Analyzing Disk Usage

Introduction

Welcome, aspiring system administrator! You've just started your new role at TechCorp, a rapidly growing tech startup. On your first day, you receive an urgent message from the lead developer:

"Our main development server is running out of disk space, and it's slowing down our entire team! We need your help to analyze the disk usage and free up some space ASAP. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use your Linux skills to investigate and resolve this crisis."

In this challenge, you'll step into the shoes of a system administrator and use essential Linux commands – df and du – to analyze disk usage, identify space hogs, and manage large files. These skills are crucial for maintaining system performance and preventing disk space emergencies in real-world scenarios.

Skills Graph

Assess the Overall Disk Space Situation

Your first task is to get a bird's-eye view of the disk usage across all mounted file systems on the server.

Target

Use the df command to display disk usage statistics for all mounted file-systems in a human-readable format.

Requirement

Employ the df command with the appropriate option to show sizes in a human-readable format (e.g., KB, MB, GB). This will help you quickly identify which file systems are running low on space.

Result Example

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 20G 19G 0.2G 99% /
tmpfs 1.5G 12K 1.5G 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sdb1 50G 48G 2G 96% /mnt/data

Note: Your actual output will reflect the server's current state.

Investigate the /var Directory

The lead developer suspects that log files in the /var directory might be consuming a lot of space. Your next task is to investigate this directory.

Target

Analyze and display the total disk usage for the /var directory in a human-readable format.

Requirement

Use the du command with appropriate options to:

• Show only the total size of the /var directory.
• Display the size in a human-readable format.

Result Example

5.2G /var

Note: The actual size will depend on the contents of the /var directory on your server.

Summary

Congratulations, rookie system administrator! You've successfully completed your first disk space crisis management task. In this challenge, you've demonstrated essential skills for effective disk space management in Linux systems:

1. Using df to get an overview of disk usage across all mounted file systems.
2. Employing du to analyze disk usage in specific directories.
3. Finding and managing large files that may be unnecessarily consuming space.

These skills are crucial for maintaining system performance and preventing disk space issues in real-world scenarios. The development team can now continue their work without interruption, thanks to your swift action.

Remember, regular disk usage checks and proactive management of large files are key to preventing future disk space emergencies. Keep honing these skills – they'll serve you well throughout your career as a system administrator!