Deleting Redundant Time Machine Backup

[cwsyeh]

I noticed that my NAS was low on space, but the numbers didn't add up, so I checked the file structure and notice there is approximately 1TB of timemachine backup that was for a machine that is no longer with me.

I tried to delete the folder through finder by connecting through smb using admin as well as the admin user account, neither worked and through SSH it says that the operation is not permitted, even when I'm logged in as the admin...

Any ideas how I can delete the redundant backup and reclaim some storage space?

Thanks!

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@cwsyeh wrote:

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Log in as root using the NAS admin password.

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This worked for me, now I can see the list, but how delete the folder? I assume rm will not work?

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# btrfs subvolume delete -c /path

using the fully qualified folder name (/data/... )

The -c tells btrfs to wait for the deletion to complete.  You can omit that if you want.

[StephenB]

Normally you log into ssh using root, not admin.

I don't use time machine, but I suspect the folder is actually a btrfs subvolume - if so, rm won't delete it.  Try running 

# btrfs subvolume list /data

from ssh, and see if it is in the subvolume list.  data is the default OS-6 volume name, if you are using flexraid you'll need to substitute your actual volume name.

[cwsyeh]

This doesn't actually work on my terminal....says command not found...?

btrfs subvolume list /data

[StephenB]

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@cwsyeh wrote:

This doesn't actually work on my terminal....says command not found...?

btrfs subvolume list /data

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You run this from ssh on the NAS - is that what you did?

[cwsyeh]

Yeah, I ran ssh admin@192.168.1.XX to log on first and then tried the command, it says command not found...?

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@StephenB wrote:

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@cwsyeh wrote:

This doesn't actually work on my terminal....says command not found...?

btrfs subvolume list /data

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You run this from ssh on the NAS - is that what you did?

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[StephenB]

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@cwsyeh wrote:

Yeah, I ran ssh admin@192.168.1.XX to log on first and then tried the command, it says command not found...?

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@StephenB wrote:

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@cwsyeh wrote:

This doesn't actually work on my terminal....says command not found...?

btrfs subvolume list /data

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You run this from ssh on the NAS - is that what you did?

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Log in as root using the NAS admin password.

[cwsyeh]

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Log in as root using the NAS admin password.

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This worked for me, now I can see the list, but how delete the folder? I assume rm will not work?

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@cwsyeh wrote:

---

---

Log in as root using the NAS admin password.

---

This worked for me, now I can see the list, but how delete the folder? I assume rm will not work?

---

# btrfs subvolume delete -c /path

using the fully qualified folder name (/data/... )

The -c tells btrfs to wait for the deletion to complete.  You can omit that if you want.

[cwsyeh]

Thanks, @StephenB ! I think it's working - initially I thought only the folder was gone and none of the space was reclaimed, but I think it's now slowly releasing space...I think...

Will come back in a day or so to confirm and accept the solution!

[cwsyeh]

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@cwsyeh wrote:

Thanks, @StephenB ! I think it's working - initially I thought only the folder was gone and none of the space was reclaimed, but I think it's now slowly releasing space...I think...

Will come back in a day or so to confirm and accept the solution!

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So I checked the drive just then, and it has reclaimed all the space that was wasted! Now I have another 1.3TB available! Thanks!

[StephenB]

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@cwsyeh wrote:

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So I checked the drive just then, and it has reclaimed all the space that was wasted! Now I have another 1.3TB available!

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Great!.  If you've never run a balance, then you might want to do that (it's run from the volume settings wheel).

You can set up a volume maintenance schedule there - personally I run each of the maintenance tasks (balance, scrub, defrag, disk test) once every three months.  Balance in particular can take a long time if you've never run it, but that will speed up if you run it regularly.

[cwsyeh]

Cool, I will set it to run tonight!

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@StephenB wrote:

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@cwsyeh wrote:

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So I checked the drive just then, and it has reclaimed all the space that was wasted! Now I have another 1.3TB available!

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Great!.  If you've never run a balance, then you might want to do that (it's run from the volume settings wheel).

You can set up a volume maintenance schedule there - personally I run each of the maintenance tasks (balance, scrub, defrag, disk test) once every three months.  Balance in particular can take a long time if you've never run it, but that will speed up if you run it regularly.

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