How can I tell how much disk space is available on my Droplet?

Hey DigitalOcean Community,

I hope you’re all doing well! I came across this question and I wanted to share a quick guide on how you can easily check the available disk space on your DigitalOcean Droplet. Let’s dive in!

Step 1: Log into Your Droplet

First things first, grab your favorite SSH client. Connect to your Droplet using the root username and the IP address of your Droplet:

https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/connect-with-ssh/

Step 2: The Magical df Command

Once you’re in, your best friend is the df command. This command shows you the amount of disk space that is free on your server’s file systems. Just type df and hit Enter. Want to make things more readable? Go for df -h to get the output in a human-friendly format, displaying sizes in GBs, MBs, etc.

Understanding the Output

Here’s a quick rundown of what you’re looking at:

• Filesystem: This is where you’ll see the name of the file system or partition.
• Size: Total size - pretty straightforward.
• Used: How much space has already been used.
• Available: The real MVP - this tells you how much space you’ve got left.
• Use%: A handy percentage showing how much of the file system is used.
• Mounted on: Shows where the file system is mounted in your directory structure.

Bonus Tip: Checking Specific Directories

Sometimes, you might want to check how much space a specific directory or file is using. For this, turn to the du command. For example, du -sh /var/log gives you the size of the /var/log directory in an easy-to-read format.

Don’t Forget About Inodes

If you suspect inode exhaustion (a less common, but tricky issue), df -i is your go-to command to check inode usage.

And that’s pretty much it! Regularly monitoring your disk space is key to avoiding any nasty surprises. I hope this guide helps you keep your Droplet in top shape. As always, if you have any questions or need a bit of extra help, feel free to drop a comment below - I’m here to help!

Happy coding,

Bobby