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HOWTO Documents > CCIS Disk Quotas

This HOWTO describes the the current CCIS disk quota policy. If you have any questions about this policy, please send mail to systems@ccs.neu.edu. Please be sure to read the frequently asked questions list at the end of this page before sending mail.

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Disk Space

Here are the default quota amounts as of December 2005. All accounts have at least this amount of space.

Account Type	Homedir Quota	Scratch Quota	Total Quota
Guest	40 MB	20 MB	60 MB
Alumni	40 MB	20 MB	60 MB
Non-CCIS majors	200 MB	100 MB	300 MB
CCIS majors	240 MB	120 MB	360 MB
CCIS grads	400 MB	200 MB	600 MB
CCIS Ph.D. students	2GB	1GB	3GB
Faculty	4GB	2GB	6GB

Scratch Space

All enrolled student, faculty and staff have additional scratch space allocated to them. Scratch space is ideal for temporary file storage (e.g. your Internet browser cache).

You can find this space at /scratch/username. For example, if your home directory is /home/bucky, your scratch space would be found at /scratch/bucky.

Here are some important things you should know about this space before using it:

•	Scratch space is not backed up! It may be deleted at any time. Do not save anything in this space that you can't afford to lose.
•	The snapshots for scratch space are made with less frequency than those in /home and /proj.
•	Scratch space is allocated to be 1/2 the size of your current quota. If you need more than this amount for CCIS related reasons, you can temporarily make use of /ccs/tmp or request a home directory increase.
•	Your scratch space is created with the same permissions as your home directory. This means it is readable by all users. If you wish to change this, please use the UNIX chmod command. As with your home directory, you should not let anybody but you write to this directory.
•	Your scratch space will not be saved should your account expire or be changed into an account type that does not have scratch space.

Frequently Asked Questions

1.	I appreciate the disk space, but I still need more than that, can you help me?
	CCIS is committed to providing the resources needed to serve its academic and research missions. More home directory space can be requested if:
	• you need it for class or research materials (i.e. not for personal web space or other non-CCIS related data). • you do not have an alternative source of space at CCIS (e.g. in /proj or /course). • your current space has been exhausted by class or research materials. • your current space is already cleaned and compressed where possible/reasonable. • a faculty member or the Dean is willing to approve this request.
	If your request meets these criteria, please see a faculty member or the Dean and have them request this increase on your behalf. If you do not meet these criteria, CCIS Systems will be glad to help you make the best use of your current space.
2.	How can I tell how much space I am using and how much I have left?
	/ccs/bin/ccsquota will show you your current disk quota information.
3.	Where did all of my disk space go?
	For a detailed summary of your disk allocation, this command often helps: /arch/gnu/bin/du ~|sort -nr|more It is pretty common for people's browser cache to use up a considerable amount of space. Try clearing your cache and see if that helps.
4.	I'd be under quota if it weren't for the .snapshot directory, can I remove it?
	Your .snapshot directory is not counted in your quota. We've modified /arch/gnu/bin/du to ignore this directory (hence our recommendation in the previous item). The .snapshot directory is part of our online recovery system and cannot be removed.
5.	I can't log into the UNIX workstations in the lab or in my office. Could I be out of disk space? What do I do?
	If you try to log in to a workstation and it immediately returns you to the login screen, it is very likely that you are out of disk space. There are two ways to get out of this bind:
	• At the login screen, enter your login and your password, but instead of pressing just <return> after entering your password, press <control>-<return> (i.e. hold the control key down when pressing return). This will pop up a single window from which you can begin to delete unnecessary files. • Login remotely via SSH to your account from a non-UNIX workstation (like a PC in one of our computing labs). You should be able to begin the cleanup process from this connection without a problem.
6.	I seem to have the wrong user type, so my quota is wrong. How do I get this fixed?
	If you need to switch to any other type besides Ph.d. student, please send mail to systems@ccs.neu.edu. If you need to switch to Ph.d. student, please contact Prof. Chan, Director of Graduate programs. In both cases, someone from the Systems group will contact you to arrange a time when you will not be logged in for the conversion to take place.

Other questions? Please send mail to systems@ccs.neu.edu.