The /var/lib/pulp file system is growing faster in Red Hat Satellite 6

Environment

• Red Hat Satellite 6

Issue

• Why /var/lib/pulp file system has grown larger than expected ?

• When we do remove content view from the RedHat Satellite WebUI it does not free up any disk space in /var/lib/pulp ?

Resolution

• /var/lib/pulp filesystem size can be controlled by below:

  • Use "On Demand" download policy for yum repos whenever possible. This will ensure that just the needed packages are stored on the disk, not all the packages from the repository.

  • To verify the current download policy set to the repositories, run the following command from the Satellite CLI.

    ```
    # su - postgres -c "psql foreman -c \"select id, name, download_policy from katello_root_repositories;\""
    ```
    

  • Do synchronize just the required repositories. If some repository is not further needed, delete/disable it. A weekly cronjob will remove the packages automatically.

  • Synchronizing ISO or docker repositories can consume a high amount of disk space.

  • It is worth deleting unused Content Views or their versions. For example, If a CV contains 5 repos and has 2 versions in 2 Lifecycle Environments, then 20 pulp repos are maintained just for this CV. Each repo incurs extra storage for metadata, and when multiplied by the number of repos, it causes significant disk space usage.

  • If Red Hat Satellite has both repository Minor release and Major release Server When you disable the minor release version repository then it will not release more space from the filesystem as the same set of RPMs is used by the Major release repository or vice versa:

    ```
    Minor release repo => Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server RPMs x86_64 7.3
    Major release repo => Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server RPMs x86_64 7Server
    ```
    

Note: Red Hat Satellite 6 uses a component called Pulp to store and manage repository content. The main directory for Pulp storage is /var/lib/pulp. It is recommended to mount this directory onto a large local partition that you can easily scale. For example, use Logical Volume Manager (LVM) to create this partition.

Note: If you still see the issue not related to the above pointers then please contact Red Hat Technical support for further assistance.

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

Diagnostic Steps

• Check File system /var/lib/pulp utilization on Red Hat Satellite:

  [root@satellite ~]# df -kh /var/lib/pulp/
  Filesystem             Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
  /dev/mapper/rhel-root  100G   90G   10G  90% /
  

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