Category: Linux Tricks

Cleaning up and making space on /usr

1. Restart the httpd service. This might free a little space some times.

2. Check for Apache logs like error_log, access_log , suexec_log in /usr/local/apache/logs . These can either be cleared off or if you need the logs then you can take a zipped copy and keep it aside.

3. Same can be done for the files in cPanel logs (/usr/local/cpanel/logs) as well .

4. Domlogs – Get into the /usr/local/apache/domlogs/ directory. Run the following command :-

# ls -al -SR | head -10 —> It will list 10 files in the decreasing order according to their size

If the domlog file is too large for a domain then it is possible that awstats is not running . Check whether cpanellogd is running on the server using pstree . If not, restart it .
Else, it is possible that awstats for only that particular domain is not updating. Get into the directory /usr/local/cpanel/base and check if any file as ‘awstats.domainname.com.conf’ exists. If yes , delete that file.

Now, run /scripts/runweblogs for that user. It will update the awstats and automatically clear the domlogs file thereafter. Do not delete the domlogs file itself.

5. Remove old and unwanted backups of ‘apache’ that might have been taken long ago. Also, check for any other duplicate folders that can be removed safely.

6. Remove core files, if any . Normally, some core files (like core.1234) might be present in /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot . Check for these and remove them.

7. Restart your server, the quota might be off for that partition and reboot will correct it. Keep in mind if there is a hard drive error this can leave the server offline while the system or admin tuns a FSDK.

Cleaning up and making space on /var

Cpanel and Linux leaves a lot of log files in /var
After several years these can add up, especially in the cpanel/bandwidth folder. So a couple quick folder moves and symlinks can clean things up. This is assuming you have a /backup partition and some room in it.

1. Moving the log folder

mv /var/log /backup/
ln -s /backup/log /var/log

2. Moving the cpanel bandwidth folder

mv /var/cpanel/bandwidth /backup/
ln -s /backup/bandwidth /var/cpanel/bandwidth

3. Also just removing some of the log files in the log folder can help you for a quick fix.

4. You can use this command to find any other large folders:

du -ax –max-depth 1 /var | sort -n | tail

5. In some cases you just need to clean your mail queue

/usr/sbin/exiqgrep -i | xargs /usr/sbin/exim -Mrm

Other server cleaning tips:

1. Delete cPanel File Manager temp files

When users upload files in File Manager within cPanel, File Manager creates a temp file that may or may not get removed upon upload. You can remove these files using this command:

rm -fv /home/*/tmp/Cpanel_*
2.  Remove cPanel update archives

Cpanel and EasyApache updates tend to leave behind files that you probably don’t need. The following can be deleted or moved to a backup server to free up a little bit of space:

/usr/local/apache.backup*

/home/cpeasyapache (actual name may vary depending on cpanel version)

3.  Clean up Yum files

Yum updates leave package cache files on the server. You can clean up all unneeded yum files by running:

yum clean all

4. Remove pure-ftp partials

When your users upload files to the server via FTP when your server runs pureFTP as an FTP daemon, the FTP server creates temporary files starting with .pureftpd-upload* that get renamed the the actual filename when the upload completes. If the upload doesn’t complete, these files are left on the server. You can find and delete these by running:

locate .pureftpd-upload | xargs rm -fv