Disk space on XenServer's root partition is almost at (or is at) capacity per df -h

There are numerous compressed "gz" files in /var/log/ from Syslog rotation

Log rotation, or "logrotate", is what ensures that Syslog files in /var/log do not grow out of hand.  Much like Syslog, logrotate utilizes a configuration file to dictate how often, at what size, and if compression should be used when archiving a particular Syslog file.  The term "archive" is truly meant for rotating out a current log in place of a fresh, current log to take its place.

Post XenServer installation and before usage, one can measure the amount of free root disk space by executing the following command:

df -h

The output will be similar to the following and the line one should be most concerned with is in bold font:

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1             4.0G  1.9G  2.0G  49% /
none                  381M   16K  381M   1% /dev/shm
/opt/xensource/packages/iso/XenCenter.iso
                       52M   52M     0 100% /var/xen/xc-install

Once can see by the example that only 49% of the root disk on this XenServer host has been used.  Repeating this process as implementation ramps up, an administrator should be able to measure how best to tune logrotate's configuration file for after install, /etc/logrotate should resemble the following:

# see "man logrotate" for details
# rotate log files weekly
weekly
# keep 4 weeks worth of backlogs
rotate 4
# create new (empty) log files after rotating old ones
create
# uncomment this if you want your log files compressed
#compress
# RPM packages drop log rotation information into this directory
include /etc/logrotate.d
# no packages own wtmp -- we'll rotate them here
/var/log/wtmp {
    monthly
    minsize 1M
    create 0664 root utmp
    rotate 1
}
/var/log/btmp {
    missingok
    monthly
    minsize 1M
    create 0600 root utmp
    rotate 1
}
# system-specific logs may be also be configured here.

In previous versions, /etc/logrotate.conf was setup to retain 999 archived/rotated logs, but as of 6.2 the configuration above is standard. 

Before covering the basic premise and purpose of this configuration file, one can see this exact configuration file explained in more detail at http://www.techrepublic.com/article/manage-linux-log-files-with-logrotate/

The options declared in the default configuration are conditions that, when met, rotate logs accordingly:

1. The first option specifies when to invoke log rotation.  By default this is set to weekly and may need to be adjusted for "daily".  This will only swap log files out for new ones and will not delete log files.
2. The second option specifies how long to keep archived/rotate log files on the disk.  The default is to remove archived/rotated log files after a week.  This will delete log files that meet this age.
3. The third options specifies what to do after rotating a log file out.  The default - which should not be changed is to create a new/fresh log after rotating out its older counterpart.
4. The fourth option - which is commented out - specifies another what to do, but this time for the archived log files.  It is highly recommended to remove the comment mark so that archived log files are compressed: saving on disk space.
5. A fifth option which is not present in the default conf is the "size" option.  This specifies how to handle logs that reach a certain size, such as "size 15M".  This option should be employed: especially if an administrator has SNMP logs that grow exponentially or notices that the particular XenServer's Syslog files are growing faster than logrotate can rotate and dispose of archived files.
6. The "include" option specifies a sub-directory wherein unique, logrotate configurations can be specified for individual log files.
7. The remaining portion should be left as is

In summary for logrotate, one is advised to measure use of the root disk using "df -h" and to tune logrotate.conf as needed to ensure Syslog does not inadvertently consume available disk space.

Problem Cause