Why does the Metadefender Core vacuum tool fail to free up space?

Issue

The vacuum tool in Metadefender Core fails to free up disk space or does not free up much space after execution. The vacuum_running.log log file contains errors similar to the following:

INFO: vacuuming "scan.scan_result_1" vacuumdb: error: vacuuming of table "scan.scan_result_1" in database "metadefender_core_0nten9" failed: ERROR: could not extend file "base/16384/860193032.13": No space left on device HINT: Check free disk space.

Resolution

The ometascan-db-vacuum tool requires sufficient free disk space to create a backup file during execution. Specifically, it needs at least 1.5 times the size of the largest table in the database.

Steps to Resolve

1. Check the size of the largest table:

   1. Follow this docs to generate MD Core support package
   2. Extract the support package zip file
   3. Check the file ometascan-xxxx.zip/database/biggest_tables.csv to identify the size of the largest table

2. Verify available disk space: Ensure that the disk where the Metadefender Core database resides has at least 1.5 times the size of the largest table available as free space.

3. Increase disk size (if necessary): If insufficient disk space is available, increase the disk size accordingly.

4. Re-run the vacuum tool: After increasing the disk size, execute the ometascan-db-vacuum tool again.