Removing a repository does not delete its content in /var/lib/pulp on Red Hat Satellite Server.

Environment

• Red Hat Satellite 6.x

Issue

• Disabling some (enabled) repositories in Red Hat Satellite 6.x does not shrink adequately in /var/lib/pulp.
• Why pulp holds packages for disabled repositories, wasting disk space?
• Is there any way to know which pulp repositories are being removed by command foreman-rake katello:delete_orphaned_content RAILS_ENV=production >/dev/null ?

Resolution

• In Red Hat Satellite 6 (< 6.4), the cleanup of var/lib/pulp is scheduled via cron this way:

    # cat /etc/cron.weekly/katello-remove-orphans
    #!/bin/env bash
    # Script for intiating removal of orphaned content
  
    # foreman-rake katello:delete_orphaned_content RAILS_ENV=production >/dev/null
  

• In Red Hat Satellite 6.4 and later the job looks like:

    # grep delete_orphaned /etc/cron.d/katello 
    00 22 * * 0     root    foreman-rake katello:delete_orphaned_content RAILS_ENV=production >/dev/null 2>&1
  

• For more frequent clean-up of the directory, schedule as necessary. To immediately trigger the clean up of the directory, run it on the command line:

    # foreman-rake katello:delete_orphaned_content RAILS_ENV=production >/dev/null
  

• Upon successful completion, a summary of any deleted content will be printed to /var/log/messages:

    Aug 20 16:14:13 hostname pulp: celery.worker.strategy:INFO: Received task: pulp.server.managers.content.orphan.delete_all_orphans[026508bc-9a14-4308-8f95-a750cdef9a03]
    Aug 20 16:17:29 hostname pulp: celery.app.trace:INFO: [026508bc] Task pulp.server.managers.content.orphan.delete_all_orphans[026508bc-9a14-4308-8f95-a750cdef9a03] succeeded in 196.271635305s: {'erratum': 18, 'package_group': 308, 'package_category': 1, 'package_environment': 24, 'rpm': 378, 'yum_repo_metadata_file': 11}
  

For more KB articles/solutions related to Red Hat Satellite 6.x Repository Issues, please refer to the Red Hat Satellite Consolidated Troubleshooting Article for Red Hat Satellite 6.x Repository Issues.

For more KB articles/solutions related to Red Hat Satellite 6.x Pulp 2.0 Issues, please refer to the Consolidated Troubleshooting Article for Red Hat Satellite 6.x Pulp 2.0-related Issues

Root Cause

• There is no way to know which content is being removed by command foreman-rake katello:delete_orphaned_content RAILS_ENV=production >/dev/null. An (internal) feature request has been has been filed as This content is not included.RHBZ#1264960 to add these details, but denied later on. In case of more details on internal Bugzilla ticket, please contact This content is not included.Red Hat Technical Support.

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