Synology Disk Station - how to find out what is using drive space (almost double what Storage Analyzer shows)

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tieke

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#304667 26-May-2023 16:34

A question for those with more knowledge than me about Synology NAS (not hard, given my limited use).
I set up a 12TB dual raid Synology DS220J as a back up solution a year or so ago (currently running DSM 7.1.1).
I figured that would be enough space given that I'm only backing up about 6TB of data from several computers, which also allows for a bit of versioning.

However I've been getting drive warnings that the system is almost full. I tried discarding versioning, although as I previously was only keeping a second version for 60 days max, I didn't think that would affect things much, and I was right the space used barely changed.

I'm just baffled as to what is using this space: Storage Manager shows 9.2TB/10.8TB used, thus the warnings,
but the Synology Drive Admin Console agrees with my estimate by showing that the file versions are less than 5TB, and I installed Storage Analyzer, which agrees with the Drive Admin Console by showing <5TB used.

So how do I find out what is using the rest of the space?

Jase2985

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#3079869 26-May-2023 18:30

Recycling bin? do you have a scheduled task to delete files in the recycle bin? do you have any sort or retention policy on it? i have mine set to 14 days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HgRFWMU7yM

Snapshots? do you have snapshots setup on drives? have you recently cleared files? again the retention policy on these will need to expire before you will get space back if you have deleted anything

i recently found out the recycling bin, and not emptying it and got about 7TB back as i went through and cleared out a lot of double ups on my backups.

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tieke

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#3079873 26-May-2023 19:26

Thanks. Will try emptying the recycling, although looking at individual backups there doesn't seem to be much in it.

I'll also get physical access and try ssh-ing in to narrow down the issue as per this post: https://community.synology.com/enu/forum/1/post/123385

It also strikes me as slightly suspicious that the amount of space used is almost exactly double the amount that I think it should be. Someone mentioned that if you use a Synology Drive synchonisation folder it doubles the space required as it automatically keeps an extra copy for versioning - I use Synology Drive, but use the backup option rather than the sync option, but worth looking at.

Jase2985

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#3079875 26-May-2023 19:41

tieke:

Thanks. Will try emptying the recycling, although looking at individual backups there doesn't seem to be much in it.

I'll also get physical access and try ssh-ing in to narrow down the issue as per this post: https://community.synology.com/enu/forum/1/post/123385

It also strikes me as slightly suspicious that the amount of space used is almost exactly double the amount that I think it should be. Someone mentioned that if you use a Synology Drive synchonisation folder it doubles the space required as it automatically keeps an extra copy for versioning - I use Synology Drive, but use the backup option rather than the sync option, but worth looking at.

no the recycling on the synology, not the backups.

if its almost double i would suggest its like a retention of a backup or a snapshot that hasnt been purged. potentially how its been setup? do you run snapshots on any folders on the NAS?

I use synology active backup for buisness for backing up PC's, the files are not accessable on the NAS, but need to be restored through the software, and i use Synoloy drive sharesync to backup folders on my NAS to my friends NAS and this is a direct 1 way copy of the folder.

michaelmurfy

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#3079895 27-May-2023 00:35

It sounds like you've got Snapshots enabled for a few of your shares.

Go into "Snapshot Replication" and take a look under Snapshots. You can from there clear them out or adjust snapshots. It is handy to have on important shares still if you can afford disk space.

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tieke

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#3079958 27-May-2023 10:06

Looks like I set the drives up as ext4 rather than btrfs, so snapshots aren't the issue. I've added a scheduled recycling empty task and started a "Clean All Recycle Bins" from Drive Admin last night, which seems to be still running, so I'll leave that another day to complete and then I'll head around and do some SSH snooping.

Jase2985

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#3081210 30-May-2023 05:34

@tieke update please

tieke

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#3081235 30-May-2023 08:06

Was going to physically access it today and provide an update (the physical box is quite a distance from me), but looks like I won't have to:

I think it's most likely a result to the Clean All Recycling bins command (and subsequent setting up of a scheduled recycling bin job as per Jase2985's suggestion. However it might be a response to my removing of the single, 60-day max versioning even though there wasn't an immediate reduction, as although the Drive Admin Console previously mentioned 4.6TB of versions (which I had assumed included the original versions), that figure is now just 17.1MB

I will re-turn on that same limited versioning on one of the smaller backup jobs and see where that gets me.

Thanks for all your help.