Snapshot and /boot disk space full

[HeikoAnkenbrand]

A quick story first:

Before performing a system upgrade at a customer site, I usually create a snapshot of the system. This allows me to quickly roll back to the previous version if anything goes wrong.

However, this safety measure can also cause problems.

Issue:

Every snapshot creates a new directory under /boot, which is approximately 36–37 MB in size. Since the /boot partition is only about 200 MB, it becomes full after just 4–5 snapshots.

This can affect other GAIA features. For example, you may no longer be able to install updates, and GAIA will display an error indicating that the update cannot be performed. Unfortunately, the error message does not make it obvious that the root cause is a full /boot partition caused by too many snapshots.

There is also an older sk168454 that describes this issue.

In my opinion, it would be very helpful if GAIA displayed a warning when the /boot partition is getting full due to snapshots. This would make the issue much easier to identify and prevent.

Possible impact:

• No additional snapshots can be created, even though enough free disk space is still reported.
• Jumbo Hotfixes can no longer be installed.
• Upgrades to other GAIA versions (e.g. R82 to R82.10) are no longer possible.
• Linux Boot Loader settings may no longer work correctly.
  
  

[simonemantovani]

@HeikoAnkenbrand  you started a good post; I usually do snapshots, but before every update, I check if there are any snapshots available, I delete all the snapshots, and I create a new snapshot.

Usually, I keep always one snapshot on the firewall (the latest before the upgrade), because, If I have issue with the upgrade only the latest snapshot is useful, in my opinion reverting to older snapshot shouldn't happen.