Checking Disk Usage

Because the project file systems are resources shared by many users, it’s important to be conscientious about the amount of disk storage your project is using.

At many computing facilities, administrators enforce strict quotas on users/projects, but at EMSL MSC, it has long been our policy to not impose strict quotas, in part because we know that EMSL users generate and analyze a huge diversity of data, and that you can’t always predict in advance how much you’ll need.

However, with this flexibility comes a greater need for users and groups to understand their disk usage, and in the context of the overall available disk space.

This how-to article is a basic introduction to checking your disk usage, either your individual usage or the usage of your particular project.

Checking your usage as an individual

From the Tahoma shell prompt, run:

beegfs-ctl --getquota --uid <username>

From the Cascade shell prompt, run:

lfs quota -u <name> /dtemp

Checking disk usage for a given project allocation

From the Tahoma shell prompt, run:

beegfs-ctl --getquota --gid <allocation>

From the Cascade shell prompt, run:

lfs quota -g <allocation>

Note

When you read the manual pages for lfs, you will see that the command above uses the “group” option (-g) rather than the “project” (-p) allocation. MSC project allocations are defined in terms of groups, and you won’t get what you want if you use -p.

Looking at total usage on the Lustre file system

Click here for a Grafana dashboard that provides an overview of total usage, and the biggest project allocation usage.

For more info, look at the manual pages for the Lustre file system with:

man lfs