Why did my 4G SDD become a smaller size after upgrade?

JonH

SG-5100 running 23.01 (running zfs) had this disk usage (on 21May):

Command output: SDD_Status (/bin/df -hi)
Filesystem                            Size    Used   Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused  Mounted on
pfSense/ROOT/default                  **4.0G**    1.5G    2.5G    38%     50k  5.2M    1%   /

After upgrade to 23.05 I now have what seems to me as a large loss of free space:

Filesystem                            Size    Used   Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused  Mounted on
pfSense/ROOT/default                  **2.7G**    1.7G    1.0G    62%     49k  2.1M    2%   /

Note the SDD Size is suddenly 2.7G rather than 4.0G. What is going on here?
Is there some overhead that 'df' did not detect in 23.01 but no detects in 23.05? Or is my SDD suddenly deciding to croak (31 days after my warranty ran out)?

Gertjan

@JonH

Before you upgraded, pfSense did something for you.
It created a system snap shot.
Go here to see them : SystemBoot > Environments

The list shown can grow .... and thus allocate space on the disk.
Eventually, you can 'clean' the list.

When you decide to install pfSense 23.05, I advice you to create yourself a snap shot.
Give it smart description, like : the date and the pfSense version to be installed.
Then : important : re boot into this newly created snap shot.
Upgrade/update pfSense.

If issues : re boot into the previous snapshot, and your back on square one.

JonH

@Gertjan said in Why did my 4G SDD become a smaller size after upgrade?:

Before you upgraded, pfSense did something for you.
It created a system snap shot.
Go here to see them : SystemBoot > Environments
The list shown can grow .... and thus allocate space on the disk.
Eventually, you can 'clean' the list.

I did wonder about a snapshot but I did not know where it was and prior upgrades have never 'disappeared' 1.3G. So yes, the boot Environment tab shows 4.1G space and that does give me a sense of relief.

It does not answer were did the total disk space that was 4.0G and now 2.7G go?
Boot Environment has the below, and there is certainly not 1.3G space accounted for. It shows 23.05 is using space on 4.1G created in 2022 and 3 other entries that total 208k. Sorry for the wrapping, maybe it will come out ok when I post.

Name	Base Version	Created	Last Booted	Space	Description	Actions
default	  23.05      2022-10-20 12:14  2023-05-24 16:59	4.10G	-	    
auto-default-20230215174159	22.05	2023-02-15 17:41	-	24K	Automatically created by system update	    
quick-20230302135045	23.01	2023-03-02 13:50	-	152K	-	    
auto-default-20230524165128	23.01	2023-05-24 16:51	-	32K	Automatically created by system update

So still wondering about the 1.3G that seem to be 'missing'.

Thanks for the tip on updating from a snapshot, seems better than a restore from backup. Now I just have to remember to do this next time.

Gertjan

@JonH

The snap shots are a reason for why available disk space goes down.
Good news and bad news : there are more reasons.

To be sure I won't get bitten by the "out of disk errors", as these will bring the system down, I monitor it.

To get back all disk space : easy : reboot.

Then : use the command line, and 'play' with the df (disk free) command.
For example, you'll find them on this forum.

Btw : 4 Gbytes for a system drive is ... very small.

RobbieTT

@JonH said in Why did my 4G SDD become a smaller size after upgrade?:

It does not answer were did the total disk space that was 4.0G and now 2.7G go?
So still wondering about the 1.3G that seem to be 'missing'.

Sometimes we are divided by a common language and I appreciate that you asking about the total or actual disk size displayed and not necessarily how it is being used. I too had a similar question when testing a particularly large SSD with ZFS (and what ZFS 'takes' for itself) and the various ways it is displayed and calculated.

A couple of commands that helped me digest what is going on [Intel Optane 64GB SSD plus the internal MMC]:

geom disk list

Geom name: nvd0
Providers:
1. Name: nvd0
   Mediasize: 58977157120 (55G)
   Sectorsize: 512
   Mode: r3w3e6
   descr: INTEL MEMPEK1J064GA
   lunid: 5cd2e44545c10100
   ident: PHBT908600LK064Q
   rotationrate: 0
   fwsectors: 0
   fwheads: 0

Geom name: mmcsd0
Providers:
1. Name: mmcsd0
   Mediasize: 15678308352 (15G)
   Sectorsize: 512
   Stripesize: 512
   Stripeoffset: 0
   Mode: r0w0e0
   descr: MMCHC TB2916 9.0 SN 29E95A78 MFG 09/2020 by 112 0x0000
   ident: 29E95A78
   rotationrate: 0
   fwsectors: 0
   fwheads: 0

Geom name: mmcsd0boot0
Providers:
1. Name: mmcsd0boot0
   Mediasize: 4194304 (4.0M)
   Sectorsize: 512
   Stripesize: 512
   Stripeoffset: 0
   Mode: r0w0e0
   descr: MMCHC TB2916 9.0 SN 29E95A78 MFG 09/2020 by 112 0x0000
   ident: 29E95A78
   rotationrate: 0
   fwsectors: 0
   fwheads: 0

Geom name: mmcsd0boot1
Providers:
1. Name: mmcsd0boot1
   Mediasize: 4194304 (4.0M)
   Sectorsize: 512
   Stripesize: 512
   Stripeoffset: 0
   Mode: r0w0e0
   descr: MMCHC TB2916 9.0 SN 29E95A78 MFG 09/2020 by 112 0x0000
   ident: 29E95A78
   rotationrate: 0
   fwsectors: 0
   fwheads: 0

df -a

Filesystem                         512-blocks    Used     Avail Capacity  Mounted on
pfSense/ROOT/default                 95088041 2946216  92141825     3%    /
devfs                                       2       2         0   100%    /dev
/dev/gpt/efiboot0                      532352   19200    513152     4%    /boot/efi
pfSense/var                          92176545   34720  92141825     0%    /var
pfSense/tmp                          92142537     712  92141825     0%    /tmp
pfSense/home                         92142017     192  92141825     0%    /home
pfSense                              92142017     192  92141825     0%    /pfSense
pfSense/var/log                      92149641    7816  92141825     0%    /var/log
pfSense/var/cache                    92142033     208  92141825     0%    /var/cache
pfSense/var/tmp                      92142097     272  92141825     0%    /var/tmp
pfSense/var/db                       92202713   60888  92141825     0%    /var/db
pfSense/reservation                 103014248     192 103014056     0%    /pfSense/reservation
pfSense/var/empty                    92142017     192  92141825     0%    /var/empty
pfSense/ROOT/default/cf              92145545    3720  92141825     0%    /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default/var_cache_pkg   92808369  666544  92141825     1%    /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default/var_db_pkg      92157081   15256  92141825     0%    /var/db/pkg
tmpfs                                    8192     296      7896     4%    /var/run
devfs                                       2       2         0   100%    /var/dhcpd/dev

2023-05-25 at 09.06.21.png

Hopefully this will give you a better overview as it is a bit confusing.

️

JonH

@Gertjan said in Why did my 4G SDD become a smaller size after upgrade?:

Btw : 4 Gbytes for a system drive is ... very small.

Don't have to tell me that. When I purchased my SG-5100 they said this is all it gets. Since it was replacing a dead 20G 2440 I was not exactly happy about that.

JonH

@RobbieTT said in Why did my 4G SDD become a smaller size after upgrade?:

Hopefully this will give you a better overview as it is a bit confusing.

Thanks, you are correct. It is confusing. The geom command shows 2 geo names and I just don't get it. But I will research this.

What really messes with my head is that 23.01 dashboard mounted disk widget showed 38% used in 4G and after upgrade to 23.05 it is 62% used in 2.7G.

I have not restarted after 23.05 booted itself after install and I will get to that later when I can get to that.

Gertjan

@JonH said in Why did my 4G SDD become a smaller size after upgrade?:

Don't have to tell me that. When I purchased my SG-5100 they said this is all it gets

I get it, as I said the same thing to myself : I've bougt a 4100, and waited until the "max' version came out : same device, with a 'normal' drive (110 Gb).

I've nothing an my pfSense : no big packages.
True, as I fool around with the system, dozens of snaps hots :

I could probably regain 4+ Gbytes easily.

JonH

@Gertjan said in Why did my 4G SDD become a smaller size after upgrade?:

I get it, as I said the same thing to myself

That was interesting view of widgets. I was unaware of zfs widget (I try not to fiddle with my pfSense, it usually gets me in trouble). So I loaded the zfs widget and it shows me an entirely different view of my system (6G size on 4G sdd?). I still don't understand why my system changed from 38% of 4G to 62% of 2.7G but at least I'm relieved to know that my sdd is not weird. I better read more about zfs.