UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Hi,

I am having space issues in unix server. The free space is getting reduced gradually in my server.

I gave the df -g /folder1 command to check the free space and it showed as 0.75 GB. I then deleted some files from the unix server and then checked the size of each dir using the du command.

After some time , I gave the df -g /folder1 command once again to check the free space and it showed as 0.25 GB. and then checked the size of each dir using the du command.

I compared both the outputs containing the dir size(the one taken previously just after deletion and the other later), the files were same.

No process was running in my server in the time between the comparision.

Ideally, the free space should have been increased after deletion of files but in this case the free space was reuced after some time.

I am clueless regarding this problem.

Please provide some suggestions.

Thanks.

1. is /folder1 all user files or are there other system files there?
2. what UNIX and hardware are you running? Please show the output of

Code:

uname -a

Assuming that /folder1 is a mountpoint (if so, it will have its own line in df -g), check whether any processes have files open on that filesystem:

Code:

fuser -uc /folder1

Then look up each process ID with ps -fp<process id> to find out what it is.

The symptoms you describe suggest that you have deleted files which are open by a process in which case the space will only be released when the process ends.

If /folder1 is not a mountpoint then you have a space problem with the parent mountpoint of /folder1.
Actully if might be easier to diagnose if you post the output from:

Code:

df -g /folder1

Hi Jim,
/folder1 contains system files as well.

and following is the output from uname -a

Code:

Unix - AIX
Version - 5
Release - 3
Hardware -

(Just a blank space was returned for Hardware)
Thanks

---------- Post updated at 07:28 AM ---------- Previous update was at 07:21 AM ----------

Hi Methyl,

Thanks for the suggestions. I gave the command "fuser -uc /folder1" and I got a list of 3-4 process id's. I did check check those processes but nothing alarming there.

Following is the output from the command "df -g /folder1"

Code:

Filesystem    GB blocks      Free %Used    Iused %Iused Mounted on
/dev/aplv00      174.00     19.26   89%     8524     1%   /folder1

Thanks

Currently you have 19.26 Gb free in /folder (which is a mount point).

Did you find any processes which had files open which you had deleted?
Did you reboot or stop a process?
Has a process finished which had temporary files open?

Hi Methyl,

Actually there was one process running that was created around the time we had the space problem. I killed that process and now more than 120GB free space is available.

Thanks a lot.