The root user (UID=0) on UNIX clients is subject to tree quotas, but not user quotas or group quotas. This allows the root user to take actions on behalf of other users that would otherwise be prevented by a quota.
When root carries out a file or directory ownership change or other operation (such as the UNIX chown command) on behalf of a user with less privileges, Data ONTAP checks the quotas based on the new owner but does not report errors or stop the operation, even if the hard quota restrictions of the new owner are exceeded. This can be useful when an administrative action, such as recovering lost data, results in temporarily exceeding quotas.
