Low available disk space on the KACE System Management Appliance (SMA) can negatively affect appliance performance, maintenance operations, and overall functionality. Understanding what consumes storage and implementing appropriate retention and cleanup practices can help maintain optimal appliance performance.
Common symptoms of low disk space include:
Before removing data, determine what is consuming space on the appliance.
Appliance backups can consume a significant amount of storage, particularly in environments with large databases, numerous attachments, or long retention periods.
Consider reducing Daily and Monthly backup retention settings under: Settings | Control Panel | Backup Settings and Restore.
To retain backup files while reducing storage consumption on the SMA, consider configuring Offboard Backup Transfer.
Service Desk attachments are frequently one of the largest consumers of storage on heavily utilized appliances.
The HD_ATTACHMENT table can grow significantly over time in environments with:
Review attachment growth and implement appropriate archival and retention policies where possible.
For additional guidance, see: How to Identify and Clean Up Large Service Desk Attachments (4372288) .
Review and remove obsolete or unused software packages associated with:
Navigate to: Distribution | Managed Installations / File Synchronizations and review packages that are no longer required.
Keep in mind that files may also be attached to:
Patch downloads can consume substantial storage over time.
To automatically remove old patch files, navigate to:
Settings | Control Panel | Patch and Feature Update Download Settings
Configure: Delete Unused Files After X Days according to your organization's retention requirements.
To completely remove patch content from the appliance, access the SMA terminal console using the netdiag account and run:
purgepatches
If Dell Updates are not being utilized, consider disabling catalog downloads under:
Security | Dell Updates | Dell Update Download Settings
Unused Dell catalog files may also be removed to reclaim storage space.
Review files stored in the appliance Samba share and remove files that are no longer needed.
Common location:
\\SMA_Hostname_or_IPaddress\clientdrop\
Large installers, exports, archived files, and temporary content often accumulate in this location.
Review scripts and attached files that are no longer required.
Navigate to the SMA Scripting module and remove obsolete content where appropriate.
Scripts can also be exported and archived externally before removal.
Reducing log retention settings can help recover storage space.
Asset History retention settings can significantly affect database growth.
Reducing Asset History retention from Forever to a defined period, such as 1 to 6 months, can reduce database size and improve inventory search performance.
To modify Asset History retention:
The most common causes include appliance backups, Service Desk attachments, software deployment packages, patch content, scripts, historical records, Dell catalogs, and Samba share files.
In many cases, yes. Because SMA backups contain appliance data, reducing overall storage usage may reduce the size of future backup files.
For additional information, see: SMA Appliance Backups (4299192) .
No. Only historical activity records are removed. Asset records remain intact.
Yes. Configure Offboard Backup Transfer to copy backups to an external location while reducing local backup retention requirements.
Review backup retention, Service Desk attachments, Managed Install packages, patch storage, and the Disk Usage section of the SMA Configuration Report to identify the largest storage consumers.
If storage usage cannot be reduced sufficiently, or if the appliance remains inaccessible due to a file system full condition, please contact KACE Support for assistance.
