- How much of this do I need to know?
If you never use as much as 200 MB of space on Panix,
like most of our users, you don't need to worry about this at all.
You can check " How can I find out what my quota is?"
to learn how to figure out what you're using.
If your usage is much higher than you've anticipated, here are a
couple of suggestions:
- Make sure you are throwing away your
spam and not letting it accumulate in a "Trash" folder.
- Make sure your email program isn't set to
"leave messages on the server" after retrieving them.
- Keep an eye on your home directory, and delete any
unnecessary files there. (Unless you use your shell access
regularly, there should be very few files in your home
directory.)
- What is a disk quota?
A quota is a limit on disk space. It is enforced by the file system
itself, automatically.
- How much space do I get?
That depends on the kind of account you have. Complete details
for each kind of account are listed in the "Services and Prices"
section of our web page.
Single-user shell accounts have an official quota of 200 MB for
mail, web, and other files. (Files
in /tmp and /var/tmp are not
counted toward quota.) Any account that has had less than 200 MB
of data stored during the past 7 days gets a margin of 10 MB. (See
"What is a soft quota?", below.)
- How do you figure out how much space I'm using?
The system looks for files owned by your user ID, and adds up the
amount of space they're taking up. If you notice that you are using
a lot more space than makes sense to you, try running
diskuse -l
This command checks to see what files are owned by you across all
file systems and prints out a list.
- What is a hard quota?
A hard quota is the true limit beyond which you can't go without
losing data. (Mail bounces, attempts to modify a file may result in
losing the previous version entirely.)
A soft quota?
A soft quota is an official limit, lower than the hard quota, that
is not an impassible boundary. Its purpose is to let you modify your
data when you're close to quota. If your soft quota is 185 MB and your
hard quota is 200 MB, you have 15 MB worth of room to manoeuver, so you
don't (for instance) lose mail in the meantime.
- How does the soft quota work?
The system keeps track of the amount of storage you're using.
When you go above your soft quota, it sets a timer (and sends you
a warning). If you continue to stay above your quota (continuously)
for seven days, the system shuts down the margin, and you will be
affected by "over quota" problems-- mail bouncing, data loss,
problems logging in, etc.
- What is a unified quota system?
A unified quota system is one that maintains a single quota for
files handled by different file servers. At the moment, our quota
system is combining totals of files stored in the mail system (which
has its own server), and files stored in users' home and web
directories (personal and corporate). Corporate users may also have
files elsewhere that are included in the unified quota.
- How can I find out what my quota is?
You can run the "quota" command from the shell or login to
setup.panix.com and select "Disk quota".
You'll see something like this:
Disk quotas for user example (uid NNNNN):
Space used (Megabytes) Number of Files
Area Usage Quota Limit Expires Usage Quota Limit Expires
------------ ------ ------ ------ ------- ------ ------ ------ -------
Shell/Web/Mail 25.8 200.0 210.0 460 40960 45056
Shell & Web 24.7 - 208.9 393 - 44989
Mail 1.1 - 85.3 67 - 44663
Your quota is listed in the second column. The total (for all
systems) is in the first line. On the other lines is the amount
of that space that isn't already in use on one of the other systems.
- How can I make my quota higher? lower?
You can purchase additional 200 MB disk blocks for $10/month each
(discounted to $200/year prepaid).
Drop a note to accounting@panix.com,
or call the office, 212.741.4400 ext. 227 between 10am and 5pm weekdays
and we'll raise or lower your quota for you.
- What happens if I go over quota?
That depends on whether you mean the soft quota or the hard quota.
Here's what happens if you exceed the soft quota:
Any time your disk usage rises from below your quota to above it you
will get a warning message. If you're logged in at the time you'll get
a "hey", otherwise, you'll get email. In any case you will also get
email 60 minutes after the change and every 24 hours thereafter--
unless in the meantime your usage has dropped below quota.
As soon as your usage goes below quota the clock is reset. You'll get
another alert the next time you go over quota, and the cycle will
repeat.
You have a 10 MB margin until your usage stays consistently above
quota for seven days. (Any time it dips below quota the clock is
reset.)
Here's what happens if you exceed the hard quota:
The system can't add data that for you. This means that your mail
will bounce (because the system won't be able to write new messages
for you). If you try to edit an existing file you may lost the older
version because there isn't room to write it back. You may even have
trouble logging in because sometimes there are files that are written
automatically upon login, and those files cannot be properly updated.
-
Can I get a short-term "emergency loan" of extra space?
When you find yourself approaching, at, or even over your quota, give us
a call at 212-741-4400 (weekdays 9am-6pm EST) and follow the prompts to
reach our support department.
After hours or over the weekend, you can drop a line to staff@panix.com,
as we do read mail during non-business hours.
Once we hear from you, we'll increase your quota by 200 MB (one
additional disk block) unless you specifically ask for more.
Once you've logged in and performed the maintenance needed to get
your account below your usual allocation, you can call us or send
us email notifying us you are back under your quota.
Note that you will have to let us know when you no longer need the
additional space.
If you let us know that you no longer need the additional
space so that we can remove it within three days, we'll normally
waive the charge. Otherwise, a prorated charge for the space will
be added to your bill. (Note that if the three days extend over
the weekend, we might not be able to drop your allocation within
the three day period, but in that case the charge will be minimal.)
Until we hear from you, the extra disk space will
remain on the account and you will be charged ($10/month if your
account is billed monthly or quarterly, $100/year if you are billed
annually. The amount will be prorated.
- How much does it cost to add extra space?
Extra disk blocks are $10/MB/month each. Each block is 200 MB.
Remember that if you want to decrease your disk quota, you need
to tell us when you no longer the extra space.
- What if I've prepaid my account for a year?
Any extra disk space will automatically be put on the same
billing cycle as your account. If you've prepaid for a year but
need additional space for a shorter term, we'll prorate the charge--
or you can convert your account to monthly and have the disk charge
run on a monthly basis, but then, of course, you lose the yearly
discount.
- Can I share disk space between two accounts?
Not really; the quota is linked to file ownership, and that's linked
by the system to the user ID for the account.