If you have not yet configured [metrics](configuring-metrics.md), please visit the [metrics guide](configuring-metrics.md) first before working through the limits configuration.
The limits facility in zrok is used to control the amount of resources that can be consumed by any account in a service instance.
Limits can be specified that control the number of environments, shares, reserved shares, and unique names. Limits that control the number of resources are called _resource count limits_.
Limits can be specified that control the amount of data that can be transferred for different types of share backend modes. Limits that control the amount of data that can be transferred are called _bandwidth limits_.
The limits facility in zrok is responsible for controlling the number of resources in use (environments, shares) and also for ensuring that any single account, environment, or share is held below the configured thresholds.
zrok limits can be specified _globally_, applying to all users in a service instance. Individual limits can be specified and applied to individual accounts using a new facility called _limit classes_. Limit classes can be used to specify resource count and bandwidth limit defaults per-account. Separate limits for each type share backend can also be specified and applied to user accounts.
## The Global Configuration
The reference configuration for the zrok controller (found at [`etc/ctrl.yaml`](https://github.com/openziti/zrok/blob/main/etc/ctrl.yml) in the [repository](https://github.com/openziti/zrok)) contains the global limits configuration, which looks like this:
The `enforcing` boolean specifies whether or not limits are enabled in the service instance. By default, limits is disabled. No matter what else is configured in this stanza, if `enforcing` is set to `false`, there will be no limits placed on any account in the service instance.
The `cycle` value controls how frequently the limits agent will evaluate enforced limits. When a user exceeds a limit and has their shares disabled, the limits agent will evaluate their bandwidth usage on this interval looking to "relax" the limit once their usage falls below the threshold.
The `bandwidth` section is designed to provide a configurable system for controlling the amount of data transfer that can be performed by users of the `zrok` service instance. The bandwidth limits are configurable for each share, environment, and account.
The `period` specifies the time window for the bandwidth limit. See the documentation for [`time.Duration.ParseDuration`](https://pkg.go.dev/time#ParseDuration) for details about the format used for these durations. If the `period` is set to 5 minutes, then the limits implementation will monitor the send and receive traffic for the resource (share, environment, or account) for the last 5 minutes, and if the amount of data is greater than either the `warning` or the `limit` threshold, action will be taken.
The `rx` value is the number of bytes _received_ by the resource. The `tx` value is the number of bytes _transmitted_ by the resource. And `total` is the combined `rx`+`tx` value.
If the traffic quantity is greater than the `warning` threshold, the user will receive an email notification letting them know that their data transfer size is rising and will eventually be limited (the email details the limit threshold).
If the traffic quantity is greater than the `limit` threshold, the resources will be limited until the traffic in the window (the last 5 minutes in our example) falls back below the `limit` threshold.
### Limit Actions
When a resource is limited, the actions taken differ depending on what kind of resource is being limited.
When a share is limited, the dial service policies for that share are removed. No other action is taken. This means that public frontends will simply return a `404` as if the share is no longer there. Private frontends will also return `404` errors. When the limit is relaxed, the dial policies are put back in place and the share will continue operating normally.
When an environment is limited, all of the shares in that environment become limited, and the user is not able to create new shares in that environment. When the limit is relaxed, all of the share limits are relaxed and the user is again able to add shares to the environment.
When an account is limited, all of the environments in that account become limited (limiting all of the shares), and the user is not able to create new environments or shares. When the limit is relaxed, all of the environments and shares will return to normal operation.
## Unlimited Accounts
The `accounts` table in the database includes a `limitless` column. When this column is set to `true` the account is not subject to any of the limits in the system.
