EWS Labs, Home Directory Disk Quota
Overview
This article provides information about the EWS home directory quota and how to troubleshoot quota issues.Quota size
Engineering Workstation (EWS) users are given 25 gigabytes of network-based storage which is accessible from EWS lab computers, the EWS FastX service, the EWS Citrix service, and remotely from personal devices. This 25 GB limit is known as your home directory or disk space "quota".
EWS home directories are only meant to provide enough space for instructors and students to work on their courses for the current semester. Data will not persist beyond the current semester. At the end of each semester, we strongly recommend moving important files to the free cloud storage provided through your campus account, such as OneDrive, Box, or Google Drive (sign into these services with your campus account).
Windows vs. Linux folders
Your quota is shared between the EWS Linux and EWS Windows environments. Your home directory contains a "linux" folder, and a "windows" folder.
Logging into an EWS Linux computer will allow access to files in your "linux" folder, which is mounted as your entire local home directory on the local computer.
Logging into an EWS Windows computer will allow access to files in your "windows" folder, which is mapped as the U: drive in File Explorer.
Should you need to access the "windows" folder from Linux, or vice versa, we provide instructions on how to mount your home directory's root path below in this article.
Symptoms of being over quota
If you fill up your home directory "quota", you won't be able to write additional files to your home directory and the Windows or Linux EWS system you're logged into may behave oddly if it tries to save or work on files located in your home directory.
Below is an incomplete list of different symptoms that you may experience:
- EWS computers may not allow you to log in.
- You may not be able to download any new files.
- You may not be able to modify or remove existing files.
- Applications may become unstable or complain about files being inaccessible.
- EWS Linux computers may complain about problems locking the .ICEauthority file.
Resolving over-quota issues
If you can log into EWS computers
If the over-quota issue doesn't prevent you from logging into EWS computers, then simply log in and delete some files from your home directory. As noted above, your quota is shared between EWS Linux and EWS Windows computers. If you have both Linux and Windows content, you may need to log in to both kinds of computers, and remove files from each.
Resolve over-quota issues from an EWS Windows computer
- Log into an EWS Windows computer.
- Open File Explorer.
- Browse to the U: drive.
- Delete files as necessary.
Deleting files on mapped drives is always permanent. There is no Recycle Bin for content stored on mapped drives. However you may be able to restore deleted files from a backup. For more details, see EWS Labs, Restoring lost, deleted or corrupted files.
Resolve over-quota issues from an EWS Linux computer
Your remote EWS home directory will automatically be mounted and assigned as your local home directory on any EWS Linux computer.
- Log into an EWS Linux computer and open Terminal.
- Type
ews-quota
and press enter. - For a more detailed output, type
ews-quota-detail
and press enter. - Delete files as necessary.
Note: Your usage as displayed by the above commands may not reflect your actual quota usage down to the exact MB. EWS recommends keeping ~1GB of free space to avoid any quota-related issues.
Note: Using VS (Visual Studio) Code to SSH to EWS Linux may result in several GBs of configuration files in your .cache directory; you will need to regularly remove VS Code files from your .cache directory.
If you cannot login to EWS computers
If you are unable to log into the appropriate EWS resources to remove home directory content, the instructions below explain how to map/mount your EWS home directory on a personal computer.
Resolve over-quota issues from a personal Windows computer
- On a personal device, follow this guide (Remote access to your EWS Windows home directory) to map your home directory, but for step 4 use the path below instead.
The paths are split by the first letter of your NetID
\\ews-homes-inst-prod.engrit.illinois.edu\home\fspool-<first letter of your netid>\NETID
For example If your NetID were frodo123 the path would be:
\\ews-homes-inst-prod.engrit.illinois.edu\home\fspool-f\frodo123
Note: mapping via these paths will map your entire home directory (both Windows and Linux). Using the normal path described in the above guide will map only your Windows subdirectory. - Open the mapped home directory through File Explorer and delete content as needed.
Deleting files on mapped drives is always permanent. There is no Recycle Bin for content stored on mapped drives. However you may be able to restore deleted files from a backup. For more details, see EWS Labs, Restoring lost, deleted or corrupted files.
Windows tips
Here are some tips to help you identify which files and folders are using up your quota space:
- If you are using a Windows device, you may right-click any folder under your mapped home directory and select "Properties." This will show you the size of every file and folder that is stored within that folder. You can use this to narrow down which folders may contain the files using most of your storage space.
- If you've logged into EWS Windows computers prior to Fall 2024, you may have content in legacy Recycle Bin folders which counts towards your quota. This is due to previously-redirected Windows folder, see here for more information about legacy folder redirection:EWS Labs, Folder redirection on EWS Windows lab computers.Recycle Bin content can be viewed with File Explorer, but you must change File Explorer's options to show hidden and system files:
- Navigate to File -> Change folder and search options -> View tab.
- Under Hidden files and folders, select the radio button for Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
- Uncheck the box for Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
- Each folder in your home directory may have its own hidden Recycle Bin subfolder, depending on where the files you recycled were originally located.
- When you're done, we recommend reverting these settings.
- Here are some commands you can use to check how much of your quota is being used and identify your largest files:
- Open Windows PowerShell.
- Enter the following commands to navigate to your mapped home directory. If you mapped your home directory as a different letter, replace "u" with the appropriate letter.
u:
cd u:\
- Enter the following command to check how much of your quota is being used:
"{0:N2} GB" -f ((Get-ChildItem .\ -Recurse -Force | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum -ErrorAction Stop).Sum / 1GB)
Note: your usage as displayed by the above command may not reflect your actual quota usage down to theexactMB. EWS recommends keeping ~1GB of free space to avoid any quota-related issues. - Enter the following command to identify the 20 largest files in your home directory:
gci -r -force | sort -descending -property length | select -first 20 fullname, @{Name="Gigabytes";Expression={[Math]::round($_.length / 1GB, 2)}}
- Open Windows PowerShell.
Resolve over-quota issues from a personal Linux computer
Instructions for remotely accessing your EWS home directory from a personal Linux device are here: EWS Labs, Remote access to your EWS Linux home directory
When deleting content, press Shift-Delete to permanently delete files, as content in the Trash counts towards your quota.
To find large files in your Linux drive, run the following command in the Terminal:
find ~ -size +100M -ls
This will give you a list of files that are over 100 MB. You can remove them with the rm function.
If you need assistance locating or removing files, please submit a help request for assistance.
Resolve over-quota issues due to your Linux . (dot) files
If you have checked your files using the method above in the Resolve an over-quota issue from Linux section but you are still over quota and having issues figuring out why the likely cause is your hidden . (dot) files and directories. To find the . (dot) files and their associated file sizes run the following command in Linux your home directory from the Terminal:
du -sh *
This will give you all the files and their respective sizes, permissions, and owners, including your . (dot) files. To check the sizes of your . (dot) directories run this command from your Terminal:
du -sh * .[^.]*|sort -h|tail
This will give you a list of your . (dot) directories and their sizes. If any of your . (dot) directories look like they could cause you to be over your quota then you can cd into whichever directory you want to investigate and run this command again:
du -sh *
This will give you a breakdown of all the files in that directory so you can check which ones are causing your quota issues.
To remove any files that you don't need, simply run the command:
rm <filename>
To remove entire directories and their contents if they are not needed run the command:
rm -rf <directoryname>
Please note that removing a file or directory is a permanent action and cannot be reversed!
Short URL for this page: https://go.illinois.edu/EWSQuota