How to limit the use of network storage in your company

disk-space-utilizationdiskmanagementquotastorage

I think this is one area that is a pain for every sysadmin.

Users don't really know how much storage space they are using, and don't take the time to manage what is stored there, or how long it stays around.

What policies does your company implement to keep networked disk space under control?

Best Answer

This is one of those areas where my views are contrary to the mainstream. We do not have disk quotas, in fact we encourage users to get data onto the servers and out of file cabinets. We have been doing this for a while, in preparation for implementing document management.

  • Disk is inexpensive, and has been for a while.

  • None of the alternatives is more palatable to letting home folders and shared folders grow. If users have disk quotas, they are either going to save data onto their local drives, find other places on the network to hide it, or print it and stick it in their drawers/files.

  • We do regularly monitor space and usage, and work with users who are getting out of control. We can help them archive things to DVD and/or to triage when necessary.

  • We take this approach with email as well. We have an archiving solution (old mail to an archive server) so the disk space on the email server is not out of control. Only a couple of users are really a concern anyway, and we can work with them.

EDIT: Reading other answers and comments, a question comes to mind .. should we force the business and the users to cater to our convenience? My view is that we should cater to the business as much as possible, which is why we operate a "quota-free" environment. Our role is to support the business, not the other way around.

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