/var/lib/docker/overlay2 is really huge!

[cocam123]

Hi! I saw today that my /var/lib/docker/overlay2 folder is 42 GB. Is there any way to free up space?

Thank you in advance for your answers

[nebulon]

Please see the info box (a bit lower in that section) about the size of that folder reported by unix tools at https://docs.cloudron.io/storage/#docker-images

Most likely the majority of this is just virtual space.

[joseph]

You can run docker system prune -a to see if it cleans up something

[cocam123]

@nebulon hiya! Okay I tried to move it on /mtn/docker (I mounted my s3 server on it. Idk if that's the issue) but when I try to launch the service (Docker) I have that :

Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: Stopped Docker Application Container Engine.
-- Subject: A stop job for unit docker.service has finished
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- A stop job for unit docker.service has finished.
--
-- The job identifier is 1960 and the job result is done.
Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: docker.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
-- Subject: Unit failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- The unit docker.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.
-- Subject: A start job for unit docker.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- A start job for unit docker.service has finished with a failure.
--
-- The job identifier is 1960 and the job result is failed.
Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: docker.socket: Failed with result 'service-start-limit-hit'.
-- Subject: Unit failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- The unit docker.socket has entered the 'failed' state with result 'service-start-limit-hit'.
lines 3518-3546/3546 (END)
Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: Stopped Docker Application Container Engine.
-- Subject: A stop job for unit docker.service has finished
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- A stop job for unit docker.service has finished.
--
-- The job identifier is 1960 and the job result is done.
Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: docker.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
-- Subject: Unit failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- The unit docker.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.
-- Subject: A start job for unit docker.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- A start job for unit docker.service has finished with a failure.
--
-- The job identifier is 1960 and the job result is failed.
Sep 28 08:15:53 beige-beaver-45300 systemd[1]: docker.socket: Failed with result 'service-start-limit-hit'.
-- Subject: Unit failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- The unit docker.socket has entered the 'failed' state with result 'service-start-limit-hit'.

When I remove the content in custom.conf, it works again

[cocam123]

@nebulon @joseph okay I did that but the system space always seems to be full. Also, I did the docker system prune command and nope, no reclaimed space

If it's just unused virtual space, how do I reduce this space to give it back to the system?

[joseph]

@cocam123 said in /var/lib/docker/overlay2 is really huge!:

Okay I tried to move it on /mtn/docker (I mounted my s3 server on it.

This won't work. Docker requires a proper filesystem and not some fuse/s3fs.

You can use docker system df to see where all the space is going.

[cocam123]

mmmm I only see that my images take 9.31 GB and my local volume 241 MB... I don't know what's taking up so much space, honestly

all my services work with an S3 server behind them, so I doubt it has anything to do with media files (images/videos) of my services

[joseph]

I think we have to go back to the original question. What's the original issue? Using tools like df in /var/lib/docker/overlay2 won't work.