[BlueOnyx:04774] Re: /var directory full

Chuck Tetlow chuck at tetlow.net
Fri Jun 18 19:44:08 -05 2010


---------- Original Message -----------
From: "Luis Rojas" <Luis at avalonglobal.com> 
To: <blueonyx at blueonyx.it> 
Sent: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:37:40 -0600 
Subject: [BlueOnyx:04770]  /var directory full

> Hey Guys,
>  
> This morning I notice that my /var directory is full, I figureit was probably logs, but I am not sure which ones to delete. Or is there a wayto increase the size of my /var directory?
> This is what the logs look like:
>  
>  
> Server /var/log# ls -l
> total 1119160
> drwx------ 2 root  root        4096 Jun 13 05:05 admserv
> drwxr-x--- 2 root  root        4096 Jun  3 00:25 audit
> -rw------- 1 root  root           0 Jun 13 05:21boot.log
> -rw------- 1 root  root          20 Jun 13 05:22boot.log.1.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root          0 Oct 18  2009 boot.log.2
> -rw------- 1 root  root          20 Jun  6 05:04boot.log.2.gz
> -rw------- 1 root  root           0 Oct 11 2009 boot.log.3
> -rw------- 1 root  root          20 May 30 04:24boot.log.3.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root           0Oct  4  2009 boot.log.4
> -rw------- 1 root  root          20 May 24 04:31boot.log.4.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   utmp   811817472 Jun 1809:20 btmp
> -rw------- 1 root   root    2013871 Jun 18 10:10 cron
> -rw------- 1 root   root     147764 Jun 13 05:22 cron.1.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root     457608 Oct 25  2009 cron.2
> -rw------- 1 root   root     148008 Jun  6 05:04 cron.2.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root     457636 Oct 18  2009 cron.3
> -rw------- 1 root  root       73496 May 30 04:24 cron.3.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root     457335 Oct 11  2009 cron.4
> -rw------- 1 root  root       34021 May 24 04:31 cron.4.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       17658 May 17 16:15 dmesg
> -rw------- 1 root  root       15672 Jun 14 09:14 faillog
> drwxr-xr-x 3 root  root        4096 Jun 18 05:20 httpd
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       14194 Jun 18 10:01 ipacct
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        5951 Jun 18 05:20 ipacct.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       38992 Nov  4  2009 ipacct.2
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        5952 Jun 17 05:21 ipacct.2.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       39076 Nov  3  2009 ipacct.3
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        6005 Jun 16 05:22 ipacct.3.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       38999 Nov  2  2009 ipacct.4
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        6288 Jun 15 05:34 ipacct.4.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root   root     190676 Jun 18 10:03 lastlog
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root        4096 Mar  9  2009 mail
> -rw------- 1 root   root     775045 Jun 18 10:10 maillog
> -rw------- 1 root   root     241370 Jun 18 05:20 maillog.1.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root     101502 Nov  4  2009 maillog.2
> -rw------- 1 root   root     268293 Jun 17 05:21 maillog.2.gz
> -rw------- 1 root  root       92168 Nov  3  2009 maillog.3
> -rw------- 1 root   root     245726 Jun 16 05:22 maillog.3.gz
> -rw------- 1 root  root       72906 Nov  2  2009 maillog.4
> -rw------- 1 root   root     254089 Jun 15 05:34 maillog.4.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root    61932114Jun 18 10:10 messages
> -rw------- 1 root   root    2592020 Jun 13 05:22 messages.1.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root    22568557Oct 25  2009 messages.2
> -rw------- 1 root   root    3952620 Jun  6 05:04 messages.2.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root    23817327Oct 18  2009 messages.3
> -rw------- 1 root   root    2465707 May 30 04:24 messages.3.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root    26491901Oct 11  2009 messages.4
> -rw------- 1 root   root    2438441 May 24 04:31 messages.4.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root     279491 Sep 16  2009 messages.save
> -rw------- 1 root   root    12107705Sep 16  2009 messages.save.1
> -rw-r----- 1 mysql  mysql     21534 May 17 16:16 mysqld.log
> -rw-r--r-- 1 apacheapache         0 Feb 16 13:08 php_error
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root        4096 Apr  2  2009 pm
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root        4096 Jan 20  2009 prelink
> drwxr-x--- 2 root  root        4096 Jun 13 05:21 proftpd
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       33812 Jun 18 05:21 rpmpkgs
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        7792 Jun 13 05:21 rpmpkgs.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       31498 Oct 24  2009 rpmpkgs.2
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        7729 Jun  6 05:04rpmpkgs.2.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       31498 Oct 17  2009 rpmpkgs.3
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        7729 May 30 04:24 rpmpkgs.3.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       31498 Oct 10  2009 rpmpkgs.4
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        7729 May 24 04:31 rpmpkgs.4.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root   110738288 Jun 1810:06 secure
> -rw------- 1 root   root    1285815 Jun 13 05:22 secure.1.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root    3015640 Oct 25  2009 secure.2
> -rw------- 1 root   root    5805808 Jun  6 05:04 secure.2.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root    29141757 Oct17  2009 secure.3
> -rw------- 1 root   root    1582303 May 30 04:24 secure.3.gz
> -rw------- 1 root   root    12817318Oct 10  2009 secure.4
> -rw------- 1 root   root    3188035 May 24 04:31 secure.4.gz
> -rw------- 1 root  root           0 Jun 13 05:21spooler
> -rw------- 1 root  root          20 Jun 13 05:22spooler.1.gz
> -rw------- 1 root  root           0 Oct 18 2009 spooler.2
> -rw------- 1 root  root          20 Jun  6 05:04spooler.2.gz
> -rw------- 1 root  root           0 Oct 11 2009 spooler.3
> -rw------- 1 root  root          20 May 30 04:24spooler.3.gz
> -rw------- 1 root  root           0 Oct 4  2009 spooler.4
> -rw------- 1 root  root          20 May 24 04:31spooler.4.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root           0 Oct 7  2009 syslog
> -rw------- 1 root  root           0 Apr 2  2009 tallylog
> drwxr-xr-x 2 tomcat tomcat      4096Mar 10  2009 tomcat5
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 root   utmp     154368 Jun 18 10:03 wtmp
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 root  utmp       42484 May  7 04:23 wtmp.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root           0 Jun 18 05:20xferlog
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root          20 Jun 18 05:20xferlog.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root          20 Jun 17 05:21xferlog.2.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root          20 Jun 16 05:22xferlog.3.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root          20 Jun 15 05:34xferlog.4.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        2169 Jun 18 06:00 yum.log
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        4275 Jan  1 04:39yum.log.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root  root        1840 Nov  5  2009yum.log.2009-11-05
>  
> Thanks for the help.
>  
> -Luis
------- End of Original Message -------

Hi Luis,

Sure - it appears you have some largish log files.  But the biggest I see are the secure file at 110Meg and the messages file at 62Meg.  Everything I see on that list probably won't add up to more than 1Gig.  Since most servers have about 4Gig for /var - that's probably not the problem.  (Although deleting the older files with "rm -f /var/log/*.gz" would definitely help)

You might check out the httpd directory under /var/log.  That's the Apache webserver logs directory.  And I've seen a persistent PHP script error fill that /var partition with errors in the /var/log/httpd/error.log file.  If that isn't the problem - here's how you find it.

Go into the /var partition.  After looking at the list of files with "ls -lh" - you may be able to spot the problem.  The "h" switch gives you "human" readable size output (kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes).  But if the files eating up the partiation are in a directory instead of /var - use "du -hs *" to look at the sizes of the files AND directories.  This output is also in human readable size output. 

With that output, you should be able to spot what directory is using up so much of the space on that partition.  When you find the directory - go into it and use the command again.  The "du -hs *" command is very helpful in tracking down what's screwing up and eating up drive space.

Once you find it - delete anything you can.  If its older log files in /var/log/httpd, just delete anything named .gz.  If its mail spool files stuck unable to send in the /var/spool/mqueue - delete them.  (I one time found a server that had been running for a year and a half that had 57,000+ files in that directory!)  If its incoming SPAM and other undeliverable e-mail, they may be stuck in the /var/spool/mail, /var/spool/mqueue.in, or /var/spool/MailScanner/quarantine directories.  Again - delete anything eating up excessive space in those directories.

Good luck.

Chuck

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.blueonyx.it/pipermail/blueonyx/attachments/20100618/fe5481e5/attachment.html>


More information about the Blueonyx mailing list