/var: filesystem full

[NeverSimple]

Hello,

During some time now, at least 0n 9.1.x/9.2.x I always get '/var: filesystem full' when performing a gui upgrade (and the upgrade fails). I searched the forum, but it doesn't seem to be a common problem. What I did as a workaround is save the config, do a clean install and reload the config. That works, but I would like to get the upgrade functionality working again. Trying to upgrade to 9.2.1.5 gives me the same error.

Before trying a lot of very interesting, time consuming and ultimately utterly useless stuff, I thought I'd better ask here first.

I currently use FreeNAS-9.2.1.4-RELEASE-x64 (a688538). During the last clean install (so while installing 9.2.1.4) I took the opportunity to enlarge the /var filesystem to 240MB (edit the md_sizes on the USB stick), just to see what would happen. That worked, but didn't help.

Code:

[root@itchy] ~# df -hi /var
Filesystem    Size    Used   Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/md2      224M     37M    169M    18%    1.7k   60k    3%   /var

The 37M in use are mostly rrd data. I do use a syslog dataset, although that seems to be almost empty (250K)

Code:

[root@itchy] ~# du -sh /var/db/collectd/rrd/localhost
 27M    /var/db/collectd/rrd/localhost

If someone could tell me the best way to debug this, I'll be grateful.


Richard

 

[dlavigne]

What are you selecting as the "place to temporarily place firmware file"?

 

[NeverSimple]

on '/mnt/data', my ZFS pool.

Richard

 

[cyberjock]

aha.. your pool is named data. That's one of those forbidden names that causes havoc inside FreeNAS resulting in... seemingly unrelated problems. :p

 

[NeverSimple]

But.. the moment I found out that a pool could actually be called something different than 'tank'.... It still brings tears to my eyes..... :D

 

[NeverSimple]

Mhh, that's sort of disappointing... No one with an idea? :(

That means I'll have to go off on one of those late night command shell debug sessions, at 3 AM reach the conclusion that I broke everything, then install a fresh copy of FreeNAS and decide that it isn't worth the trouble after all and leave the error as it is.

Well, that's fun too, i guess...

 

[krikboh]

http://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/renaming-volume-with-data-already-in-it.13061/

 

[NeverSimple]

Huh??

 

[krikboh]

My understanding was your issue was caused by your pool being named "data" so I linked a thread describing how to rename your pool.

 

[NeverSimple]

Tjeez, I hope not... Pretty sure cyberjock was joking... :D

 

[krikboh]

I believe he was serious. The manual specifically states not to name your pool "data".

 

[warri]

The official ZFS naming conventions (here from Oracle, here from OpenIndiana) don't mention that the name data is disallowed.
But as cyberjock said, FreeNAS itself doesn't like some certain names.. so you could give renaming a shot since it's rather simple.

 

[NeverSimple]

Guys, come on... It's perfectly fine to name your pool 'DATA'. In the FreeNAS manual they advise not to do so, only because it's a common name and it may not catch your attention, for instance, in logfiles. I've used that name from before there even was a FreeNAS8 and on all versions of FreeNAS up till now. Cyberjock really was joking, probably because everyone names there pool 'TANK' (ask Allan Jude...).

I would be really, really amazed if the name of the pool has anything to do with this.

 

[cyberjock]

No, I'm not kidding.. "data" is one of those names we've found to be problematic. The manual say to choose it because it needs to stick out, but it's also been a major problem for many people. So no, I wasn't kidding.

The problem is that some people can't even mount a pool named data, others have no problems. There was a discussion with this a year or more ago, and the developers basically said you shouldn't use names that may potentially be used by developers. Things such as data, syslog, zfs, etc should be dead ringers of names to avoid.

 

[NeverSimple]

Pfff, that's REALLY weird! Don't get me wrong; with your expertise in the FreeNAS community, I absolutely believe this has come up and was proven to be a problem. But what a strange problem..

In the FreeNAS manual they link you to the Oracle documentation for 'ZFS Component Naming Requirements' where, of course, there is nothing about naming your pool something simple like 'DATA'.
So now I have to think twice about naming my pool. Trying to avoid technical words that could have been used somewhere within FreeNAS and cause conflicts. That just sounds wrong.

'SYSTEM', 'VOLUME' or 'STORAGE' and what else you have, should be avoided. Wait... I'll name my pool 'MILEYCYRUS' or 'HASSELHOFF'.. changes of THAT being used internally seem quite low. The problem of inducing vomiting when I look at my pool, on the other hand, are then heavily increased... :p

So I'll follow the link provided by krikboh and we'll see what happens.


Richard

 

[cyberjock]

Why are you reading Oracle documentation? We aren't using anything that's tied to Oracle at all. ;)

FreeBSD ≠ Oracle

Oracle's ZFS ≠ FreeBSD's ZFS

What you are discussing is like grabbing a Microsoft Windows manual and asking why its not applicable on Linux. They're not the OS, so why would you think they'd be applicable.

I agree it is weird. In fact, the developer's couldn't even give a list of what names to avoid or I'd have added them to the manual. I've had quite a few people that have contacted me because they did a FreeNAS upgrade. System ran just fine with 'data', but after the upgrade the pool wouldn't mount. They were in a panic since this was a business, they updated both their primary and backup server, and now both weren't mounting. All i had to do was rename the pools to 'tank' and the problems were solved. Couldn't even force the pool to mount from the CLI with 'data'. But then I did a pool called 'data' in a VM with their version and it worked fine. /shrug

 

[warri]

Oracle's ZFS naming convention is actually linked in the FreeNAS manual (Table 6.3b: Options When Creating a ZFS Pool: Volume name).

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, that needs to be fixed sometime. There's a serious revamp of the manual coming in 9.2.2.

 

[NeverSimple]

Why are you reading Oracle documentation? We aren't using anything that's tied to Oracle at all. ;)

I know. but like I wrote: I followed a link in the current FreeNAS manual. If we DON'T read the manual it's wrong and if we DO it's apparently still wrong. That makes it kinda hard to decide what to do...

But no sweat... I'll rename my pool when I have a change and will report back here about the outcome. Now you got me curious about that...

 

[cyberjock]

Right.. that's a naming convention, and that matches our naming limitations. FreeNAS has it's own limitations on top of that link though.. We also specifically mention that "data" shouldn't be used. That's all I'm saying.