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Disk Space Checks

Why We Do Disk Space Checks and File Cleanup
Why Disk Space Checks are Important
  • To monitor and alert when server disks are getting full.
  • To prevent system crashes or downtime due to disk full errors.
  • To ensure critical applications like databases, web servers, or backups do not fail.
  • To maintain overall health and performance of the server.
  • Nagios checks help us detect issues early before they impact production.
Why We Need to Remove Large and Old Files
  • Disk space fills up over time with logs, backups, cache, and temp files.
  • Old or unnecessary files waste storage and slow down server performance.
  • Cleaning up frees space for important system operations and new backups.
  • Removing large error logs, old backups, and cache avoids unexpected disk usage spikes.
  • Regular cleanup reduces system load and keeps server maintenance under control.
Nagios Disk Space Checks

Check Diskslash

Command:  /usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nrpe -H localhost -c check_disk_slash

Check DiskHome

Command: /usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nrpe -H localhost -c check_disk_home

check_disk_backup

Command:  /usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nrpe -H localhost -c check_disk_backup

These checks monitor disk usage for /, /home, and backup partitions.

Disk Cleanup Procedures

 

Clear YUM Cache

Navigate to the YUM cache directory: cd /var/cache/yum/

List files:

ls -ll

Remove a specific file:

rm -f filename

Clean all cached files:

yum clean all
Find Large Files

Find .tar.gz files larger than 300MB

find / -type f -size +300M -iname "*.tar.gz" -exec du -sch {} \; | grep -v total

Find .zip files larger than 200MB

find / -type f -size +200M -iname "*.zip" -exec du -sch {} \; | grep -v total

Find .log files larger than 100MB

find / -type f -size +100M -iname "*.log" -exec du -sch {} \; | grep -v total

Find error_log files larger than 50MB inside /home

find /home -type f -size +50M -iname "*error_log" 2>/dev/null -exec du -sch {} \; | grep -v total

Find php.error.log files larger than 50MB inside /home

find /home -type f -size +50M -iname "*php.error.log" 2>/dev/null -exec du -sch {} \; | grep -v total

Find any files larger than 600MB in /home

find /home/ -type f -size +600000k -exec ls -lh {} \; | awk '{ print $9 ":" $5 }'
Find Large Directories

Find cache* directories larger than 5MB inside /home

find /home -type d -size +5M -name 'cache*' -exec du -sh {} \; | grep -v total

Find .trash* directories larger than 1MB inside /home

find /home -type d -name '.trash*' -exec du -sh {} \; | awk '$1 > "1" {print}'
Remove Specific Log Files

Check files starting with logs.21978

ls -lah | grep logs.21978

Remove files starting with logs.21978:

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name 'logs.21978*' -exec rm -fv {} +
Remove Files by Date Range

List files created between 1st Jan 2024 and 31st Mar 2024:

find . -type f -newermt '01 jan 2024 00:00:00' -not -newermt '31 mar 2024 00:00:00' -ls

Delete files created between 1st Jun 2021 and 31st Dec 2023:

find . -type f -newermt '01 jun 2021 00:00:00' -not -newermt '31 dec 2023 00:00:00' -delete

Delete .zip files created between 1st Jan 2024 and 1st Apr 2024:

find . -type f -name "*.zip" -newermt '01 jan 2024 00:00:00' -not -newermt '01 apr 2024 00:00:00' -delete
Notes
  • Always verify files with ls  or find before running delete commands.
  • Use du -sh to check folder sizes.
  • Take backups if needed before removing important files.