How to increase tmp partition size

Most linux servers have a separate /tmp partition to prevent from filling up the root directory with temporary files. Temp partition has a fixed size but occasionally it can get overfilled, so no new information can be recorded. If this happens one can clear out /tmp periodically using some cron job, reconfigure application to store temporary files in some other directory or increase temp partition.
To increase /tmp it is necessary to create a virtual partition and mount it.

To do this on a VPS.net server with cPanel/WHM installed please follow the steps here:

http://wiki.vps.net/cloud-servers/cpanel/increase-tmp-partition-in-cpanel-and-secure-it/

To do this on a VPS.net server without cPanel let’s go through the following steps:

Stop Apache and MySQL services.

# /etc/init.d/httpd stop; /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Take a backup of /tmp

# cp -rp /tmp /tmp.bak

Create a partition of 2GB using the below command

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/usr/temp-disk bs=2M count=1024

Create the file system on it using the mke2fs command

# mke2fs -j /usr/temp-disk

Unmount the current /tmp partition

# umount /tmp

Mount the new /tmp filesystem using the below command

# mount -t ext3 -o rw,noexec,nosuid,loop /usr/temp-disk /tmp

Set the correct permission for /tmp

# chmod 1777 /tmp

To verify the partition, execute:

# mount

Restore the content of old /tmp.bkp directory

# cp -rp /tmp.bak/* /tmp

Start Apache and MySQL services.

# /etc/init.d/httpd start; /etc/init.d/mysql start

To make sure this partition is mounted automatically after every reboot, edit the /etc/fstab and replace /tmp entry line with the following one.

/usr/temp-disk /tmp ext3 rw,noexec,nosuid,loop 0 0

Here it is, the /tmp partition size has been increased. If any issues occur while doing this please do not hesitate and contact our support team.

By: Sileep Kumar M S