Home > IT Answers > Linux > Kcore filled up my disk on SUSE Linux
Brianbet
25 pts.
 Kcore filled up my disk on SUSE Linux
Linux administration, Linux KERNEL, Linux Memory Management, SUSE, SUSE Linux
Hello, I am running SuSE linux 10 with Linux kernel 2.6.16.60-0.21-smp on x86_64. /proc/kcore has ultimately used up all my available disk space. Here are more specs as reported by Webmin: Processor information Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.00GHz, 4 cores System uptime 26 days, 1 hours, 01 minutes Running processes 152 CPU load averages 3.07 (1 min) 0.89 (5 mins) 0.30 (15 mins) Real memory 5.77 GB total, 530.25 MB used Virtual memory 3 GB total, 0 bytes used I began deleting remnant and unused files on the 10 GB root partition, such as downloaded .rpm's, etc. kcore kept eating up the space until the point where now if I were to delete an archived log file it makes no difference, I cannot write to the disk as there is no space left! Searching the net for answers reveals a fallacy that kcore is NOT really using hard disk space, I assure you it has on my system! This false information is what got me to the point where I am at now. I performed a reboot, no luck, remained the same. Can someone point me to a resolution that does not require a complete re-installation? Obviously I cannot install updates or a new kernel as there is no room left in which to do so. Thanks, Brian

Software/Hardware used:
SuSE linux 10 kernel 2.6.16.60-0.21-smp on x86_64
ASKED: August 10, 2010  5:09 PM
UPDATED: August 12, 2010  3:19 PM
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Answer Wiki:
What leads you to believe it's kcore that's causing your disk space issues? It's not a 'fallacy', kcore is a virtual representation of the physical memory as the kernel sees it. In fact, the entire /proc partition doesn't take up any real, physical space. Have you checked the other directories? Most disk space is consumed in /var or /tmp in the form of log files or temp files. The du command is helpful in determining where the problem may reside.
Last Wiki Answer Submitted:  August 11, 2010  3:22 pm  by  Opnsrc   70 pts.
All Answer Wiki Contributors:  Opnsrc   70 pts.
To see all answers submitted to the Answer Wiki: View Answer History.


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Hello Opnsrc,
Yes, I have run all commands revealing disk usage and file usage, sorting by size. I have run du excluding the /proc folder and have less than 4 GB total files on the 10 Gig drive. Factor in kcore and it takes it over 10 GB.
Pretty much everything points to this conclusion, that kcore IS taking up the needed disk space. I wonder if I remove 2 GB of ram, of the six, if it would decrease the size of kcore?

Brianbet
 25 pts.
 

Hello Opnsrc,
I’ll eat crow! Rather, you are right, I am wrong. Some how I was not able to identify a Mysql database as being on that volume or du simply didn’t show it, for some reason. The database was 5.6 GB in size. The database, along with the rest of the OS filled the hard drive. I removed 4 GB of physical ram, and found myself continuing to be out of drive space.I found a few backup files that were safe to remove and did so. I now had room to play with. I should also mention, I stopped all apps that would normally run on this box.

I moved the database to another partition and found my hard drive 44% unused space. Whew! The strange thing is that I REALLY did not see the database size in all my diagnostics, and believe me, I ran everything I could in every fashion. Weird!

Yup, I’ll not doubt /proc/kcore attributes again. Thanks for holding to what you know to be true and factual. It caused me to look deeper and try the one-more-thing. Accolades to you Opnsrc :-) and thank you
Brian

Brianbet
 25 pts.