<![CDATA[How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more?]]>I'm trying to understand how I can clean up the disk by lowering the disk usage. I applied docker image prune -a but it reclaimed all of 0 bytes, lol, so it didn't seem to work for me in the way I was hoping.

The reason for this is I'm using the Public Cloud instance of OVH but specifically their "flexible" cloud instance so that the instance can be sized up and down for CPU and memory rather than only up. The downside is it gives only a 50 GB hard disk on a flexible instance which is fine with me though as block storage is pretty inexpensive. So I have boxdata and appsdata on different external block storage disks with plenty of space.

But the main disk is still quite consumed by Docker. Here's my current usage for the main disk:

/dev/sda1 mounted at /

41.1 GB used of 51.84 GB
Speed: 1180 MB/sec
This disk contains:

  docker 14.37 GB
  docker-volumes 5.51 GB
  platformdata 5.48 GB
  /apps.swap 4.29 GB
  Everything else (Ubuntu, etc) 11.45 GB

I have considered reducing the swap if possible since I have ample memory, but I'd rather keep it if needed.

The docker is over 14 GB, and docker-volumes just over 5 GB. Basically the main "Docker" tag is the main user and to some degree I think that makes sense as it's the main platform, but I'm curious if it should be that high still. I noticed another post where a user tried the docker image prune -a and reclaimed nearly 10 GB to squeeze it down to closer to 4 GB but that didn't do anything for me unfortunately.

sudo docker image prune -a
WARNING! This will remove all images without at least one container associated to them.
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N] y
Deleted Images:
untagged: registry.docker.com/cloudron/base:4.2.0
untagged: registry.docker.com/cloudron/base@sha256:46da2fffb36353ef714f97ae8e962bd2c212ca091108d768ba473078319a47f4
deleted: sha256:6ec7c1ab3983e1ebdbf75ced0e8089db363083aa4ed004be0022d45bafaef4f9

Total reclaimed space: 0B

It looks like the images are the main thing when I run the docker system df command (accounts for the full docker stat on the Cloudron disk usage chart):

sudo docker system df
TYPE            TOTAL     ACTIVE    SIZE      RECLAIMABLE
Images          22        22        14.37GB   2.21GB (15%)
Containers      87        64        0B        0B
Local Volumes   162       134       5.537GB   1.667GB (30%)
Build Cache     0         0         0B        0B

What's odd is that it shows nearly 3+ GB of reclaimable space, but it seems like that isn't actually recoverable to add back to available disk space, at least not in any way that I've found so far.

Is there anything I can do here to help conserve space, is there perhaps any commands I can run to clean things up further for Docker? Any guidance would be appreciated. If needed I may just get a small external block storage for the platform data but I am hoping to avoid that so I can keep all the DB stuff on the main higher-performing disk.

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/11473/how-can-we-optimize-clean-disk-usage-from-docker-and-moreRSS for NodeTue, 13 Oct 2026 21:48:35 GMTThu, 04 Apr 2024 01:42:44 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:29:08 GMT]]>@girish Hi, i was looking at the umami Dockerfile and i think we could save another 200MB here on top.

The pnpm install is not adding --prod here https://git.cloudron.io/packages/umami-app/-/blob/master/Dockerfile?ref_type=heads#L23
So it's also adding all the devDependencies to node_modules (i.e. vitest, etc)
Skipping those slims the node_modules slightly (200MB)

There's one small problem though the "pnpm run build:geo" part fails then as it uses the tar module which is only in devDependencies. Adding tar manually there as a workaround get's it to work.
I did a quick "cloudron builder build" and also cloudron install (as quite a bit of the build process is on start time) and with just that tar workaround it went through and can login to the app.

I didn't report that tar bug upstream or did any more testing (as i don't actually use umami). Was just curious myself if we could same some more space here.

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/130261https://forum.cloudron.io/post/130261Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:29:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:31:35 GMT]]>

@robi said:

I learned that the -af flag is important at least for images.

This should probably make it's way into the docs somewhere.

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/129990https://forum.cloudron.io/post/129990Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:31:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Thu, 24 Sep 2026 23:46:37 GMT]]>After being inspired by @timconsidine's AppsMonitor and noticing higher than usual disk usage, here is the perplexing af play-by-play of how I saved over 20GB of space in terminal commands.

54GB seems high for this smaller server. d;-/

root@zvuk:~# docker system df
TYPE            TOTAL     ACTIVE    SIZE      RECLAIMABLE
Images          53        49        54.14GB   393.4MB (0%)
Containers      130       110       625.5MB   625.5MB (100%)
Local Volumes   244       244       9.686GB   0B (0%)
Build Cache     0         0         0B        0B

root@zvuk:~# docker image prune -f
Total reclaimed space: 0MB

root@zvuk:~# docker container prune -f
Total reclaimed space: 625.5MB
root@zvuk:~# docker volume prune -f
Deleted Volumes:
...

Total reclaimed space: 3.422GB
root@zvuk:~# docker system df
TYPE            TOTAL     ACTIVE    SIZE      RECLAIMABLE
Images          53        42        54.14GB   17.79GB (32%)
Containers      110       110       0B        0B
Local Volumes   224       224       6.263GB   0B (0%)
Build Cache     0         0         0B        0B

root@zvuk:~# docker image prune -f
Deleted Images:
...

Total reclaimed space: 2.36kB

What? That's it?

How did volume prune find 3+GB when 0% was reclaimable?

Then this took a while of staring & pondering:

root@zvuk:~# docker system df
TYPE            TOTAL     ACTIVE    SIZE      RECLAIMABLE
Images          51        42        54.14GB   17.99GB (33%)
Containers      110       110       0B        0B
Local Volumes   224       224       6.263GB   0B (0%)
Build Cache     0         0         0B        0B


root@zvuk:~# docker image prune -af
Deleted Images:
... (long list)

Total reclaimed space: 20.16GB

root@zvuk:~# docker system df
TYPE            TOTAL     ACTIVE    SIZE      RECLAIMABLE
Images          42        42        33.97GB   0B (0%)
Containers      110       110       0B        0B
Local Volumes   224       224       6.263GB   0B (0%)
Build Cache     0         0         0B        0B

I learned that the -af flag is important at least for images.

The long list of deleted images contained old surfer images, wordpress.unmanaged images, many untagged images, including the cloudron 5.0.0 base image, custom apps and apps I tried once and deleted long ago.

@girish Do we need box to include more checks across volumes, containers and images now that we're dealing with so many custom apps and base images updates?

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/129977https://forum.cloudron.io/post/129977Thu, 24 Sep 2026 23:46:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Tue, 20 May 2025 07:54:24 GMT]]>@andreasb you can check the sizes of docker images here - https://hub.docker.com/u/cloudron . But looks like it lists only the compressed size. Size of docker images is not documented anywhere . The 6GB includes many layers and the layers are "shared" across apps (the way docker works).

We also hvae images on quay - https://quay.io/organization/cloudron . But I think this requires login, despite images being public . These sizes differ from dockerhub 🙅

image.png

image.png

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/107406https://forum.cloudron.io/post/107406Tue, 20 May 2025 07:54:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Mon, 19 May 2025 16:54:28 GMT]]>cleaning up the docker images as mentioned above basically works.
On my instance, there however are two app docker images that are much larger than the others:
rallly (almost 6GB), loomio (>6GB)
Is this size "normal"?
Is the "normal" size of the apps' docker images documented anywhere?

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/107378https://forum.cloudron.io/post/107378Mon, 19 May 2025 16:54:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 10:22:10 GMT]]>@d19dotca it seems the yarn cache was note cleared. Clearing it brought down the size . It's in the new package.

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/87095https://forum.cloudron.io/post/87095Wed, 17 Apr 2024 10:22:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Sat, 06 Apr 2024 07:40:37 GMT]]>FWIW, I uninstalled the app so that the image would be removed, confirmed it was removed, and then re-installed. The image size changed slightly from 6.57 GB to 6.51 GB, but still quite large. I may be doing in the wrong area though if we don't think this is a huge concern, just really strange to me why it's so much larger than all the other images when it's supposedly a fairly lean app.

For the life of me I cannot seem to reclaim the over 2 GB of disk space from images in Docker, I am puzzled as to why that is happening.

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86455https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86455Sat, 06 Apr 2024 07:40:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Fri, 05 Apr 2024 22:14:19 GMT]]>@girish does that mean the image should only be about 1.4 GB in size rather than the 6+GB I’m seeing currently? Very odd if that’s the case, I wonder how that exploded in size.

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86447https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86447Fri, 05 Apr 2024 22:14:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Fri, 05 Apr 2024 17:22:06 GMT]]>Just the node modules is 1.4G 🤷

root@aaa028f2-b8bc-41cf-82be-a23f59293d39:/app/code# du -hcs *
4.0K	Dockerfile
4.0K	LICENSE
4.0K	README.md
4.0K	app.json
36K	cypress
4.0K	cypress.config.ts
160K	db
8.0K	docker
4.0K	docker-compose.yml
51M	geo
4.0K	jest.config.ts
4.0K	jsconfig.json
4.0K	lang-ignore.json
4.0K	netlify.toml
4.0K	next-env.d.ts
4.0K	next.config.js
1.3G	node_modules
4.0K	package.components.json
8.0K	package.json
4.0K	postcss.config.js
68K	prisma
4.5M	public
4.0K	rollup.components.config.mjs
4.0K	rollup.tracker.config.mjs
60K	scripts
3.2M	src
4.0K	tsconfig.json
532K	yarn.lock
1.4G	total
]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86432https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86432Fri, 05 Apr 2024 17:22:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Fri, 05 Apr 2024 09:46:55 GMT]]>@d19dotca said in How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more?:

docker image prune -a it still gave me a 0 byte response showing it cleaned up nothing.

Just to say, I'm pretty sure that in the past I've done this and got a 0 byte response too, but then there actually was more space available. 🤷

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86395https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86395Fri, 05 Apr 2024 09:46:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Fri, 05 Apr 2024 08:34:40 GMT]]>@d19dotca speak of the devil... there is a new version of umami, let me check why it's so big.

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86388https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86388Fri, 05 Apr 2024 08:34:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Fri, 05 Apr 2024 08:32:38 GMT]]>@d19dotca for volumes, thee was a bug. I fixed this in master yesterday - https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/box/-/commit/030e4688294d0ffe1c34468e6622c4b1b22fd357

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86387https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86387Fri, 05 Apr 2024 08:32:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Fri, 05 Apr 2024 00:00:33 GMT]]>I'm curious why the Umami app is so massive. It's such a lightweight application... is it expected to be that large? I wonder if this is somehow a contributor to the issue of reclaimable space but not actually being removed since it's still active? Just throwing against a wall though, not sure if that's valid. haha.

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86379https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86379Fri, 05 Apr 2024 00:00:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Thu, 04 Apr 2024 23:42:37 GMT]]>Here is my docker image list by the way in case this points to any issues at all:

$ sudo docker image ls
REPOSITORY                                     TAG                         IMAGE ID       CREATED        SIZE
cloudron/org.nodebb.cloudronapp                20240403-154317-254cac2fd   3b7a24812a6e   32 hours ago   2.86GB
cloudron/com.invoiceninja.cloudronapp2         20240401-092303-3942cee63   dcda0788296b   3 days ago     3.6GB
cloudron/io.gitea.cloudronapp                  20240326-072227-110a2e6cd   7ed238e459fa   9 days ago     2.74GB
cloudron/sh.ntfy.cloudronapp                   20240326-072218-802b89e89   807661895891   9 days ago     2.26GB
cloudron/org.wordpress.unmanaged.cloudronapp   20240319-202918-2976247a8   1117a989fc3a   2 weeks ago    2.3GB
cloudron/org.radicale.cloudronapp2             20240319-154937-11289c349   036b57520b5b   2 weeks ago    2.22GB
registry.docker.com/cloudron/postgresql        5.2.1                       333f887a27f7   3 weeks ago    2.75GB
cloudron/org.piwik.cloudronapp                 20240308-102528-2182681db   3ddaa6276ff3   3 weeks ago    2.51GB
cloudron/is.umami.cloudronapp                  20240307-081949-7105f94d1   d0512bd1a4c1   4 weeks ago    6.57GB
registry.docker.com/cloudron/sftp              3.8.6                       b735f2120189   4 weeks ago    2.23GB
cloudron/com.github.bitwardenrs                20240303-104654-927b1cf62   1393b91919fa   4 weeks ago    3.51GB
registry.docker.com/cloudron/mail              3.12.1                      ea18fc4dd1c7   5 weeks ago    2.96GB
registry.docker.com/cloudron/mongodb           6.0.0                       4b95d24318a2   8 weeks ago    2.69GB
cloudron/net.roundcube.cloudronapp             20240121-133422-3162a79c7   29ad5d8091ed   2 months ago   2.23GB
cloudron/louislam.uptimekuma.app               20240102-093304-840efe2c0   0e7aea4082d9   3 months ago   3.29GB
cloudron/tech.ittools.cloudron                 20231221-163307-91643bd95   961340a3d920   3 months ago   2.22GB
cloudron/io.cloudron.surfer                    20231216-181458-705d2061b   8a2725a40c45   3 months ago   2.39GB
registry.docker.com/cloudron/graphite          3.4.3                       dbd026164ada   5 months ago   2.28GB
cloudron/net.jirafeau.cloudronapp              20231013-024132-1436ee8da   4155ebdab88f   5 months ago   2.21GB
registry.docker.com/cloudron/redis             3.5.2                       80e7a4079e6b   6 months ago   2.22GB
registry.docker.com/cloudron/mysql             3.4.2                       c7085a52532b   6 months ago   2.53GB
registry.docker.com/cloudron/turn              1.7.2                       152b1fb9690e   6 months ago   2.22GB
]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86375https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86375Thu, 04 Apr 2024 23:42:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Thu, 04 Apr 2024 23:35:47 GMT]]>@girish That worked well for the volumes, it cleared up the 1.666GB of storage space. Thank you! 🙂

What about the images though? It says over 2 GB is reclaimable but it doesn't seem like it is from what I can tell. If I tried to do a similar command specific to images such as docker image prune -a it still gave me a 0 byte response showing it cleaned up nothing. Am I missing something when it comes to reclaimable images in Docker?

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86374https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86374Thu, 04 Apr 2024 23:35:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Thu, 04 Apr 2024 08:33:06 GMT]]>@d19dotca can you try docker volume prune -a ? Looks like we have some unused volumes storage from the past.

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86310https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86310Thu, 04 Apr 2024 08:33:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How can we optimize/clean disk usage from Docker and more? on Thu, 04 Apr 2024 05:33:39 GMT]]>Did you try to remove images individually? (I know this is not optimal, but on my system the prune doesn't free any new bytes, but removing images individually works to get space back)

]]>https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86299https://forum.cloudron.io/post/86299Thu, 04 Apr 2024 05:33:39 GMT