topic Re: Management server backups are 71GB in General Topics

Management server backups are 71GB

Parabol — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:09:08 GMT

Hi all, I am having some issues sending backups of the management server to our dedicated backup server. I noticed I was getting the error "Failed to transfer the package to the remote server." I tried with both SCP and FTP with the same error. Our standby management server transfers it fine, so the config should be OK.

I am fairly certain it's due to the backup size, probably its timing out. I performed a local backup and it is 71GB:

-rw-r--r-- 1 admin root 71G Mar 9 10:42 backup_--_mgmtserver_2026_03_09_09_52_11.tgz

Is this size usual? I am wondering if there is some issue that is bloating it for me.

For reference the disk space:

[Expert@mgmtserver:0]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/vg_splat-lv_current 80G 51G 30G 64% /
/dev/sda1 282M 47M 221M 18% /boot
tmpfs 32G 35M 32G 1% /dev/shm
/dev/mapper/vg_splat-lv_log 1.9T 1.4T 486G 75% /var/log
cgroup 32G 4.0K 32G 1% /sys/fs/cgroup

Thanks

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

emmap — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:45:10 GMT

It's quite large - first thing I usually recommend to check is that you don't have large files in the /home/ folders, as they are included in backups.

What version are you on?

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

George_Ellis — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:02:22 GMT

Check your revisions, under multi-domain, sessions (submenu). In each CMA, check Manage & Settings, Sessions, Revisions. In the past for us, it is copies of revisions that use a lot of space.
Also verify that you are not backing up logs unless you intend to.

Edit - PS (not assuming you don't know it, but for general reference)
cd /var/log
du -h --max-depth=1 | sort -h

cd /home

du -h --max-depth=1 | sort -h

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

Parabol — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:53:55 GMT

Thanks I will check this, we are running R82 Take 36

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

Parabol — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:01:15 GMT

Thanks we have about 6-weeks worth of revisions showing here, probably about 140 revisions. Would this take up a large amount of storage?

I can see that log indexes take up the vast majority (1TB) - presumably the backups must include this?

[Expert@mgmtserver]#cd /var/log/opt
[Expert@mgmtserver]#du -h --max-depth=1 | sort -h
4.0K ./CPviewExporter
24K ./CPotlpAgent
188M ./CPSmartLog-R82
192M ./CPSmartLog-R81.20
1.2G ./CPshrd-R82
11G ./CPshrd-R81.20
309G ./CPsuite-R82
1017G ./CPrt-R82
1.4T .

[Expert@mgmtserver]#cd ./CPrt-R82
[Expert@mgmtserver]#du -h --max-depth=1 | sort -h
0 ./distrib
0 ./events_db
20M ./Database
105M ./conf
183M ./log_indexer
1.1G ./log
1016G ./log_indexes
1017G .

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

the_rock — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:11:08 GMT

That many revisions, I would say take up lots of space, for sure.

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

George_Ellis — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:37:02 GMT

Remove the revisions to something you trust, maybe only 2 weeks? Don't know your environment, so that is just a guess.
Don't know your environment or configuration. If you are logging to the mdm only, 1TB sounds light (our environment generates 150GB+ a day across 2 MLMs). Check your $FWDIR/logs .

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

CaseyB — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 14:16:13 GMT

You are on a version with a bug that causes large backups. Please upgrade to R82 JHF-41 or above.

https://sc1.checkpoint.com/documents/Jumbo_HFA/R82/R82.00/Critical-Information.htm

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

Bob_Zimmerman — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 14:53:22 GMT

Also note that backups are always going to be large. I personally wouldn't use Check Point's backup tool for anything. Instead, I use 'migrate export' for normal managements and mds_backup for MDSs. In an environment with around 100k rules and about 80k objects, the mds_backup is around 4.8 GB.

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

George_Ellis — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 19:06:59 GMT

While this is not likely in your backups, you can get 11GB back.

11G ./CPshrd-R81.20

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

the_rock — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 21:46:08 GMT

Good point, George. I would definitely consider that.

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

Lesley — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:43:28 GMT

have you checked this post? pretty sure this can cause the issue

Re: Management server backups are 71GB

Parabol — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:07:49 GMT

Just to say this fixed the issue, backups are now 2GB in size down from 71GB!

Thank you