Use Disk Quotas in Dedicated Linux Servers for Plesk Servers

Using Disk Quotas on Plesk Servers

Plesk servers come in a variety of underlying operating systems like: Windows, CentOS and Ubuntu VPS's as well as dedicated servers. These systems address disk quotas in different ways. However, they all use the same tools within the Plesk interface. Plesk servers can assign quotas on an individual domain basis or through the Service Plans & Subscriptions system. We will go over both of these methods below.

Plesk Initial Quota Setup

As with any server, we will need to initialize the quota setup so disk quotas can be tracked. How this is done depends on the underlying operating system. We have included instructions for initializing our Fully Managed CentOS 7 Plesk servers.

CentOS 7

The following outline shows the initial setup of quotas on our Fully Managed Plesk Onyx 17 servers, running the CentOS 7 Linux distribution. Thees servers do not have quotas enabled by default.

1. Login to our server via SSH.
2. We must determine the DEVICENAME of the drive that requires quotas. This is done by running:
   /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/usermng --isquotable

   Example Output:
   ~ $ /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/usermng --isquotable
   usermng: Userquota is not enabled on device: /dev/vda3
   usermng: Userquota is not enabled on device: /dev/vda3
   1

   We can see our DEVICENAME for use later is: /dev/vda3

3. Now we need to use the DEVICENAME to identify the UUID for this device. This is done by passing the DEVICENAME along to the following command:
   Blkid DEVICENAME

   Example Output:
   ~ $ blkid /dev/vda3
   /dev/vda3: UUID="7d7a2cb2-4ef6-42e2-998a-86d6373f5cd1" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="primary" PARTUUID="da626122-0dbe-461e-93af-a7ae3f43f2e4"

   We note the UUID of DEVICENAME is 7d7a2cb2-4ef6-42e2-998a-86d6373f5cd1

4. At this stage we have identified the drive by both DEVICENAME and UUID. Next we open the /etc/fstab config file in our preferred editor. We then identify the lines in the config containing either of our UUID or DEVICENAME.

   Example by UUID:
   ~ $ cat /etc/fstab
   
   #
   # /etc/fstab
   # Created by anaconda on Tue Apr  4 14:11:03 2017
   #
   # Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
   # See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
   #
   UUID=7d7a2cb2-4ef6-42e2-998a-86d6373f5cd1 /                   	ext4	defaults    	1 1
   UUID=54cda6e8-74f4-40a9-a79a-e288ed321a3e swap                	swap	defaults    	0 0

   Example by DEVICENAME:
   ~ $ cat /etc/fstab
   
   #
   # /etc/fstab
   # Created by anaconda on Tue Apr  4 14:11:03 2017
   #
   # Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
   # See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
   #
   /dev/vda3 /                   	ext4	defaults    	1 1
   /dev/vaa2 swap                	swap	defaults    	0 0

5. Modify the identified line(s) by appending a usrquota flag onto their defaults flag. Make sure each flag is separated by only a single comma like our example.

   Example by UUID:
   ~ $ cat /etc/fstab
   
   #
   # /etc/fstab
   # Created by anaconda on Tue Apr  4 14:11:03 2017
   #
   # Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
   # See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
   #
   UUID=7d7a2cb2-4ef6-42e2-998a-86d6373f5cd1 /                   	ext4	defaults,usrquota    	1 1
   UUID=54cda6e8-74f4-40a9-a79a-e288ed321a3e swap                	swap	defaults    	0 0

   Example by DEVICENAME:
   ~ $ cat /etc/fstab
   
   #
   # /etc/fstab
   # Created by anaconda on Tue Apr  4 14:11:03 2017
   #
   # Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
   # See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
   #
   /dev/vda3 /                   	ext4	defaults,usrquota    	1 1
   /dev/vaa2 swap                	swap	defaults    	0 0

   Save our changes to the /etc/fstab config file.

6. Next we remount the file system to make it aware of the changes: mount -o remount /

   Example Output:
   ~ $ mount -o remount /

   Note:

   There is typically no output from running this command.
7. We will need to install the quota system package. We use the YUM package manager in our example: yum install quota -y

   Example Output:
   ~ $ yum install quota -y
   Dependencies Resolved
   
   ================================================================================
    Package   	Arch       	Version             	Repository       	Size
   ================================================================================
   Reinstalling:
    quota     	x86_64     	1:4.01-14.el7       	system-base     	179 k
   
   Transaction Summary
   ================================================================================
   Reinstall  1 Package
   
   Total download size: 179 k
   Installed size: 887 k
   Downloading packages:
   quota-4.01-14.el7.x86_64.rpm                           	| 179 kB   00:00	 
   Running transaction check
   Running transaction test
   Transaction test succeeded
   Running transaction
     Installing : 1:quota-4.01-14.el7.x86_64                               	1/1
     Verifying  : 1:quota-4.01-14.el7.x86_64                               	1/1
   
   Installed:
     quota.x86_64 1:4.01-14.el7                                               	 
   
   Complete!

8. Next, prepare quota files. This is done by running: /sbin/quotacheck -cfmvF vfsv0 /

   Example Output:
   ~ $ /sbin/quotacheck -cfmvF vfsv0 /
   quotacheck: Your kernel probably supports journaled quota but you are not using it. Consider switching to journaled quota to avoid running quotacheck after an unclean shutdown.
   quotacheck: Scanning /dev/vda3 [/] done
   quotacheck: Old group file name could not been determined. Usage will not be subtracted.
   quotacheck: Checked 22834 directories and 123065 files

   Note:

   Some errors are expected here.
9. We can now turn on the quota system, just run:quotaon DEVICENAME

   Example Output:
   ~ $ quotaon /dev/vda3

   Note:

   There is typically no output from running this command.
10. The Plesk interface will not see quotas are enabled, until we Refresh Plesk Components. This can be done simply by restarting the Plesk service:
    /etc/init.d/psa restart

    Example Output:
    ~ $ /etc/init.d/psa restart

    Note:

    There is typically no output from running this command.
11. Finished. Disk Quotas should now be available throughout the Plesk interface.

Plesk Service Plans & Subscriptions

Plesk provides quota management through Service Plans & Subscriptions. These features allows creations of predefined ‘Plans’ to control a site’s limitations, including disk quotas. Plans can be added, removed, edited or deleted. We get started by logging into Plesk and creating a Service Plan.

Creating a Service Plan in Plesk

1. Click ‘Service Plans’
2. Stay on the ‘Hosting Plans’ tab
3. Click the ‘Add a Plan’ button
4. Wait for follow-up page to load.
5. Give the Service Plan a name
6. Stay on the ‘Resources’ tab
7. Set ‘Disk space’ as needed

Assign Sites to Service Plan Subscriptions

1. Click on ‘Subscriptions’
2. Enable check for needed site
3. Click the ‘Change Plan’ button
4. Wait for follow-up page to load
5. Select the service plan from dropdown

Plesk Planless Quotas

Service Plans & Subscriptions are not mandatory for disk quotas. We can also assign quotas on select domains, circumventing the need for a Service Plan. This maybe preferred on smaller servers hosting only a few sites versus configuring Service Plans for only a few users.

Planless Quotas in Plesk

1. Click on ‘Domains’.
2. Click the name of the domain to change.
3. Wait for the Domain page to finish loading.
4. Click on ‘Web Hosting Access’.
5. Wait for the ‘Web Hosting Access’ page to finish loading.
6. Set ‘Hard quota on disk space’ as needed.

How can we help?

Sonar Monitoring

All of our servers come with free Sonar Monitoring. Our talented Sonar Monitoring administrators handle alerts when servers reach critical thresholds. The team will alert you to any servers that are running low on disk space. We don't stop there! These talented administrators will login and examine the server. We can identify common issues that lead to space over consumption. This includes cleaning up system files and logs that are no longer needed.

The Most Helpful Humans In Hosting

We pride ourselves on being The Most Helpful Humans In Hosting™! Our support staff is always available to assist with any quota related issues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days a year. We are available, via our ticketing systems at support@liquidweb.com, by phone (1-800-580-4986) or through LiveChat. Whichever method you prefer. We work hard for you so you can relax.