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/var/lib/fahclient 40+ Gb in size

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 4:46 pm
by lleb
few questions

1. why is it so large
2. what can i delete, reduce, change settings to prevent this from happening again:

Code: Select all

du -h /var/lib/fahclient/
4.4G	/var/lib/fahclient/work/01/01
8.8G	/var/lib/fahclient/work/01
8.8G	/var/lib/fahclient/work
6.4G	/var/lib/fahclient/logs
68K	/var/lib/fahclient/configs
21M	/var/lib/fahclient/cores/cores.foldingathome.org/Linux/AMD64/AVX/Core_a7.fah
21M	/var/lib/fahclient/cores/cores.foldingathome.org/Linux/AMD64/AVX
6.0M	/var/lib/fahclient/cores/cores.foldingathome.org/Linux/AMD64/Core_a4.fah
27M	/var/lib/fahclient/cores/cores.foldingathome.org/Linux/AMD64
27M	/var/lib/fahclient/cores/cores.foldingathome.org/Linux
27M	/var/lib/fahclient/cores/cores.foldingathome.org
27M	/var/lib/fahclient/cores
21G	/var/lib/fahclient/
I have reduce the size of the WU down to normal, this is supposed to cap at 10G, yet i see the 3 work folders total > 22G. Not acceptable.

Also if this is going to continue to be an issue, is it possible to move fahclient/ out of /var/lib into user space without causing any issues?

Thank you

Re: /var/lib/fahclient 40+ Gb in size

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 5:16 pm
by Joe_H
Actually, your total is shown as 21 GB. What the du utility is showing is the total for the entire directory tree at the bottom, you don't sum up the individual amounts for each subdirectory. So what you do have is 8.8 GB of files in the work directory and 6.4 GB of files in the subdirectory for logs. I expect most of the remaining space is being used by your current log file located in /var/lib/fahclient/. That may be so large if you are getting a large number of error messages or have been running a very long time since your last reboot and restart of the client.

As for the WU size set in the client, that relates to WU upload size after processing, not the working files. But one of the files kept in the work area is a log, that may have blown up for the same reason - large number of error messages.

Re: /var/lib/fahclient 40+ Gb in size

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 6:02 pm
by JimboPalmer
Right at the moment, no Core_a4 Work Units are being processed. It is possible but not guarantied that no more ever will. Some researcher may discover s/he need some more work to make their paper more robust.

If you delete the /var/lib/fahclient/cores/cores.foldingathome.org/Linux/AMD64/Core_a4.fah directory and it is never used again, you save 6 meg! If it is used again it will be re-created. Not a win. but not a show stopper.

[I am just a user, I have no inside information. If you or any member of you team is caught, I will disavow any knowledge of your operation. This message will not self destruct.]

Re: /var/lib/fahclient 40+ Gb in size

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 9:11 pm
by lleb
With those 2 statements, is it also safe to delete the log file to clear up that 6.4G?

Re: /var/lib/fahclient 40+ Gb in size

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 12:50 am
by bruce
Yes.

Log files are sometimes useful in tracking earlier errors but a ceertain number of them are accumulated and then deleted. Restarting the client periodically keeps any one log from getting too big.

Re: /var/lib/fahclient 40+ Gb in size

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 12:56 am
by lleb
Thank you both for the info. Ill keep a better eye on my log files and will restart the client more often.

Re: /var/lib/fahclient 40+ Gb in size

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:32 am
by bruce
You've been assigned WUs that use FAHCore_a4 and FAHCore_a7, so those two FAHCore's have been downloaded. If you delete them, they will immediately download again when a WU needs them so there's no point in deleting FAHCore_a7 since those WUs are often being assigned. WUs for the older FAHCore_a4 are either very rare or no longer being assigned so you might as well delete it unless it happens to be currently in use.