📊 Quotas

🏛️ Available in Ludus Enterprise

Overview

Quotas allow administrators to limit the resources each user can consume. This is useful for shared environments like training labs or university courses where many users share a single Ludus deployment.

Four resource types can be quota'd:

Resource	Unit	What it limits
RAM	GB	Total memory across all VMs in all of a user's ranges
CPU	Cores	Total CPU cores across all VMs in all of a user's ranges
VMs	Count	Total number of VMs across all of a user's ranges
Ranges	Count	Number of ranges a user can create

How Quotas Are Resolved

Quotas are resolved using a priority chain. The first non-zero value wins:

1. Per-user quota — set explicitly for a specific user
2. Group default — inherited from the user's group (if the user belongs to multiple groups, the most permissive value is used)
3. System default — configured in /opt/ludus/config.yml
4. Unlimited — if none of the above are set

When Quotas Are Enforced

Action	Behavior
ludus range config set	Warns if the config would exceed quotas, but saves the config
ludus range deploy	Blocks if deploying would exceed quotas
ludus range create	Blocks if the user has reached their range quota

The config-set warning allows users to plan ahead — they may intend to destroy another range before deploying.

Viewing Quotas

View Your Own Quotas

ludus quotas view

+-------------+------+-----------+-----------+
|  RESOURCE   | USED |   LIMIT   | AVAILABLE |
+-------------+------+-----------+-----------+
| RAM (GB)    |   24 |        64 |        40 |
| CPU (cores) |   12 |        16 |         4 |
| VMs         |    5 |        10 |         5 |
| Ranges      |    2 |         3 |         1 |
+-------------+------+-----------+-----------+

View All Users (Admin)

ludus quotas view users

+------+---------------+----------+-----------+-----------+---------+
| USER |     NAME      | RAM (GB) |    CPU    |    VMS    | RANGES  |
+------+---------------+----------+-----------+-----------+---------+
| sa   | suibhne admin |       49 |        33 |        11 |       6 |
| su   | suibhne user  | 6/64 (U) | 6/16 (U)  | 2/10 (G) | 2/3 (G) |
| eh   | erik hunstad  | 0/64 (U) | 0/16 (U)  | -         |       1 |
+------+---------------+----------+-----------+-----------+---------+
(U) = user quota, (G) = group default, (S) = system default

Cells show used/limit (source). A - means unlimited with no usage.

View Group Defaults (Admin)

ludus quotas view groups

+-----------+---------+-----+-----+--------+---------+
|   GROUP   | RAM (GB)| CPU | VMS | RANGES | MEMBERS |
+-----------+---------+-----+-----+--------+---------+
| students  |      32 |   8 |   5 |      2 |      30 |
| red-team  |      64 |  16 |  10 |      3 |       5 |
+-----------+---------+-----+-----+--------+---------+

View System Defaults (Admin)

ludus quotas view defaults

This shows the system-wide default quotas configured in /opt/ludus/config.yml.

All view commands support --json for machine-readable output.

Setting Quotas

Per-User Quotas (Admin)

Set quotas for one user:

ludus quotas user set -i JD --ram 64 --cpu 16 --vms 10 --ranges 3

Set quotas for multiple users at once:

ludus quotas user set -i JD,AB,TU --ram 64 --cpu 16

Only the flags you provide are changed — omitted quotas are left as-is. To remove a limit, use the reset command:

ludus quotas user reset -i JD --ram

To reset all quotas for a user:

ludus quotas user reset -i JD

Group Default Quotas (Admin)

Group defaults apply to all members who don't have explicit per-user quotas. This is the recommended way to manage quotas for large groups of users (e.g., students in a course).

ludus quotas group set -g students --ram 32 --cpu 8 --vms 5 --ranges 2

To set up quotas for a new course:

ludus groups create fall-2026-cs450 --description "CS450 Fall 2026"
ludus quotas group set -g fall-2026-cs450 --ram 32 --cpu 8 --vms 5 --ranges 2
ludus groups add user student1,student2,student3 fall-2026-cs450

All students in the group automatically inherit the quota limits.

System-Wide Defaults

System defaults are the fallback when neither a per-user nor group default quota is set. Configure them in /opt/ludus/config.yml:

/opt/ludus/config.yml

default_quota_ram: 64
default_quota_cpu: 16
default_quota_vms: 10
default_quota_ranges: 3

Restart the Ludus service after changing the config:

systemctl restart ludus

Command Reference

Command	Description
ludus quotas view	View your own quota status
ludus quotas view users	View all users' quotas (admin)
ludus quotas view groups	View all groups' default quotas (admin)
ludus quotas view defaults	View system-wide defaults (admin)
ludus quotas user set -i <userID(s)> [flags]	Set per-user quotas (admin, supports comma-separated IDs)
ludus quotas user reset -i <userID(s)> [flags]	Remove per-user quotas (admin, supports comma-separated IDs)
ludus quotas group set -g <group> [flags]	Set group default quotas (admin)
ludus quotas group reset -g <group> [flags]	Remove group default quotas (admin)

Flags for set

Flag	Description
--ram <int>	RAM limit in GB
--cpu <int>	CPU core limit
--vms <int>	VM count limit
--ranges <int>	Range count limit

Flags for reset

Flag	Description
--ram	Remove RAM limit
--cpu	Remove CPU limit
--vms	Remove VMs limit
--ranges	Remove ranges limit

Omit all flags to reset every quota at once.