Troubleshooting low disk space for a Linux cloud server
This article is intended to help customers who have received a low disk space
warning for a Linux® server by providing remediation steps.
Check Rackspace status
Before using the following steps, check
https://status.rackspace.com for open issues
that might be impacting your server instance.
Process overview
This article describes the following troubleshooting steps in detail:
- Log in to the device.
- Check for open tickets.
- Determine the amount of disk space.
- Clean up the server.
- Verify the new disk space after the cleanup.
Log in to the device
Log in to your server by opening a remote desktop connection. For instructions,
see Connect to a server by using SSH on Linux or Mac OS
X.
Check open support tickets
Check your open support tickets for information about any incidents that might
be affecting the service. To check your open support tickets, log in to the
Cloud Control Panel and click Tickets >
Ticket List in the top navigation bar.
Determine the amount of disk space
To determine disk space, enter the following one-line program on the command
line to retrieve information on the server's current status:
FS='./';resize;clear;echo "== Server Time: ==";date;echo -e "\n== Filesystem Information: ==";df -PTh ${FS} | column -t;echo -e "\n== Inode Information: ==";df -PTi ${FS} | column -t;echo -e "\n== Largest Directories: ==";du -hcx --max-depth=2 ${FS} 2>/dev/null | grep -P '^([0-9]\.*)*G(?!.*(\btotal\b|\./$))' | sort -rnk1,1 | head -10 | column -t;echo -e "\n== Largest Files: ==";find ${FS} -mount -ignore_readdir_race -type f -exec du {} + 2>&1 | sort -rnk1,1 | head -20 | awk 'BEGIN{ CONVFMT="%.2f";}{ $1=( $1 / 1024 )"M"; print;}' | column -t;echo -e "\n== Largest Files Older Than 30 Days: ==";find ${FS} -mount -ignore_readdir_race -type f -mtime +30 -exec du {} + 2>&1 | sort -rnk1,1 | head -20 | awk 'BEGIN{ CONVFMT="%.2f";}{ $1=( $1 / 1024 )"M"; print; }' | column -t;
Note: You must cd
to the alerting file system or change the variable
FS
at the beginning of the one-line program. For example, the alerting file
system in the ticket might be /
or /var/log
. You can also view file system
usage by entering the disk file system command df -h
on the server.
Example output
The following code block shows example output for this command:
== Filesystem Information: ==
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mint--vg-root ext4 219G 22G 186G 11% /
== Inode Information: ==
Filesystem Type Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mint--vg-root ext4 14557184 383516 14173668 3% /
== Largest Directories: ==
11G ./home
9.0G ./home/ian8775
5.6G ./usr
2.7G ./usr/lib
2.3G ./usr/share
1.5G ./home/ian
1.1G ./var
== Largest Files: ==
1193.00M ./home/ian8775/Downloads/CentOS-7-x86_64-LiveGNOME.iso
1138.43M ./home/ian8775/.thunderbird/dpo71zou.default/ImapMail/webmail.rackspace.com/INBOX
333.61M ./home/ian8775/Dropbox/2016-02-26T15-04-43-381733000Z.sav
112.70M ./opt/google/chrome/chrome
109.83M ./home/ian8775/.config/Rambox/Partitions/outlook365_2/Cache/data_3
91.88M ./home/ian8775/.config/Slack/Cache/data_3
88.01M ./home/ian/.config/Slack/Cache/data_3
85.94M ./home/ian8775/.thunderbird/dpo71zou.default/global-messages-db.sqlite
83.40M ./usr/share/atom/resources/app.asar
83.14M ./usr/share/spotify/libcef.so
80.48M ./home/ian/install_files/atom-amd64.deb
80.48M ./home/ian8775/install_files/atom-amd64.deb
79.61M ./opt/Rambox/rambox
79.61M ./home/ian8775/Downloads/Rambox-0.5.12/rambox
79.60M ./home/ian8775/Downloads/Rambox-0.5.10/rambox
76.73M ./usr/lib/slack/slack
76.01M ./home/ian8775/Dropbox/Ian's Work Computer Docs/.config/Slack/Cache/data_3
75.96M ./home/ian8775/Dropbox/CompTIA Aplus Training Kit Exam 220-801 And Exam 220-802 V413HAV.pdf
72.30M ./usr/lib/thunderbird/libxul.so
71.29M ./opt/zoom/libQt5WebEngineCore.so.5.6.2
== Largest Files Older Than 30 Days: ==
1193.00M ./home/ian8775/Downloads/CentOS-7-x86_64-LiveGNOME.iso
1138.43M ./home/ian8775/.thunderbird/dpo71zou.default/ImapMail/webmail.rackspace.com/INBOX
333.61M ./home/ian8775/Dropbox/2016-02-26T15-04-43-381733000Z.sav
112.70M ./opt/google/chrome/chrome
91.88M ./home/ian8775/.config/Slack/Cache/data_3
88.01M ./home/ian/.config/Slack/Cache/data_3
85.94M ./home/ian8775/.thunderbird/dpo71zou.default/global-messages-db.sqlite
83.40M ./usr/share/atom/resources/app.asar
83.14M ./usr/share/spotify/libcef.so
80.48M ./home/ian/install_files/atom-amd64.deb
80.48M ./home/ian8775/install_files/atom-amd64.deb
79.61M ./opt/Rambox/rambox
79.61M ./home/ian8775/Downloads/Rambox-0.5.12/rambox
79.60M ./home/ian8775/Downloads/Rambox-0.5.10/rambox
76.73M ./usr/lib/slack/slack
76.01M ./home/ian8775/Dropbox/Ian's Work Computer Docs/.config/Slack/Cache/data_3
75.96M ./home/ian8775/Dropbox/CompTIA Aplus Training Kit Exam 220-801 And Exam 220-802 V413HAV.pdf
72.30M ./usr/lib/thunderbird/libxul.so
71.29M ./opt/zoom/libQt5WebEngineCore.so.5.6.2
69.05M ./usr/lib/firefox/libxul.so
The output shows disk space as well as inode usage information because some
low disk alerts have IRs that refer to inodes rather than disk space.
Inodes are the number of directory and files permitted in a file system
(directory entries). If you run out of inodes, the file system behaves in the
same way as a full disk and generates a similar alert. Inode usage of 90% or
more is considered critical.
Clean up the server
Perform the following steps to delete old or unnecessary system files and
folders.
Evaluate the status of the server by comparing the output from the one-line
program to information from any previous related tickets, alerts, and automated
diagnostics.
Remove Rackspace installers and other unnecessary data
Remove installers and directories that were created when they were extracted.
These items are not needed after an installation is complete. These files are
typically found in the /root/.rackspace/
and /home/rack
directories.
Note: To delete a file from the command line, change directory to the
file's location and type del <file name>
.
The following directories and files can be safely removed:
/home/rack/brocade*
/home/rack/bna*
/home/rack/bfa*
/home/rack/.rackspace
/home/rack/cv#/
/root/.rackspace/cv#/
/root/.rackspace/mngd_backup/
/root/.rackspace/mngd_storage/
/root/.rackspace/nimbus-installer/
If the server is not running on a virtual machine (VM), you can also
delete the following file:
/root/.rackspace/nimbusinstallers-*.tar.gz
Note: If the server is running on a virtual machine, do not delete the
file /root/.rackspace/nimbusinstallers-*.tar.gz
. This file is the Nimbus
installer, which might be used for the cloning process.
Remediate an inode usage alert
The method of resolving an inode-related alert is different from resolving a
disk space-related alert. Rather than looking for large, unnecessary files,
look for many small ones and delete them.
Verify the new disk space after the clean up
To determine disk space, run the same one-line program that you ran earlier.
Make a note of the amount of free space.
Conclusion
If you follow these troubleshooting steps and disk space is still low,
contact the Rackspace Support team by creating a support ticket. Log in to the
Cloud Control Panel and click Tickets >
Create Ticket in the top navigation bar.
To expedite the issue, include all of the troubleshooting steps that you have
already taken.
Updated 10 months ago