
The last section in this dialog box allows you to control what happens at various threshold levels. In this particular case, an e-mail warning is generated when a user has used 80% of their allotted disk space. When the closure eventually met, an e-mail message is sent to the user, and an event log entry is also generated. Since the dialog box shown in Figure A applies to a soft quotas, we also have a warning that is generated when a user exceeds 120% of their allotted disk space. Once again, Windows sends an e-mail message and generates an event log entry. If you look closely at the dialog box though, you will notice that we also have the option of executing a command or of generating a report.
Conclusion

In this article, I have shown you how quota templates work. In part two, I will conclude the series by showing you how to actually implement a quota.

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موضوعات مشابه:

• Managing Exchange Server 2007 using a Windows XP workstation
• SolutionBase: Implementing directory quotas in Windows Storage Server
• Configuring Windows Server 2003 R2 Volume and Folder Quotas
• Configuring Disk Quotas in Windows 2003

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http://www.petri.co.il/managing-windows-server-2008-disk-quotas-part-2.htm

PART-2

In the previous article in this series, I introduced you to the concept of quota template. Now that I have shown you how to create or modify a quota template, I want to wrap up the series by showing you how to actually implement a disk quota in Windows Server 2008.
Implementing Disk Quotas

By now you should already be familiar with the File Server Resource Manager, because we used it to create and edit disk quota templates. It should therefore come as no surprise that this is also the tool that you will be using to implement disk quotas.
Open the File Server Resource Manager, and then navigate through the console tree to Quota Management | Quotas. When you select that Quotas container, the Details pane will display any existing quotas. Since we haven't actually created any quotas yet there shouldn't be any listed though.
To create a new quota, right-click on the Quota container and choose the Create Quota command from the shortcut menu. When you do, Windows will display the Create Quota dialog box, shown in Figure A.

Figure A The Create Quota dialog box is used for implementing disk quotas.
As you can see in the figure, the first thing that you have to provide is the file system path that you want to apply the quota to. After you specify a path, you need to tell Windows whether you want to simply apply the quota to the path, or if you are planning on basing the quota template, and want to apply the template in a way that allows the quota to extend to both new and to existing subfolders.
The next section on the Create Quota dialog box allows you to choose whether you want to use an existing quota template, or whether you want to define a custom set of properties for the disk quota. Microsoft recommends that you use a quota template. If you want to use a quota template, then simply select the template that you want to use from the drop-down list. The bottom section of the dialog box provides a summary of the settings within the selected template.
Of course creating a custom quota is also an option. To do so, just click the Define Custom Quota Properties button, and then click the Custom Properties button. This will provide you with an opportunity to enter the same types of information that you would normally provide when you are manually creating a quota template.
Once you have selected all of the desired options, click the Create button and the new disk quota will be created.
File Screens

Technically, file screens are not actually a part of this quotas. Even so, they are managed through the File Server Resource Manager. That being the case, I wanted to go ahead and show them to you because they are a handy feature.
The basic idea behind file screens is that you can prevent certain types of files from being stored in certain locations. For example, I once did a consulting project for someone who's server had run out of disk space unexpectedly. Subsequent investigation revealed that the reason why the server had run out of disk space was because one of the users uploaded their music collection to a network drive. File screens could have prevented this problem, because they can be used to ensure that users are not allowed to store music files in the folder.
To see how file screening work, navigate through the console tree to File Screening Management | File Groups. When you do, you will see a screen similar to the one that is shown in Figure B. As you can see in the figure, Microsoft predefined several file types, but also gives you the option of defining your own file types.




Figure B Windows predefined several file types.
I already showed you how quota templates work, but file screens also use templates. File screen templates work very similarly to quota templates. As you can see in Figure C, file screen templates allow you to specify the types of files that you want to block, and the type of screening that you want to perform. You can then apply one of the built-in file screen templates, or a custom file screen template of your own to a particular path, just as you apply the quota templates to a path.







Figure C Like quotas, file screens also use templates.
Conclusion

As you can see, it is easy to create disk quotas once you have created the initial templates. Although it is possible to create a quota without a template, Microsoft recommends using them.