Question Inefficient PLESK Partition Setup on CloudLinux - Root vs Home

[Miro]

Server operating system version

CloudLinux 8.10

Plesk version and microupdate number

18.0.68

Hello everyone,

I’m having an issue with the disk space distribution on a server running Plesk + CloudLinux. The current setup looks like this:

/dev/mapper/cloudlinux-root:
Total space: 69.97 GB
Used: 62.50 GB (89.32%)
Available: only 7.47 GB

/dev/mapper/cloudlinux-home:
Total space: 506.50 GB
Used: only 3.56 GB (0.70%)
Available: 502.94 GB

As you can see, the root partition is nearly full, while the home partition remains mostly unused. The VM hosts around 25 domains and 20 hosting accounts.

My questions:

1. Is this a standard configuration when installing Plesk + CloudLinux? Or could something have been misconfigured during the setup?

2. Has anyone faced a similar issue, and how did you resolve it? I’m especially interested in safe methods of redistributing space.

3. What are your recommendations for the optimal partitioning between root and home for a hosting server?

4. Is resizing partitions using LVM safe in a production environment with Plesk? What precautions should be taken?

5. Are there any known issues or pitfalls I should watch out for when modifying partitions in a Plesk + CloudLinux environment?

VM specifications:

Plesk Obsidian
CloudLinux 8.10 (Shared Pro)
RAM: 44 GB
Total disk space: ~700 GB

The cloudlinux-root space is already filling up, and I’m worried about what will happen when it runs out…





Thank you in advance for any help and advice!

 

[Martin Dias]

Plesk by default does not use /home and also does not set up partitions, that is on OS side when you install it.

You can for example change the location for the sites data, mail, etc. manually:

https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12377953257111-How-to-change-virtual-hosts-location-in-Plesk-for-Linux

https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12377869111319--How-to-change-default-location-of-mailboxes-in-Plesk-for-Linux

https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12377967588887-How-to-change-the-location-for-Plesk-backup-files-on-a-Linux-server

Above articles are as an example.

Also, check:

Hard Drive Partitioning for Plesk

By default, Plesk for Linux stores user data in the /var directory. To achieve optimal result, we recommend partition...

docs.plesk.com

 

[mow]

3. What are your recommendations for the optimal partitioning between root and home for a hosting server?

Usually you don't need /home at all.
What is there in /home anyway? All subscription users should have their $HOME under /var/www/vhosts.

4. Is resizing partitions using LVM safe in a production environment with Plesk? What precautions should be taken?

Growing partitions is safe.
I would copy the content of /home to e.g. /home2, then kill the mountpoint and the entry in /etc/fstab, rename /home2 to /home, remove the LV, grow the root LV, and resizefs.