How to Disable Filesystem Quotas

Overview

Filesystem quotas allow server owners to limit the amount of disk space that an account uses. For most hosting providers, this is an integral part of how they manage cPanel accounts. However, in some circumstances, you may wish to disable filesystem quotas in order to improve your server’s performance.

• In cPanel & WHM version 74 and earlier, when you log in to WHM for the first time, the Initial Setup Assistant interface appears. The Set Up Quotas section of this interface (Step 6) allows you to enable or disable quotas. We removed the Initial Setup Assistant interface in cPanel & WHM version 76.

• In cPanel & WHM version 76 and later, the installation process enables quotas by default. You must wait until after installation to disable quotas.

You can enable quotas in WHM’s Initial Quota Setup interface (WHM >> Home >> Server Configuration >> Initial Quota Setup) or via the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/fixquotas script.

Disable for the root XFS filesystem

To disable filesystem quotas for the root XFS filesystem:

1. Use SSH to connect to your server as the root user.

2. Open the /etc/default/grub file and remove the following line:

     rootflags=uquota
   

3. Save and close the file.

4. Run the following command to update the GRUB bootloader:

     grub2-mkconfig --output=/boot/grub2/grub.cfg
   

5. Run the following command to disable quotas:

     xfs_quota -x -c 'off' -c 'remove' /
   

6. Use your preferred method to reboot your server.

7. Run the following command to confirm your changes:

     mount | grep ' / '
   

   The output should resemble the following example:

     /dev/vda1 on / type xfs (rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota)
   

Disable for non-root XFS filesystems

To disable filesystem quotas for non-root filesystems:

1. Use SSH to connect to to your server as the root user.

2. Open the /etc/fstab file and remove the uquota entry for your mount or filesystem.

3. Save and close the file.

4. Run the following command to disable quotas:

     xfs_quota -x -c 'off' -c 'remove' path_to_mount
   

5. Run the following command to remount the filesystem, where path_to_mount represents the absolute path to your mount point:

     mount -o remount path_to_mount
   

   Note:

   It is not necessary to reboot the server when you disable quotas for non-root filesystems. However, you can reboot the server as an alternative to this step.