Filesystem full (/home) while backing up

[Ntvbs]

Hi guys,

I just saw a few message in my log files (/var/log/messages) about a full /home filesystem.

This is my setup:

/home
Size: 95G
Used: 38G
Avail: 50G

Daily backup (1 user, 38G, in .tar.gz backup 25G) starts at 02:15 and will be transfered using FTP via local network around 04:20 I think (because that is when the problems start)

See logs below:

Jun  5 04:19:50 [servername] kernel: pid 45490 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 5772618 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:20:13 [servername] kernel: pid 45478 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:21:14 [servername] kernel: pid 45485 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:22:16 [servername] kernel: pid 45426 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:22:51 [servername] kernel: pid 45584 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 5094794 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:23:17 [servername] kernel: pid 45558 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:24:18 [servername] kernel: pid 45557 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:25:08 [servername] kernel: pid 45655 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 5845461 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:25:19 [servername] kernel: pid 45631 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:25:29 [servername] kernel: pid 45669 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 6740196 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:26:21 [servername] kernel: pid 45687 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:26:52 [servername] kernel: pid 45699 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 5845461 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:27:22 [servername] kernel: pid 45635 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:28:23 [servername] kernel: pid 45687 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:28:26 [servername] kernel: pid 45723 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 7183481 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:29:24 [servername] kernel: pid 45593 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:30:27 [servername] kernel: pid 45744 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:31:28 [servername] kernel: pid 45746 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:31:40 [servername] kernel: pid 45801 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 5891127 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:31:46 [servername] kernel: pid 45806 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 5891127 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:32:29 [servername] kernel: pid 45773 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:33:30 [servername] kernel: pid 45742 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:34:24 [servername] kernel: pid 45905 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 5772618 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:34:32 [servername] kernel: pid 45718 (httpd), uid 1004 inumber 10176303 on /home: filesystem full
Jun  5 04:34:47 [servername] kernel: pid 45915 (exim), uid 1010 inumber 5845461 on /home: filesystem full

So the system will give the filesystem full error for 15 minutes, after this there are no problems at all. This happens every night, around the same time.

Any idea what the reason is for this? I think my 50G free space should be enough, or not...

Thanks,

 

[mr.applesauce]

Guess its not if it complains ... lol

 

[Ntvbs]

Guess its not if it complains ... lol

Ok, but WHY not? 50G is not enough to backup 38G??

 

[nobaloney]

It may very well not be, and it may not be properly backing up the full 38GB even though it finishes. You should carefully check your backups to see that they're restorable.

While in general you need only a bit more free space than in your largest /home directory, there may be files in other places being backed up. MySQL comes to mind.

Jeff

 

[floyd]

First the backup process copies the files needed tar.gz'ing some of them and don't forget about database files and perhaps mail files. Then once all of these files are gathered then it creates the main .tar.gz file. After that it deletes the temporary files. So you need a lot more than the final size of the backup file to do the backup. You should watch the backup in process one day to understand what it is doing.