directory /var/adm/crash/

[Shivkumar]

We are using some hpux servers which has disk space constraints. I was thinking to install some software on the directory "/var/adm/crash/" as it has some extra space available.

Will it be okay or any concern ?

Thanks,
Shiv

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

/var/adm/crash should probably be left alone.

If /etc/rc.config.d/savecrash options are read by /sbin/init.d/savecrash script.

bdf should show you file layout.

Its possible to set up /var/adm/crash as a seperate filesystem but not a normal setup.

/var needs plenty of space on working servers because logs and print spool output go there.

/opt is a good place to install optional software.

SEP

[Cem Tugrul]

Shiv,
do a man page of ;
#man 5 hier
OR
#man hier

/var/adm/crash is just for saving kernel
crash dump

Good Luck,

[Muthukumar_5]

/var/adm/crash/ will be the location which os used to put crash details using savecrash. Try to utilize any other directory or move directories to another file system. Post your bdf output so that we can suggest suitable one.

hth.

[Rainer von Bongartz]

Do not put anything in /var/adm/crash. hp-ux will need this space to dump in case of a crash.

Analyzing this crash dump might be the only way to find out why your box crashed and how to prevent any further panics.

Regards
Rainer

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi shiv,

/var/adm/crash is for saving kernel crash dumps

It is advisable not to install any software there!

Why would you want to install it there? because of space available on /var?

You may wish to create a directory on /var/
e.g. /var/myapps


regards
yogeeraj

[Stafford Hyacinth]

It is not recommended but I have done it before. I did when I didn't care about getting a full dump on the system if it crashed and basically that was the only space I had.

I assumed you removed all the tar, doc, ps and pdf files in /opt. No one ever reads the documentations ;-)

[Mahesh Kumar Malik]

Hi Shiv

/var/adm/crash is primarly meant for saving core dump in the event of system crash and is not recommended to be used.

Please anaylse disk space in other file systems and thus organise to setup the required software

Regards
Mahesh

[Shivkumar]

There was no disk space available and there is no chance to get added another disk too.
/var/adm/crash is the only space available.

The var file system has been installed as shown in the below output:-

/dev/vg00/lvol6 1536000 1526128 9872 99% /var
/dev/vg00/lvol10 204800 17426 175852 9% /var/opt/OV
/dev/vg01/lvol3 2097152 1050466 981288 52% /var/adm/crash

In case i create a directory called myapps under /var/ where it will go ?
I mean will myapps dir go under /dev/vg01/lvol3 ?

In fact i want to install oracle client for my use.

Thanks,
Shiv

[Devender Khatana]

Hi,


Creating a directory under /var will count in /var file system which is allready 99% full. Anything created under /var/adm/crash will count in /dev/vg01/lvol3 file system.

I would suggest your application to be installed in /var/opt/OV/myapps directory which inturn will count in /dev/vg00/lvol1o which has plenty of disk space.

HTH,
Devender

[Mel Burslan]

No, if you put myapps under /var it will go into vg00/lvol6 not vg01/lvol3.

Fisrt off, you obviously have some saved crashes in /var/adm/crash, unless someone else wised up and stored about 1GB of data over there. If those crash image(s) is/are old, like older than a couple of months, it means nobody cares about them and they can be deleted. Look at the time stamp(s) of /var/adm/crash/crash.0, /var/adm/crash/crash.1 and so on and delete unnecessary images. Also note the size of one of them as a guideline. Run

du -sk /var/adm/crash/crash.0

and see how much space you can get by, give or take a few more megabytes. Then you can install your application under

/var/adm/crash/myapps

as long as you have enough space for one crash dump image.

Also, keep in mind that, if this server is a production server and people's eyes are on it all the time and you have to answer people's questions like "why did the server crash ?" when the server crashes, ABSOLUTELY leave this filesystem alone. Those crash dumps are necessary to be sent to HP for analysis and you do not want to say the words, "Crash dump could not be generated due to lack of disk space". It wouldn't be cool :) Otherwise, if this is a sandbox, a development machine people just test their new stuff and crash it every few days, you really do not need to care about crash dump analysis. In which case you can totally remove this filesystem and rename it as you like, for instance /myapps, and use it to your heart's content.