This document looks at two schemes you can provide and charge your customers for disk space consumption.
It can be restricted:

• with Individual Disk Space Quotas set separately for each disk space consuming resource
• by imposing penalty charges for exceeding Summary Disk Space Usage limit set for all disk space consuming resources combined together

Individual Disk Space Quotas

Questions Considered:

Understanding Individual Disk Space Quotas Billing for Individual Disk Space Quotas Preventing End Users from Increasing Individual Disk Space Quotas

Understanding Individual Disk Space Quotas

Users on Disk Quota plans are restricted by individual quotas that are set separately for each type of disk space consuming resources. Every 5 minutes the system scans end user home FTP directory, mailboxes and DBs to see how much disk space is being used and updates the disk quota usage readings in the user account CP. Customers can't upload more MB than their disk quotas allow (except for My/Pg SQL db quotas), and will get an error message if they try to do so. If end users need more disk space, they can increase their disk quotas, unless quotas are MAX restricted.

Billing for Individual Disk Space Quotas

Questions Considered:

Charge Formulas () explains when users are charged for individual disk space quotas and how the charges are calculated. Setting Prices instructs how to set prices used in formulas to calculate charges for individual disk space quotas. Editting Prices shows how changes in prices affect billing for individual disk space quotas.

 Charge Formulas

Setting Prices

1. Launch plan edit wizard
2. On the first step make sure to uncheck Summary Disk Usage resource box.
3. Skip Registrar Domain Pricing form, if it comes next.
4. On the pricing form for the default one month billing period, set:
   
   

   Resource	Free	Monthly	Extra
   Disk space Quota Mailbox quota MS SQL Quota	MB you allow your customers to use within the whole billing period by their home FTP directory and each of their mailbox and MS SQL db free of charge.	Price for each MB of increased quota.	N/A
   MySQL database quota PgSQL database quota	MB you allow your customers to use within one month by each of their MySQL and PGSQL db free of charge.	Price for each MB of increased quota.	Price for each MB consumed over db quota.



5. On the next form, you can leave these fields empty or fill them in to calculate quota charges based on free units and prices set for the actual billing period.

Editing Prices

Preventing End Users from Increasing Individual Disk Space Quotas

1. In your admin control panel select Plans in the Info menu.
2. Click the Resource link next to the plan.
3. Click the Edit icon next to the Disk Space Quota / Mailbox Quota / MySQL, MSSQL and PGSQL DB quota resource.
4. In the Max field, set the maximum allowed disk space quota in megabytes that users under this plan can increase their quotas to.

Summary Disk Space Usage

Questions Considered:

Understanding Summary Disk Usage Billing for Summary Disk Usage Preventing Users from Increasing Summary Disk Space Usage Limit Enabling Summary Disk Space Usage for Accounts Signed up before Version 2.3 Disabling Summary Disk Space Usage for All User/Reseller Plans User Summary Disk Space Usage Doesn't Coincide with Actual User Home Directory Size

Understanding Summary Disk Usage

On Summary Disk Usage plans customers, as opposed to Disk Quota plans, get some free disk space for all their disk space consuming resources which makes their initial summary disk space usage limit. Customers are free to distribute it between their disk space consuming resources as they wish (you don't restrict them with individual disk space quotas allowing them to increase it for free). Customers' used disk space on different types of servers (web, mail, MySQL, Windows, etc.) is summarized every 24 hours to make user's Summary Disk Usage for the last day. Summary readings of each daily scan are added up and the cumulative amount is divided by days elapsed from the beginning of the billing month to make user's Average Summary Disk Usage. At the end of the month the cumulative amount is divided by 30.5 days and if the resulting average exceeds summary disk usage limit, users are charged overlimit fees. To prevent it, users can increase their summary disk space usage limit (unless it is MAX restricted) purchasing more summary disk space.

Billing for Summary Disk Space Usage

Questions Considered:

Charge Formulas () explains when customers are charged for summary disk space usage and how the charges are calculated. Setting Prices instructs how to set prices used in formulas to calculate charges for summary disk space usage. Editting Prices shows how changes in prices affect billing for summary disk space usage.

 Charge Formulas (Summary Disk Space Usage)

Setting Prices (Summary Disk Space Usage)

1. Launch plan edit wizard
2. On the first step check Summary Disk Usage resource box.
3. Skip Registrar Domain Pricing form, if it comes next.
4. On pricing form for the default one month billing period, set:
   
   • Free: MB you allow your customers to use within one month by all his disk space consuming resources combined together free of charge
   • Monthly: Price for each MB of increased summary disk space usage limit
   • Extra: Price for each MB used over summary disk space usage limit
   Note: Individual disk space quotas can't be removed, because it's an obligatory system resource. Set free for each individual disk space quota and make sure you don't enter any prices for them. If you do, your users are very likely to be charged twice for the same disk space.
   
   
5. On the next form, you can leave these fields empty or fill them in to calculate summary disk space usage charges based on free units and prices set for the actual billing period.

Editing Prices (Summary Disk Space Usage)

Prices	Increasing	Decreasing
Free	- won't change current user summary disk space usage limit and will still use it (even if covered with new increased free) to calculate overlimit charges
	- won't refund recurrent fees prepaid for quota MB now available for free, though diminish recurrent fees starting from:	- won't accrue any additional recurrent fees until:
	the next month. * Tip: use Mass Mail to let existing users know they:
	- can increase their summary disk space usage limit to new Free without being charged.	- will be charged extra recurrent, unless they decrease their summary disk usage limit by the difference between old and new Free values.
Monthly	New values will be used to calculate recurrent fees starting from a new month.
Extra	New values will be used to calculate overlimit fees starting from the current month.

Preventing Users from Increasing Summary Disk Usage Limit

1. In your admin control panel select Plans in the Info menu.
2. Click Resource for the selected plan.
3. Click Edit for the Summary Disk Usage resource.
4. In the Max field, enter the maximum allowed Summary disk usage limit value (in MBs).

Enabling Summary Disk Space Usage for Accounts Signed up before Version 2.3

For a certain plan:

1. Select Plans in the INFO menu.
2. Click the name of the plan to start the Plan Edit wizard.
3. Include Summary Disk Usage on the first step.
4. On the subsequent steps, don't set prices for web, mail, and other disk quotas unless you want to charge your customers twice, for disk quota and disk usage. Instead, set prices for Summary Disk Usage.
5. Log into each existing user/reseller account under this plan, go to Account (regular user) / Info (reseller) -> Quick Access (Left Menu design) or Control Area on the left (No Menu design) and press the Add button next to "Disk Usage".

For all your user/reseller plans:

1. Log into your control panel server as cpanel user:
   su - cpanel
2. Execute the SummaryQuotaUpdate class:
   java psoft.hsphere.converter.SummaryQuotasUpdate --enable
3. Login as root and restart H-Sphere. The Summary Disk Usage resource will be added to all plans, its free units will be set to equal Free Disk Space Quota, its monthly and usage prices will be removed.
4. Enter each plan where you want to charge for Summary Disk Usage instead of disk space quota, set prices for Summary Disk Usage and delete all disk quota prices. Also, enter Free units for the Disk Space Quota resource.

Disabling Summary Disk Space Usage for All User/Reseller Plans

1. Log into your control panel server as cpanel user:
   su - cpanel
2. Execute the SummaryQuotaUpdate class:
   java psoft.hsphere.converter.SummaryQuotasUpdate --disable
3. Login as root and restart H-Sphere. The Summary Disk Usage resource will be removed from all plans.
4. Enter each plan and set prices for Disk Space Quota.

User Summary Disk Usage Doesn't Coincide with Actual User Home Directory Size

All files with the user's ID including those outside user's home directory (e.g.Transfer, Referrer, Agent and Error logs that are used for user site's statistics) are counted toward used disk space. Besides, summary disk usage doesn't include the current day disk space consumption. All this accounts for differences between used disk space shown by the control panel and the actual files in user home directory.