zimbra still using /opt/zimbra/backups even when disabled

[muzzol]

we have a serious problem with our partitions / volumes.

we have several separated volumes and zimbra insist in using first one /opt/zimbra/backups when you perform an export operation even with that volume disabled. /opt isn't intended to be used as store, just as system and everytime we perform an export to another partition we can see BOTH partitions growing up.

I'm not sure if by design zimbra/zextras is still using /opt/zimbra/backups as temporary storage, but we need a solution for this as our system partition is filling up to a dangerous level.

[Cine]

Hello Muzzol!

The /opt/zimbra/backups/ directory is not used by default by any ZeXtras Suite component.

ZeXtras Suite uses the /opt/zimbra/backup/zextras/ directory as a migration-data storage - for just mapfiles a few KB in size - only if another backup path is not initialized. If another backup path is initialized, that very backup path will be used to store migration mapfiles.
Other than that, the /opt/ directory is used for logging in the following cases:

- most of the ZeXtras Suite operations are logged within the standard /opt/zimbra/log/mailbox.log file, which is a standard Zimbra logfile rotated by Zimbra itself
- ZxMobile operations are logged within the /opt/zimbra/log/sync.log file, which is a standard Zimbra logfile rotated by Zimbra itself
- import/export operations have dedicated log files in /opt/zimbra/log/
- ZxAdmin logs are stored in /opt/zimbra/conf/zextras/zxadmin/ (just to give you a reference, a monthly ZxAdmin log file for a 4-server infrastructure hosting 40 domains each one with at least 1 delegated admin and ~3500 mailboxes takes approximately 2Mb).

Have a nice day,
Cine

[muzzol]

thanks for all detailed info.

what about default index storage?

can I reallocate it?

[Cine]

Hello Muzzol!

ZeXtras Powerstore does not allow any operation on index volumes, and as far as I know neither does Zimbra Network Edition.

You could always mount a new disk on a path of your choice, stop zimbra, move all the data from the /opt/zimbra/index/ directory to the newly mounted path, unmount the new disk, mount it back on /opt/zimbra/index/ and start Zimbra...
Nothing should go wrong, but this is something I'd personally avoid to do (please take into account that I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to prod servers ).

May I ask if you currently have any zimbra volume on the same partition/disk as the /opt/ directory? If so, using the doVolumeToVolumeMove feature of ZeXtras Powerstore would allow you to safely free up some space by moving away all item data contained in such partition...

[EDIT: As d0s_0n correctly reminded me, you can also use rsync in order to have a lower downtime... rsync the /opt/zimbra/index/ directory to the new path, THEN stop zimbra, rsync again, remount, start zimbra.]

Have a nice day,
Cine

[muzzol]

Hello Muzzol!

ZeXtras Powerstore does not allow any operation on index volumes, and as far as I know neither does Zimbra Network Edition.

You could always mount a new disk on a path of your choice, stop zimbra, move all the data from the /opt/zimbra/index/ directory to the newly mounted path, unmount the new disk, mount it back on /opt/zimbra/index/ and start Zimbra...
Nothing should go wrong, but this is something I'd personally avoid to do (please take into account that I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to prod servers ).
Cine

yeah, that's a typical solution on nix world but I was expection an integrated solution. I'll do that or even a simple symlink to another partition if I get out of space.

Hello Muzzol!
May I ask if you currently have any zimbra volume on the same partition/disk as the /opt/ directory? If so, using the doVolumeToVolumeMove feature of ZeXtras Powerstore would allow you to safely free up some space by moving away all item data contained in such partition...

Have a nice day,
Cine

that's exactly what I did. first (default) volume was used only during one week or so just for testing purposes. after that, all was moved to another volume.

thanks again for your time.