The Design and Implementation of Elastic Quotas: A System for Flexible File System Management

Technical reports:

Title:: The Design and Implementation of Elastic Quotas: A System for Flexible File System Management
Author(s):: Leonard, Ozgur Can
Nieh, Jason
Zadok, Erez
Shater, Ariye
Osborn, Jeffrey
Wright, Charles P.
Date:: 2002
Type:: Technical reports
Department:: Computer Science
Permanent URL:: http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:29286
Series:: Columbia University Computer Science Technical Reports
Part Number:: CUCS-014-02
Publisher:: Department of Computer Science, Columbia University
Publisher Location:: New York
Abstract:: We introduce elastic quotas, a disk space management technique that makes disk space an elastic resource like CPU and memory. Elastic quotas allow all users to use unlimited amounts of available disk space while still providing system administrators the ability to control how the disk space is allocated among users. Elastic quotas maintain existing persistent file semantics while supporting user-controlled policies for removing files when the file system becomes too full. We have implemented an elastic quota system in Solaris and measured its performance. The system is simple to implement, requires no kernel modifications, and is compatible with existing disk space management methods. Our results show that elastic quotas are an effective, low-overhead solution for flexible file system management.
Subject(s):: Computer science