File fragments of timed out TFTP transfers in /srv/tftpboot/tmp may cause out of disk space situations

This document (000019855) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Manager 4.x

SUSE Manager Proxy 4.x

Situation

The filesystem of a SUSE Manager Proxy suffers an out of disk space condition and need to be cleaned up. When checking, file fragments found in /srv/tftpboot/tmp are identified as root cause.

Resolution

Please check /srv/tftpboot/tmp for file fragments and delete them to free up disk space. If the connection to the proxy is known to be slow, adjusting tftpsync_timeout in /etc/cobbler/settings from its default setting (15 seconds) to a higher value may help to complete the transfer successful. This file is located on the SUSE Manager.

The new value is picked up instantly after saving and running cobbler sync, no service restart is required.

As a precaution, placing /srv on a separate filesystem is recommended.

Cause

A "cobbler sync" always synchronizes all configured distributions between a SUSE Manager and its configured proxy systems. The upload is stored in /srv/tftpboot/tmp and when successful moved to its final location.

If for whatever reason the sync times out, the file fragments stay in /srv/tftpboot/tmp and over time may cause an out of disk space condition.

Additional Information

Files in /srv/tftpboot/tmp may look similar to:

sumaproxy2:/srv/tftpboot/tmp # l
total 68808
drwxr-xr-x 1 wwwrun www 792 Feb 3 12:21 ./
drwxr-x--- 1 wwwrun tftp 102 Feb 3 12:09 ../
-rw------- 1 wwwrun www 2010720 Feb 3 12:18 tmp0wawkgn6
-rw------- 1 wwwrun www 1891983 Feb 3 12:18 tmp1ozbaxdw
-rw------- 1 wwwrun www 2055631 Feb 3 12:12 tmp1uuxd_6o
-rw------- 1 wwwrun www 1937874 Feb 3 12:19 tmp23u_1rr7
-rw------- 1 wwwrun www 2015086 Feb 3 12:13 tmp3y79vh7v
-rw------- 1 wwwrun www 1929552 Feb 3 12:13 tmp4fz_t1ks
-rw------- 1 wwwrun www 2088936 Feb 3 12:17 tmp53xmu3qz
-rw------- 1 wwwrun www 2012025 Feb 3 12:11 tmp5rhm4wew

In order to keep /srv/tftpboot/tmp clean, a possible solution would be to use systemd-timers to delete the content of the directory every time systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer is being executed. For this to happen, create a file with the following content:

sumaproxy: # cat /etc/tmpfiles.d/sumaproxy_tftptmp.conf
e /srv/tftpboot/tmp/ - - - 1d -

The value "1d" defines the age of the files to be deleted in the specified directory, please adjust when needed. systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer runs once per day (see systemctl list-timers).

For further details please see man 5 tmpfiles.d or man 8 systemd-tmpfiles.

Disclaimer

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