Keeping Quotas Accurate; Additional Resources; Installed Documentation; Related Books - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 5 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Chapter 7. Implementing Disk Quotas

7.2.3. Keeping Quotas Accurate

Whenever a file system is not unmounted cleanly (due to a system crash, for example), it is necessary
to run quotacheck. However, quotacheck can be run on a regular basis, even if the system has not
crashed. Running the following command periodically keeps the quotas more accurate (the options
used have been described in
quotacheck -avug
The easiest way to run it periodically is to use cron. As root, either use the crontab -e command to
schedule a periodic quotacheck or place a script that runs quotacheck in any one of the following
directories (using whichever interval best matches your needs):
• /etc/cron.hourly
• /etc/cron.daily
• /etc/cron.weekly
• /etc/cron.monthly
The most accurate quota statistics can be obtained when the file system(s) analyzed are not in active
use. Thus, the cron task should be schedule during a time where the file system(s) are used the least.
If this time is various for different file systems with quotas, run quotacheck for each file system at
different times with multiple cron tasks.
Chapter 35, Automated Tasks
Refer to

7.3. Additional Resources

For more information on disk quotas, refer to the following resources.

7.3.1. Installed Documentation

• The quotacheck, edquota, repquota, quota, quotaon, and quotaoff man pages

7.3.2. Related Books

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Introduction to System Administration; Red Hat, Inc. — Available at
http://www.redhat.com/docs/
information on storage management (including disk quotas) for new Red Hat Enterprise Linux
system administrators.
84
Section 7.1.1, "Enabling
for more information about configuring cron.
and on the Documentation CD, this manual contains background
Quotas"):