This article will show you how to track disk space usage of your On-Premise Appliance and some ways to reduce logging to increase the disk space available.
Note that these steps often free up disk space without resolving the underlying issue. If you have tried the steps in the article and they didn’t work or worked temporarily and your disk space is regularly full, contact Smoothwall Support.
Set up System Alerts for low disk space
You can set up a notification to be sent to you via email or SMS when you have low disk space.
- Adjust the threshold values from Reports > Alerts > Alert settings.
- Set up the System Alerts for System Resource Monitor.
Check disk space usage
Datastore settings
You can see how much space the different logs and their future estimated usage from the Datastore settings page.
Top domains on the dashboard
The Top domains report on the Dashboard shows potential spamming requests that the Web Filter has blocked. When the blocked requests keep retrying to connect indefinitely, this can cause large data logs.
You can run reports in Reports > Reports > Top Reports to help identify who or what is accessing those domains and the cause, so you can take action to reduce the scale of requests.
Disk usage on the dashboard
The Disk usage section on the Dashboard shows the amount of disk space used by the System (Root partition) and Logs (Log partition).
Image 1: Disk usage on the Smoothwall Appliance dashboard.
System
System logs contain data that rarely changes, such as operating system and Smoothwall Appliance configuration details. The disk space in use should rarely fluctuate.
If you see a banner on all pages saying that 'The system is running very low on disk space. (The "Logs" filesystem has 0% free.)’, contact Smoothwall Support. Do not reboot your Smoothwall Appliance.
Logs
Logs store all logs, including proxy cache and reports, which can likely cause a lack of disk space. Follow the steps below to free up disk space.
Free up disk space by adjusting your settings
Change your log retention
The log retention period determines how long the system will save logs before deletion. You can change the retention settings for your logs.
Adjust settings to prevent excessive logging
Turn off proxy logging
Proxy Logging records the HTTP requests and responses that pass through the proxy server. To free up disk space, you only need to enable proxy logging when troubleshooting proxy issues.
- Go to Web Proxy > Web Proxy > Settings.
- Select the Advanced > button.
- Go to the Logging options section.
- Select Disable for Proxy Logging to turn off Squid proxy logs.
- Select Do not log for Client user-agents, Advert blocks and Local accesses, which can reduce logging by up to 5%.
- If you are on Leeds or prior, you’ll see the Cache options section. Change the Global cache size to 0 and set Use shared memory for cache to Disable.
- If you are on Leeds or prior, you’ll see the Internet Cache Protocol (ICP) section. Set ICP server to Disable.
- Scroll down and select Save and restart with cleared cache. Any logs previously generated are deleted in line with your log retention settings.
Manage Firewall logs
Firewall rule logs
Consider whether to log data for Firewall rules, as generating these logs can impact the performance of your Smoothwall Appliance. To turn logging for Firewall rules on or off:
- Edit your Port Forward policies to select or clear the Log connection checkbox.
- Edit your Firewall rules and Smoothwall access rules to select or clear the Log checkbox.
Auditing
Don’t enable audits during daily use because they log all incoming and outgoing traffic and the policies applied, generating large firewall logs.
- Go to Network > Settings > Advanced.
- In the Audit section, ensure the checkboxes for Direct incoming traffic, Forwarded traffic and Direct outgoing traffic are not selected.
- Select Save changes.
Previously generated logs will be deleted in line with your retention period, not immediately.
Prune Settings Archives
You can set up scheduled Settings Archives to automatically back up your settings. If you don't remove these, the list will grow and take up more space.
- Go to System > Maintenance > Scheduler.
- Ensure the Prune archives field is set to a value other than Don’t prune. The default and recommended setting is Over 3 months, or you can change it to Over 2 months.
- Select Save.
Clear stored reports
If you have automated reports running for a while, they can take up disk space in the Logs (Log partition).
- Go Reports > Reports > Recent and saved.
- Select X to delete any reports that are no longer needed.