SOLVED Help! Deleting files doesn't free up disk space.

[Muku]

Hello,

I have set up a freenas server a few months ago. I've turned on CISF share and mapped the network drive in windows explorer so that i can transfer files to my freenas server. I can easily copy files from my windows pc to the server through that. no issues so far.

Now

Today I removed a large amount of files (about 500 Gigabytes) from the server to an offsite backup and deleted the files through windows. But I find that the space in my freenas server was not freed up at all, not even by 1KB.

Then

I searched through the forum and learned about snapshots. So, I also deleted the snapshots using Web GUI and even disabled periodic snapshot tasks. But nothing happened still.

I rebooted both my machines but still nothing. My server is just as full as it was before moving the files.

Can any one please help me out on this?
Any help would be appreciated.

N.B. I am total noob with no knowledge of linux or freebsd whatsoever. I also don't know how to use the shell in freenas.

 

[DrKK]

This is absolutely snapshots. It literally can't be anything else that I can think of. Unless there's some "recycle bin" thing that has to be emptied.

 

[Muku]

To my knowledge, I haver never set up any recycle bin function. But if it is enabled by default then I don't know. Any help to get rid of that would be very helpful.

But if its due to snapshot alone then, then deleting the snapshots should have freed up the space right away, isn't it? Why the space is still full?

 

[Muku]

Well, found the solution..

The deleted files were stored in a hidden folder named .recyle under the same shared directory. Once I checked the show hidden files in windows box, it became visible and deleting it freed up the space completely.

It means that I must have checked the export recycle bin option while creating a CISF share. I just didn't know its implications back then.

Thanks dr.kk

 

[DrKK]

The deleted files were stored in a hidden folder named .recyle under the same shared directory.

Told you. :)

 

[DrKK]

For future reference, when you create a share, you will see in the properties screen an "EXPORT RECYCLE BIN" functionality. It's probably turned on by default. You probably want to turn it off next time.

 

[Jailer]

For future reference, when you create a share, you will see in the properties screen an "EXPORT RECYCLE BIN" functionality. It's probably turned on by default. You probably want to turn it off next time.

Unless you need it on for WCF (wife correction factor).

 

[DrKK]

Unless you need it on for WCF (wife correction factor).

won't snapshots work OK for that?

Or you can do the DrKK Special: The only way to WRITE to the pool (and hence delete anything), is to sign in via ssh/sftp with my private key. All shares exported read only to prevent any child- or wife-induced inadvertent pwnage.

 

[christian garcia]

Hi. I have the same problem but I am very new in using FreeNAS and I'm not the one who set this up.
My drive is almost 85% full and I already deleted 100Gb of data but there is no change in Free space, it's weird that the total disk space is getting smaller every time I delete large data. Could you please help me with this? I have no idea how to delete the snapshots or where to find it.Thank you very much

 

[DrKK]

I have no idea how to delete the snapshots or where to find it.Thank you very much

Sir:

Log into the web GUI, then go to Storage->Snapshots. At the bottom, select "View All", then click the "USED" column (twice) to sort in descending order which snapshots are taking the most space. For each snapshot, you will see you have an icon to delete them.

 

[christian garcia]

So deleting all this snapshots may solved my issue?
I'm sorry, I'm very unfamiliar with this yet.
There will be no errors if I delete all this snapshots?
Thank you

 

[gpsguy]

Yes.

Before you delete any, please read the section on Periodic Snapshot Tasks - http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/freenas_storage.html#periodic-snapshot-tasks

So deleting all this snapshots may solved my issue?

 

[christian garcia]

Thanks a lot for the help sir.

 

[romwil]

Sorry gang... but I'm having the same behaviour on FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201605170422 - snapshots are all jail related and are storing < 1M. I've deleted 2T off the nas and no free space is being recovered.

I'm a long time user but this is the first time I've seen this. (or at least, noticed this)

Any other ideas as to the source of the retained space? I'm running < 1T on the 20T RAID and need to drop below the 80% to swap drives.

Will

 

[SweetAndLow]

Output of zfs list? You probably have a snapshot

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[romwil]

here you go - you can see there are a few snaps related to jails but no appreciable space...

Code:

[root@alexandria] /mnt/massmedia/massmedia# zfs list -r -o name,used,usedsnap,avail,refer massmedia
NAME                                                              USED  USEDSNAP  AVAIL  REFER
massmedia                                                        13.5T         0   510G   153K
massmedia/.system                                                 412M         0   510G   393M
massmedia/.system/configs-ffb84ccc300c4843b1352f93d2beb43e        665K         0   510G   665K
massmedia/.system/cores                                          8.06M         0   510G  8.06M
massmedia/.system/rrd-ffb84ccc300c4843b1352f93d2beb43e            153K         0   510G   153K
massmedia/.system/samba4                                         5.04M         0   510G  5.04M
massmedia/.system/syslog-ffb84ccc300c4843b1352f93d2beb43e        5.15M         0   510G  5.15M
massmedia/jails                                                  4.99G         0   510G   817M
massmedia/jails/.warden-template-pluginjail                       527M      153K   510G   526M
massmedia/jails/.warden-template-pluginjail--x64                  818M      141K   510G   817M
massmedia/jails/.warden-template-pluginjail--x64-20150830180943   527M      153K   510G   526M
massmedia/jails/.warden-template-pluginjail-open-x86              153K         0   510G   153K
massmedia/jails/.warden-template-standard--x64                   2.21G      141K   510G  2.21G
massmedia/jails/openvpn                                           163M         0   510G  2.29G
massmedia/massmedia                                              13.5T         0   510G  13.5T

I deleted 2T a few days ago and that 510GB hasn't moved at all.

Will

 

[SweetAndLow]

No clue, make anew thread and supply all the standard info needed for a post. hardware spec, freenas version, error messages.