This article applies to our On-Premise Appliance Filter and Firewall product only, not to Cloud.
This article will show you how to track disk space usage 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 use by going to Reports > Settings > Datastore settings.
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.
Firewall logging on the dashboard
The Disk usage section on the Dashboard shows the amount of disk space taken up by the System and the Logs partitions.
- System: Holds the proxy cache and reports, so the disk space in use should rarely fluctuate.
- Logs: Holds all logs generated, so it will 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.
Go to Reports > Settings > Datastore settings.
Select Usage estimates to see projected usage for the next month, 3 months, 6 months and year. Use this to help decide on your retention settings.
- On this page, you can adjust how long to keep Web Filter and Firewall log data using the slider. Set the maximum retention rate to a value that does not exceed the disk space available.
- For System logs, you can change the Default retention from Reports > Logs > Log settings.
For example, if you change your retention period from six to four months, Smoothwall will delete any logs older than 4 months. Smoothwall will start deleting after fifteen minutes, but the process can take a little time, depending on the number of 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%.
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Cache options:
- If you are on Leeds or prior, you’ll see this section.
- Change the Global cache size to 0.
- Set Use shared memory for cache to Disable.
- If you are on Maiden:
- If you had the Global Cache size set to anything other than 0 in Leeds, contact Smoothwall Support and we will switch off caching for you.
- If you had the Global Cache size set to 0 in Leeds, skip this step.
- If you are on Leeds or prior, you’ll see this section.
- 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.
Minimise Firewall logs
You should not enable audits during daily use because they log all incoming and outgoing traffic and the policies applied, generating large firewall logs.
- Go to Networking > Settings > Advanced.
- Find the Audit section.
- Ensure the checkboxes for Direct incoming traffic, Forwarded traffic and Direct outgoing traffic are not selected.
Previously generated logs won’t be cleared immediately - they will be deleted in line with your retention period.
Prune archives and backups
You can set up scheduled archives to automatically back up your System logs. If you don't remove these, the list will grow and take up more space.
- Go to System > Maintenance > Scheduler.
- Set the Prune archives field to a value other than Don’t prune.
- Select Save.
Clear stored reports
If you have automated reports running for a while, they can take up System log disk space.
- Go Reports > Reports > Recent and saved.
- Select X to delete any reports that are no longer needed.