30e4746e631e 3 months ago 2.23GB
# docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
local_discourse/app latest 8da0107aba03 2 months ago 2.7GB
# df -h /
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1 25G 17G 7.8G 68% /
# docker system df
TYPE TOTAL ACTIVE SIZE RECLAIMABLE
Images 1 1 2.699GB 0B (0%)
Containers 1 1 1.13GB 0B (0%)
Local Volumes 0 0 0B 0B
Build Cache 0 0 0B 0B
# df -h /
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1 25G 17G 7.8G 68% /
# du -shc /var/lib/docker/overlay2/*
4.9G /var/lib/docker/overlay2/627*
40K /var/lib/docker/overlay2/627*-init
2.3G /var/lib/docker/overlay2/91d*
592M /var/lib/docker/overlay2/d81*
76M /var/lib/docker/overlay2/fb9*
24K /var/lib/docker/overlay2/l
7.8G total
# du -shc /var/lib/docker/overlay2/*/diff
20K /var/lib/docker/overlay2/627*-init/diff
1.2G /var/lib/docker/overlay2/627*/diff
2.3G /var/lib/docker/overlay2/91d*/diff
592M /var/lib/docker/overlay2/d81*/diff
76M /var/lib/docker/overlay2/fb9*/diff
4.2G total
```
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2021, 1:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-image-and-installation-size-clean-var-lib-docker-overlay2/197957/4 "2021-07-23T13:34:10Z")
I’d say that you need at least 25gb, but @Ed_S said he got it to work with 20. And even 25 is a bit tight in my experience.
---
### Author:  [@m4rv1n](https://meta.discourse.org/u/m4rv1n)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2021, 8:56am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-image-and-installation-size-clean-var-lib-docker-overlay2/197957/5 "2021-07-26T08:56:38Z")
> [@2.6.0 beta 3 update failed on disk and/or memory space](https://meta.discourse.org/t/2-6-0-beta-3-update-failed-on-disk-and-or-memory-space/165438/9):
>
> > [@2.6.0 beta 3 update failed on disk and/or memory space](https://meta.discourse.org/t/2-6-0-beta-3-update-failed-on-disk-and-or-memory-space/165438/9):
> >
> > `du -kx / | sort -n | tail -33`
Hi all,
thanks for your reply.
I checked the journal with
```plaintext
# journalctl --disk-usage
Archived and active journals take up 1.5G in the file system.
```
and run this command to free the space
`# journalctl --vacuum-time=10d`
Now I have 1GB more.
My pure question was about the real size needed from discourse.
Actually my backups, because not in production, is around 10MB, for a total of 3 backups (30MB).
I understand the need of space during the update, but during running I expect to save current version and have the chance to delete old versions.
Do we need all of the diff in the overlay or can we merge all the content in some way to recover space? I also don’t see any mounted volume so imagine discourse save there all the data.
@Ed_S here the result of the command
```plaintext
~# du -kx / | sort -n | tail -33
431172 /usr/bin
482000 /var/lib/snapd
499660 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.7.0/gems
533056 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/51d029d96e73b67e449f0b0570be47b6292da46c8c69b9f0dc6df35db85 ***** /diff/var/www/discourse
533060 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/51d029d96e73b67e449f0b0570be47b6292da46c8c69b9f0dc6df35db85 ***** /diff/var/www
556800 /usr/lib/firmware
570876 /usr/lib/modules
574032 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/51d029d96e73b67e449f0b0570be47b6292da46c8c69b9f0dc6df35db85 ***** /diff/var
593840 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/51d029d96e73b67e449f0b0570be47b6292da46c8c69b9f0dc6df35db85 ***** /diff
593856 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/51d029d96e73b67e449f0b0570be47b6292da46c8c69b9f0dc6df35db85 *****
626400 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.7.0
626404 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby
626408 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle
634964 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/var/www/discourse/vendor
845496 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/usr/lib
863600 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/var/www/discourse
863612 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/var/www
936876 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/var
1004276 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ef92e2dc7a656c20eccbbdd40e660c76631ef48b6989f9ded3889a929eb ***** /diff/var/www/discourse
1004284 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ef92e2dc7a656c20eccbbdd40e660c76631ef48b6989f9ded3889a929eb ***** /diff/var/www
1032452 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ef92e2dc7a656c20eccbbdd40e660c76631ef48b6989f9ded3889a929eb ***** /diff/var
1091584 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ef92e2dc7a656c20eccbbdd40e660c76631ef48b6989f9ded3889a929eb ***** /diff
1091604 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ef92e2dc7a656c20eccbbdd40e660c76631ef48b6989f9ded3889a929eb *****
1426272 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff/usr
1579980 /usr/lib
2398720 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db ***** /diff
2398736 /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ae38f397c79178185e26b87a9e2c6c890b0db9d3456de6d34ae3c3b96db *****
2607528 /usr
4161292 /var/lib/docker/overlay2
4171308 /var/lib/docker
4816636 /var/lib
5509688 /var
10220684 /
```
---
### Author:  [@Ed\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ed_S)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-image-and-installation-size-clean-var-lib-docker-overlay2/197957/6 "2021-07-26T21:15:04Z")
In the linked thread we see a situation where `./launcher cleanup` didn’t help but `docker system prune --all --volumes --force` did help. I don’t know why that would be.
I don’t understand the way the docker images stackup, why the diff directories are so large, or why the docker disk usage comes out much bigger than docker’s report of sizes.
However, it’s worth noting that minimising disk usage takes effort: neither docker nor discourse make a priority of minimising disk usage. Both projects prefer to work on improving the product and keeping things simple.
I am successfully running on a 20G instance. Given the need to keep 5G free for upgrades, that’s actually a limit of 15G on used disk space. In your case, with a 15G instance, you’d be trying to stay within 10G used. We can expect that to be more difficult, maybe even not possible. There’s surely some minimum.
I’m pretty sure I saw a thread where the advice was to remove all of docker and discourse, leaving just the site configuration and the database, and reinstall. I wouldn’t do that lightly, and I certainly wouldn’t do it without a backup! Unfortunately I can’t find that thread presently.
---
### Author:  [@m4rv1n](https://meta.discourse.org/u/m4rv1n)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2021, 12:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-image-and-installation-size-clean-var-lib-docker-overlay2/197957/7 "2021-07-27T12:32:57Z")
My “docker volume ls” is empty , it depends if people mounted volume.
It would be nice to have some more official specification or expected size of the installation, maybe there are somewhere but I didn’t find.
I understand in today world 20GB is not that much but when it comes to backup, remote transfer, duplication and so on it is a waste of space that maybe can be avoided if we know how to save this space at the beginning.
The non-docker installation is possible but as far as I know it is not supported if any problem.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2021, 1:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-image-and-installation-size-clean-var-lib-docker-overlay2/197957/8 "2021-07-27T13:27:08Z")
> [@m4rv1n](#):
>
> I understand in today world 20GB is not that much
And 25gb is what the typical novice and low budget user who uses digital ocean gets. That’s really the target audience.
> [@m4rv1n](#):
>
> if we know how to save this space at the beginning.
The set of people who have the expertise to manage a smaller than 25gb disk space who don’t have the budget for 25gb of disk space is very small. I think you’re the first person who has had your request in the past 5 years.
> [@m4rv1n](#):
>
> maybe can be avoided if we know how to save this space at the beginning.
You could save a bit by managing your own backups and backing up remotely. A single backup requires three copies. The old copy, the new uncompressed copy, and the new compressed copy. That’s the biggest space saver I can think of, but I don’t claim to have lots of special docker knowledge.
You could also contrive to build the new image remotely on a temporary server and push it to a repo. Then you’d not need the extra docker space locally. That is probably your best bet, but there’s no well-documented way to do that and it is mostly not supported (but more so than a non docker install). If you were to hire me to do it, it would cost years of what 10gb of disk space costs. I’ve considered a service where I’d build those images (essentially a better supported bitnami) but haven’t gotten around to it because I don’t think there’s a market to justify the development time.
---
### Author:  [@Ed\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ed_S)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2021, 9:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-image-and-installation-size-clean-var-lib-docker-overlay2/197957/9 "2021-07-27T21:09:44Z")
I’d be interested to know how much your 15G server costs, and from which supplier. My 25G machine costs me $6 per month from Digital Ocean, and my 20G machine costs $3 from Hetzner.
If you don’t expect to have to debug any behaviour from system logs, you can be very brutal in pruning the journals.
```plaintext
# journalctl --rotate
# journalctl --vacuum-time=1s
```
although what I’ve done is change the policy:
```plaintext
/etc/systemd/journald.conf:
[Journal]
SystemMaxUse=50M
```
The disk usage on the 20G machine, which has a very small low-activity forum on it, is like this:
```plaintext
# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 19G 9.9G 8.1G 56% /
```
operating system:
```plaintext
15M /bin
16M /sbin
43M /boot/
135M /var/cache/
223M /var/log
435M /lib
464M /var/lib/apt
1.1G /usr
2.1G /swapfile
4.3G total
```
discourse:
```plaintext
# du -hs /var/discourse/ /var/lib/docker/
1.5G /var/discourse/
7.5G /var/lib/docker/
```
edit: aha, but we’re double-counting, see instead
```plaintext
# du -hxs /var/discourse/ /var/lib/docker/
1.5G /var/discourse/
4.1G /var/lib/docker/
```
the forum itself, within the above:
```plaintext
201M /var/discourse/shared/standalone/uploads
315M /var/discourse/shared/standalone/postgres_data
930M /var/discourse/shared/standalone/backups
```
I’m running Ubuntu 18.04 whereas it looks like you’re running something more like 20.04 which is probably bigger.
---
### Author:  [@m4rv1n](https://meta.discourse.org/u/m4rv1n)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-image-and-installation-size-clean-var-lib-docker-overlay2/197957/10 "2021-07-28T19:17:45Z")
I use different VPS, I have some VM on contabo, others on Azure, for me the question to know if what I maintain is maintained and configured as expected (size, cleaning, etc).
Thanks for the tip on changing policy for journald, I did it (I cleand before so just little saving, but at least now I don’t have to check it).
Your disk usage is more or less equal to mine
```plaintext
# du -hxs /var/discourse/ /var/lib/docker/
181M /var/discourse/
4.0G /var/lib/docker/
```
I would go for a deletion of docker and rebuild, but because no fixed volume is mounted for docker I am worried to lose forum data at the deletion stage. I will wait for more official procedure on it.
---
### Author:  [@Ed\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ed_S)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2021, 7:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-image-and-installation-size-clean-var-lib-docker-overlay2/197957/11 "2021-07-28T19:34:34Z")
> [@m4rv1n](#):
>
> I would go for a deletion of docker and rebuild, but because no fixed volume is mounted for docker I am worried to lose forum data at the deletion stage. I will wait for more official procedure on it.
Yes, worth looking for confirmation. I’m pretty sure all the forum data is under /var/discourse.
Another approach which might be available to you is to spin up a new instance and install discourse fresh, and see how it looks. (One should in any case test one’s backups!)