How do I fix a full root partition?

Support
1

NethServer Version: 7.8.2003

As the title says the root partition is full. I have done symbolic links for /var/www and for /var/lib/nethsrver/ibay to another partition to off load some of the bigger stuff and have manually deleted some tgz log files. I tried to run the find command that was referenced in another post, but all I end up with is a > prompt. I broke the command line down into its separate parts and it did show that there were a few files in the backup directory that were big. Without messing the system up can I symbolic link the backup directory to the other partition also?

I have looked at storage in the console and I can’t seem to find a way to shrink the large home partition that I have so that I can grow the root partition.

When I tried to copy and paste the referenced command line find command from the web post into the web console screen I get nothing. Is it operating as intended or is this an unintended enhancement?

2

@soscc

Hello Michael

So far, reading your post, you’ve done most sensible stuff!

Actually, to be honest, you can’t “fix” a full root partition, and XFS (as NethServer uses) doesn’t make it easier. XFS can’t be “schrunk” like ext4 (or NTFS with eg Acronis).

You can make space, put in another disk, or clone the whole thing to a larger disk.
But these do not “fix” the full root partition, they DO however, alleviate the problem so you can use your system again.

As to your question, you CAN symlink the backups folder, this should not present any further issues. But DO check and verify your backups are working, once you solve the space issue!

Your best bet would be to add in an additional disk (at least temporary), so you can clone / copy / create / delete partitions and contents as needed! (So you don’t lose any data, and backup will not work as the disk is too full).

NethServer doesn’t actually use /home, NethServer uses /var/lib/nethserver/users - I’m assuming you mean that partition. If you actually have a large partition /home, this can be deleted (normally). Verify before doing this, that we’re both talking about the same directory (and that there’s nothing in there!). Copy all the folders to the new temporary disk, delete the partition.
Resize / Recreate partitions needed and you should be good to go!

At the end verify your disks and structure are correct, space is available, then reboot and watch the screen if any errors crop up!

Good Luck

PS: Your case is one of the reasons why nowadays, in the year 2020, it is strongly suggested to NOT do bare metal installs anymore, but everything under a class 1 Hypervisor (Proxmox, VMWare ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V or XEN. VirtualBox is NOT a class 1 Hypervisor! It’s usable, but a mere toy in comparison.). After 15 years of VMWare, I migrated my 25-30 clients to Proxmox 5 years ago! Clients are happy!
This means ALL servers, no matter if Windows or Linux…

A critical upgrade? Easy, do a snapshot before, test it, if good no need for the snapshot!
If bad, roll back from the snapshot…

Disk to small? Enlarge the disk image in the Hypervisor, run a small command in the VM, and your disk is larger (Can even be done LIVE, while users are accessing the System!).

Live Backups? Live Migration to another Hypervisor so you can add RAM / Disks to the old Hypervisor? Full High Availability? It’s all there!

Note:

Most Web-consoles are not copy/paste capable. Proxmox provides two, the standard, without copy / paste, and a serial based web-console (using a virtualized serial port) which IS copy/paste capable…

My 2 cents
Andy

3

I took the default install suggestions when I built the server. Why would it build the server with such a tiny root partition? If the suggestion is to run NethServer in a VM, then we’re looking at a way higher class of machine than what I have it on now. I’m just trying to get by on it, mostly for e-mail, for the next 8 months until I can get my business fully shut down and then it can go away.

I have something called /dev/centos/home that’s 875gb in size and it isn’t part of the root partition. That’s where I have been symbolic linking things to. I did see the /var/home folder with my user names as folders, but since I’m the only real user and I log in as root, the few script files there aren’t of any consequence.

Since my Linux skills are pretty atrophied, I’m gong to have to think about what to do about this issue for a little while.

Thanks

4

@soscc

Normally, NethServer will use the whole disk for installation! (as root partition)
If you first installed Centos, and NethServer over that, that’s a different animal!

NethServer does normally NOT have any folder called /dev/centos/home, so this must come from somewhere else, and might explain why your root disk is so small…

Just drop a note if you need any assistance…

PS:

My home NethServer is running on a 9 year old HP Proliant ML110 G6 with a quad core Xeon (with Hyperthreading shown as 8 cores!) and a mere 16 GB RAM. This box has 2 2 TB Disks in RAID1 and is running Proxmox (Free Version).

Although I’m in a similiar business as you are (were), this server is strictly for personal use, media, backups etc.

My 2 cents
Andy

5

The root partition would normally take almost all the space on the disk. What’s the output of df -h?

6

[root@nethserver ~]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /dev
tmpfs 3.8G 24K 3.8G 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 3.8G 269M 3.6G 7% /run
tmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mapper/centos-root 50G 25G 26G 50% /
/dev/sdb1 1014M 266M 749M 27% /boot
/dev/mapper/centos-home 873G 30G 844G 4% /home
/dev/sda1 1.9T 18G 1.9T 1% /run/media/root/backup
tmpfs 774M 0 774M 0% /run/user/0
tmpfs 774M 0 774M 0% /run/user/1179001107

7

OK, so your root partition is half full, so there isn’t an immediate problem, but there’s another partition at /home, which I wouldn’t expect Neth to create (since it doesn’t use that directory much). Did you install from the Nethserver ISO, or from a CentOS ISO?

8

It’s half full now since I move the backup folder and sym linked it. I used the Nethserver ISO on a flash drive when I rebuilt the server in the spring.

9

That sure isn’t the behavior I’m seeing with an installation from the Nethserver ISO:

image
image1736Ă—1422 234 KB

10

I used whatever ISO was available around April 1st when I built it and basically took the defaults for the Linux install.

As long as it hangs in there for the next little while, I’ll be happy. When I no longer need it for critical e-mail I may rebuild it and use it for personal web hosting and file serving, paying more attention to how the disk is being set up.

I ran a backup and moving the backup folder to the other partition is working out so far.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

11

Hi everyone!
Coming back to this thread, I have a similar problem, but I can’t simlink. Is there any proper way to reduce or delete my home partition and increase the root one? I have:
'# lvs
home centos_srv -wi-ao---- <64.36g
root centos_srv -wi-ao---- 50.00g
swap centos_srv -wi-ao---- <3.88g

12

@loic

Hi

This does NOT look like a NethServer installation. This looks more like Centos.

Why not just simply install NethServer, instead of having issues when installing Centos, and then NethServer?

My 2 cents
Andy

13

Anyone else stumbling into here: what you may be looking for is BIND;

Add a hard Drive to your system, mount it as per normal, eg:

/dev/sdb /shares ext4 defaults 0 0

Create folders for your data, eg /shares/ibay

Move/Copy the data from /var/lib/nethserver/ibay/ to that /shares/ibay

Create a bind entry in /etc/fstab such as:

/shares/ibay /var/lib/nethserver/ibay none bind 0 0

mount /shares/ibay and now that data will be off of your root /var partition (if you MOVED it that is).

1 Like
14

@KdB

Hi Klaus!

BIND is the name of the oldest and the “reference” implementation of DNS Server, NOT what you’re describing above.
What you’re describing is a simple “mount”, in this case an additional disk!

And, when we’re at it: Why use the very non-performing ext4 instead of NethServer’s standard, the much better XFS file system?

Another point is that your procedure does not answer the question asked! Here, no one asked about an “additional” diesk. Often, adding in a disk won’t work, simply because of no space or no interface for SATA free…

Yes, people do ask for strange things here, and use strange hardware i couldn’t be bothered with!

My 2 cents
Andy

15

I use bind mount as @KdB describes a lot. You can mount an disk on a arbitrary mount point in your system. And bind mount directories on that disk to appropriate directories in your system.
This way you do not have to use a disk for every directory you want to store on a separate disk.

16

You’re right, it was my very first installation of a server, and I used the script for Centos instead of the ISO (I had problems with). You suggest to reinstall everything?

17

@loic

Hi

Yes, I do suggest to use the prescribed methods.

Using Centos as a basis IS an option, yes, but IMHO Only if you’re on a hosted server (They usually only provide for the usual choice, eg Debian, Centos, Ubuntu…). And, you know what you’re doing!

For a first time user, I’d suggest a reinstallation with the correct NethServer ISO - you’ld be making your life so much easier!

And if you plan on using NethServer as a server, it would make sense to think about disk redundancy… Either a 2 disk system in RAID1 (NethServer does it all for you if you put in 2 same sized disks!) or - as most people would suggest nowadays, run your Server on a proper Hypervisor like Proxmox (Please NOT Hyper-V, that’s just crap to run Linux on!), VMWare or Xen.

This gives you the advantage of snapshots, fast backups, disaster recovery…

See here for some ideas:
https://wiki.nethserver.org/doku.php?id=userguide:nethserver_and_proxmox

My 2 cents
Andy

18

@mark_nl

If written in capitals, like @KdB uses, BIND is “the” DNS Server.

“bind mount” is a different animal, than BIND!

Programming, like systems, is a very precise art! :slight_smile:

Like some users say:

“THE Internet is not working”

instead of:

my “browser” is not working…

Both have VERY different implications… :slight_smile:

My 2 cents
Andy

19

Argh! Yes, Andy, I will crawl back into my hole :frowning:

I meant BIND MOUNT - as in kernel version of bindfs;
Yes, no-one asked about adding a HDD, yet I thought they were looking to create more space on their root partition. I assumed they might benefit from moving data off to another drive in a simple manner;
Yes, I probably should prefer XFS over EXT4 but tend to stick with what I know best. In fact, just last week I had a corrupted root partition and needed to use xfs_repair. It turned out it was quicker and simpler to restore the drive from backup - particularly knowing that because of my use of bind mounts for data partitions it was only a small drive with no important data.

/back to lurking

Klaus

1 Like
20

Thanks for the advice, I learn everyday with Nethserver and its community!