Running out of disk space

ann_tulip18 · 07-08-2003, 05:03 AM

hi! Im newbie in Linux 7.3, and Im encountering problem regarding our mail server.. we cannot receive mails. Ive check the disk space using df -h and here's the output:

filesystem size Used Avail% Use Mounted on
/dev/hda1 1.9G 2.0G 0 100% /
/dev/hda2 981M 137M 794M 15% /home
none 61M 0 61M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda5 6.0G 1.7G 4.0G 30% /var

What will I do?! Can u pls. help me? Should I delete files?! What files should i delete..

thanks,
Ann

MasterC · 07-08-2003, 05:10 AM

First try clearing out /tmp

Then, begin uninstalling applications you don't need/use anymore.

Finally, yes, get a larger HD and stick it in there. That or resize your /var to give more room to /

To resize you should look for an application called parted on www.freshmeat.net

Cool

Poetics · 07-08-2003, 05:12 AM

Well, it looks like your root dir ("/") is absolutely filled. Deffinately not a good thing, IMO, especially for a mail server. It looks like your logfiles ("/var") really isn't being used as much as you may have thought. Perhaps using a repartitioning utility to decrease that 6 GB partition for /var into perhaps 3 gigs. Put the rest into hda1 to help alieviate the problem.

What directory on /hda1 is using the most space?

Edit: Ooooor as MasterC said

ann_tulip18 · 07-08-2003, 08:53 PM

Whats the main cause of this problem? I have tried to delete some log files.. Is there any way to resolve this problem aside partitioning the HD? By the way, our mail server dont have GUI.

Sorry If I have so many question?!

Thanks!

ann

v00d00101 · 07-08-2003, 09:55 PM

Have you worked out what is eating the space, its probably /tmp , but it would help you if you could find that out.

Im not an expert, but if it is the /tmp location that is causing the problem try re-partioning and putting /tmp on its own partition.

If / gets too full all hell tends to break loose.

My suggestion is as above, take 1gb of that /var space and make a /tmp partition.

Then edit /etc/fstab to represent your new change.

ann_tulip18 · 07-08-2003, 10:42 PM

i revoked du- h ./tmp its only 44k.... (hu...hu..hu..) I dont know what eating up the space...

Is it posssible to swap the /var to /dev/hda1 coz it dont use lot of space.. and putting /var to /dev/hda5? How?

If I partition the HD will it destroy some file?
Help me Pls!

THANKS!

Dark_Helmet · 07-08-2003, 11:49 PM

Type this command:
du -s /* | sort -rn

You'll see some warning for the /proc directory and some others... don't worry about them.

The output of that command will tell you what subdirectories are eating the most space. It will also be listed with the largest directory first. For the sake of being thorough, don't pay any attention to the /var or /home entries because they have their own partition.

So, now that you can see which directory is using the most space, you can issue the command above again, but for that subdirectory. Let me give an example. Let's say after running the command, you got this output:

Code:

# du -s /* | sort -rn
622488 /usr
24092  /bin
17380  /sbin
...

Then you know the /usr directory is eating most of the space. Then you could execute this command:
du -s /usr/* | sort -rn

Then that will tell you which directories in /usr are the biggest. Continue doing that until you find what files are eating the most space, and make a decision about whether to delete them.

ann_tulip18 · 07-09-2003, 01:15 AM

I am checking the disk space right now. but I encountered problem again when I restarted sendmail. There's an error:

postfix/postfix-script: warning: not owned by postfix: /var/spool/postfix/incoming/E/D
postfix/postfix-script: warning: not owned by group: postdrop:/var/spool/postfix/maildrop

Whats wrong?

Thanks

ann_tulip18 · 07-09-2003, 02:50 AM

Can anyone help me?? PLEASE!! Our server can no longer receive and send mail...

THANKS!

MasterC · 07-09-2003, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ann_tulip18
i revoked du- h ./tmp its only 44k.... (hu...hu..hu..) I dont know what eating up the space...

Is it posssible to swap the /var to /dev/hda1 coz it dont use lot of space.. and putting /var to /dev/hda5? How?

If I partition the HD will it destroy some file?
Help me Pls!

THANKS!

It's not the mount point that is running out of space, it's the device. You could swap them, but it'd be MUCH more difficult (require some backing up, and ensuring enough space exists for all info, quite a bit of work) than resizing your partitions. Parted can do this, and it has been noted by several people that it doesn't destroy info. However, you should ALWAYS backup before doing any work on devices such as resizing.

Try invoking du -h on / and see what you get as your most bit hungry piece. You'll be getting a whole lot of info, so I'd probably pipe it and examine your files with less:
du -h | less
Or to a file:
du -h > /home/hog
And then read /home/hog with:
less /home/hog

HTH

Cool

MasterC · 07-09-2003, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ann_tulip18
hi! Im newbie in Linux 7.3, and Im encountering problem regarding our mail server.. we cannot receive mails. Ive check the disk space using df -h and here's the output:

filesystem size Used Avail% Use Mounted on
/dev/hda1 1.9G 2.0G 0 100% /
/dev/hda2 981M 137M 794M 15% /home
none 61M 0 61M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda5 6.0G 1.7G 4.0G 30% /var

What will I do?! Can u pls. help me? Should I delete files?! What files should i delete..

thanks,
Ann

Can you backup, dump your current partitions together, and then resize them back out? If you are unable to use parted (which you probably will be since your / is full) this is going to be one of your best options. Have you got a CDR handy, could you borrow one, or do you have somewhere online that you could backup the info to? Look for an application called partimage (but again, you dont have any room on / ... man...) to do the backup with.
For now, because of the lack of space completely, I'd say find a large package, uninstall it. Something non-vital, and good luck. This should be able to be found from within the du -h pipe above.

Cool

ann_tulip18 · 07-09-2003, 03:23 AM

Ok.. I will try to uninstall KDE and GNOME, besides, im not using it... Hope it will work...

THANKS

MasterC · 07-09-2003, 03:39 AM

You have X on there? On a mail-server box (assuming that's all you run on that) you should try to only run it from the console. That is, if you have limited room/resources. If you've got the INIAC in your room, feel free to host the www in it's entirety

If you are confortable enough to run linux (at least on this machine) without X, then I suggest taking off more than just KDE and Gnome (although, that will be a big help); take X out completely, and all related applications. However, if you are running this mail-server on a system where other tasks are being accomplished, such as web surfing (desktop use), then you will want to keep X on there, just get a much lighter environment, such as Fluxbox or Openbox.

HTH

Cool

ann_tulip18 · 07-09-2003, 03:47 AM

Yes. I am comfortable with that. It has no GUI. The server is only used for emails.

I think its working, however we were only able to free up more or less 2 MB of disk space. We ain't sure to uninstall other program.

MasterC · 07-09-2003, 03:56 AM

In your original post you said you were running Linux 7.3, I can only assume this is Redhat 7.3 You should be able to remove things like KDE by:
rpm -e kde

And so on. They were most likely installed via RPM, and so this is going to be the best way to uninstall them. You should be gaining more than 2MB from removing these 2 HD vacuums!

I'd give a look again in a few, it's possible that df is simply not reporting back the correct info yet.

Cool