Resolved Is it safe to empty dumps directory?

[zakaria]

Server operating system version

Debian 10.13

Plesk version and microupdate number

Plesk Obsidian 18.0.52 Update #3

hello, hope everyone is doing well.

I recently had a problem with my Plesk server running out of disk space and was looking for ways to clean it up so it doesn't happen again.

and I found this directory dumps occupying 80 Gb of disk space located at /var/lib/psa/dumps.

in this directory there's another directory named domains within it there're directories for the current domains I have that are live and online none of these were deleted

so, I was wondering how safe it is to empty this directory and will it affect my domains?

 

[Peter Debik]

Deleting the directory will prohibit locally stored backups and remove all locally stored backups sets. If you have 80 GB of disk space occupied there, only a small portion is from system backups, e.g. daily SQL dumps. The major part, probably 79 out of 80 GB are local backups. These have either been created by the admin as full server backups or they were created by subscribers from within their accounts using the option to store backups locally. I discourage removing the directory completely. It will prohibit important system backups. Instead, try configuring the backup routines so that backups are stored remotely.

Some users also add a hard drive just for backups. You can mount it as a new path and then configure psa.conf to point to that new backup location as described in https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/...tion-for-Plesk-backup-files-on-a-Linux-server

By experience, most users prefer local backups, because they are faster when created and faster to restore and users do not need an extra FTP or cloud storage space elsewhere. The disadvantage is that such backups clog-up your server and if your hard disk breaks, backsup are lost, too. Also by experience I advise to invest into the Plesk Backup Cloud Pro extension to give users several options where to store their backups in the cloud.

 

[zakaria]

thanks for all the great information, I wasn't going to remove dumps directory just it content.
I'm the only user and I already configured the backup to be stored remotely via FTPS and there're currently no local updates.
the biggest file is in one of the domains named backup_user-data_2306060011.tzst the second biggest is backup_domainmail_2306060011.tzst
if I remove the domains directory will the system create it again if needed or should I remove only the files within every domain directory?

 

[Peter Debik]

Plesk will recreate these domain directories if needed.

 

[zakaria]

thanks for all the help