Quota Cleanup Strategies

Last updated on 2026-08-24 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 25 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How do I free up space when approaching my quota?
  • What are effective strategies for reducing storage usage?
  • How do I troubleshoot common quota issues?

Objectives

After completing this episode, participants will be able to: - Implement regular cleanup routines - Use compression to reduce storage usage - Identify and remove redundant files - Troubleshoot common quota problems

Regular Cleanup

Run a monthly maintenance routine:

BASH 

# Check quota
quota_check.sh

# Find old files (not accessed in 90 days)
find /rhome/<myusername> -type f -atime +90 -exec ls -lh {} \;

# Archive and remove old project
tar czf /bigdata/lab/<labname>/archive_2025_03.tar.gz /rhome/<myusername>/old_project/
rm -rf /rhome/<myusername>/old_project/

Compression

Compress old data to reclaim space:

BASH 

tar czf project_archive.tar.gz project_name/

# Check compression ratio
du --apparent-size -h project_archive.tar.gz
du --apparent-size -h project_name/

Typical compression for text/CSV data: 5-20x smaller.

Identifying Redundancy

Remove backup and temporary files:

BASH 

# Find backup files
find /rhome/<myusername> -name "*.bak" -o -name "*_old" -o -name "*~"

# Remove them
find /rhome/<myusername> -name "*.bak" -delete

Avoid storing multiple manual copies of the same project. Use git version control instead:

BASH 

cd /rhome/<myusername>/project
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial version"

Monitoring and Alerts

Your lab receives email notifications at 80%, 95%, and 100% quota usage. You can also monitor quota during file transfers:

BASH 

watch -n 5 quota_check.sh
Callout

Quota Management Checklist

  • Monthly: Run quota_check.sh and review usage
  • Quarterly: Clean up files older than 6 months
  • After projects: Archive and remove old project directories
  • Before large jobs: Verify available quota
  • For temporary work: Use /scratch (does not count against quota)

Troubleshooting Common Issues

“Disk quota exceeded” but du shows space

Your lab’s combined quota may be full even if your home looks fine. Run quota_check.sh to see the combined usage. Also check hidden directories:

BASH 

du --apparent-size -h /rhome/<myusername>/.cache
du --apparent-size -h /rhome/<myusername>/.local

du reports different size than quota_check.sh

You likely forgot the --apparent-size flag. Without it, du reports block usage on BeeGFS, which differs from actual data size.

Deleted files but usage unchanged

A running process may still hold the file handle open:

BASH 

lsof /rhome/<myusername>/largefile.dat
kill <process_id>
Challenge

Challenge: Calculate Storage Efficiency

  1. Pick a directory and measure its size:

    BASH 

    du --apparent-size -sh /rhome/<myusername>/project1

  2. Calculate what portion of your 1TB quota it uses

  3. Identify at least one file or directory you could safely delete or compress

Example:

Project directory: 10 GB
Current quota: 1024 GB
Percentage used: 10/1024 = 0.98%

Actions to consider: delete .bak files, compress older project directories, move shared data to /bigdata, remove duplicate datasets.

Key Points
  • Regular cleanup prevents quota-related disruptions
  • Compression can reduce text-based data by 5-20x
  • Use git instead of manual versioning to avoid duplicate copies
  • Always use du --apparent-size to get accurate sizes on BeeGFS
  • Hidden directories like .cache and .local can consume significant space