Quotas are limitations on the amount of disk storage a user is
permitted to fill on a computer system/server.
- Quotas ensure that ALL users have equitable and reliable
access to their data.
In the past, the shared servers have been filled by by one or
two users, leaving the rest of campus without space to put files.
These situations can take a lot of time to resolve since it can
be difficult to track down who is using the space.
- Quotas enable ITS to better plan campus needs for disk space.
Planning will help NDSU use resources wisely. One goal is to
reduce the expense of unnecessary servers and focus on what is
needed.
Read more about the SAN.
- Quotas encourage the wise use of resources.
We encourage users to be more aware of the
documents they store on the shared drives.
There are three types of quotas: individual, departmental shared
drive, and cross-departmental shared drive.
For individual users (U:):
- All user accounts are automatically created with 1 Gigabyte
of storage on the user drive (U:).
How much is 1 Gigabyte?
For departments (S:):
- Departments are permitted 350 Megabytes of storage per
Full-Time-Equivalent (FTE) user in their department or 5
Gigabytes, whichever is greater.
Read about FTEs.
For example, if the Department of Balloon Tying
has 30 FTEs, it would be permitted 30 x 350 Megabytes, or 10.5
Gigabytes of storage for all department users combined on the
shared folder (S:).
For cross-departmental shared drives
(X:):
- For cross-departmental shared drives, each share is allotted
1 Gigabyte of space.
- This storage is independent of department/user space and can
also be increased by requesting additional disk space.
- Please contact the Help Desk at 231-8685 x1 to arrange for a
cross-departmental shared drive.
The base quota for each department shared drive (S:) will be
figured using Full Time Equivalents (FTE).
The FTE represents the number of full-time employees a
department would have if the reported number of hours worked by all
employees (full-time and part-time) had been worked only by
full-time employees. This number is reported by the Office of
Payroll.
This number will be retrieved from the Office of Payroll every 6
months in order for ITS to update the quota allotment appropriately
for each department.
Each person has 150 Megabytes of storage on the user
(U:) drive? This space will allow you to store approximately:
- 340 .jpg-encoded pictures (each 1024x768)
OR
- 17,065 four-page MS Word documents
OR
- 68 PDF e-textbooks (each 33-chapter text is approximately 15
Mb)
If you are at your quota and attempt to put a file onto your U:
drive, you will receive an error indicating that there is no more
disk space. Before you can add new files to the U: drive, you will
need to delete files to free more space on your user drive.
If you attempt to put a file onto your S: or X:
drive and receive an error indicating that there is no more disk
space, then your department (or shared department) has reached its
departmental quota.
- In order to save the file to the shared drive, the department
disk usage as a whole needs to be reduced.
- Either you or other persons in your department will need to
delete files before your new document can be saved.
- Optionally, your department may request additional
departmental drive space.
On your User (U:) drive:
- Open My Computer from your desktop or
Start menu.
- Right-click on the drive and choose
Properties.
- Click the NetWare Info tab.
- In the third section you should see Space
Restriction (your quota) and Space
Available.

On your departmental Shared (S:) drive:
- Open My Computer from your desktop or
Start menu.
- Double-click on the (S:) drive.
- If you have multiple groups within your department, you may
need to double-click on your department folder
- Right-click on your department or group folder and choose
Properties.
- Click the Netware Info tab.
- In the third section, you should see Space
Restriction (your quota) and Space
Available.

- Files on the Novell servers are easy-to-access and use.
Saving or retrieving files from the Novell shared drives is just
as easy as saving to your local workstation.
-
New files on the drives are backed up nightly and the
servers are backed up entirely once a month. This means
that-short of a natural disaster-file loss should not
occur.
- In contrast, files stored on your local computer
may be lost at any time due to corruption of the operating
system or from computer viruses.
- Using the Novell shared drive allows you to share work with
other members of your department in a safe and secure method.
Rather than e-mailing files or using floppy disks, you can simply
tell your coworkers where the file you wish to share is located
on the department shared drive and they can then open it (if you
are in the same department or have a cross-departmental share
with their department).
There are several types of files that should NOT be
store on the Novell servers. These include:
- Programs. Do not store programs on your S: or U: drives. If
an application needs to be installed on a shared drive, contact
ITS for information. The Novell file system has an
R: drive for shared applications.
- Backups of your entire computer hard drive. This type of
backup should be done using CDs or DVDs.
- Illegal files. This includes files that are copyright
protected and to which the University does not hold license, or
any other files of questionable content.
- Personal files should be kept on the U-drive only. Privacy on
the S, W, R, T and X drives is not implied or guaranteed.
Privacy is not implied or guaranteed on the U:
drive. Normally, you will be the only person with direct
access to the data. Under certain circumstances, your
department can gain access to this data if the proper
paperwork is filed with the NDSU and/or NDUS security
officer(s).
What you SHOULD use the Novell shared drives for:
- Work-related files and documents
- Work-in-progress
- Files to be shared within your department
What you SHOULD use your Novell User drive for:
- E-mail backups
- Resume for internal job postings
ITS recommends that any files that are current, works in
progress, or are otherwise mission-critical be stored on the Novell
file servers to avoid data loss. However, for archival purposes,
other methods may be used to reduce disk usage.
If you or your department are looking for a way to reduce disk
usage, the first, and perhaps most overlooked thing to check, is
that you do not have redundancy of files stored. For instance,
files that are stored in two locations and are otherwise identical
files, or old versions of files that are outdated and no longer
needed.
In cases where data is no longer relevant to current tasks (for
example, a PowerPoint presentation for graduation 2002), you or
your department may use other methods of storing data in order to
reduce disk space usage.
- The recommended method is to burn the data (documents, files,
photos, et cetera) to CD or DVD disks.
- Data saved to CD or DVD disks will last for many years,
and you will not have to worry about data loss caused by a
computer crash.
- You could also use a USB "key" to store your document.
- Much safer than floppy or zip disks.
- Should still make CD/DVD backups of the data on a
semi-regular basis to assure that accidental physical loss of
the USB key will not lead to complete data loss.
- Remove the USB key from your computer whenever the
computer is formatted and reinstalled, whenever software is
installed, and when the computer is rebooted in order to
assure that accidental erasure does not occur.
- E-mail attachments are NOT a good way to store files and
documents.
- It is recommended that you download and save attachments
from e-mail and then delete the actual e-mail message. You
can back up the downloaded attachments using other methods or
put them on a Novell server.
- Floppies and Zip disks are the least reliable method of
saving data. It is extremely important that a copy of the
document exist in a safer location (i.e. on the shared drives,
local computer, CD, et cetera). File loss due to floppy or zip
disk failure is common, even among brand-new disks.
Before removing files from the Novell servers, you may want to
save the files to CD for archival/reference purposes. Please read
this
page for more information on making CD backups.
A storage area network, or SAN, is a combination of computers
and storage devices that are connected over a high-speed network.
The primary function of these machines is to store and protect
data. At NDSU, the SAN is used to host data for the NetWare file
servers, the GroupWise e-mail server, and the IMAP e-mail
servers.

The backup technology requires no additional effort
to use. It is built in when you save your data on the Novell
server. It enables
- automated backups
- history of modifications