Space available on our server

In this manual, you will learn how to check the available space and storage usage on your GNU/Linux server from the command line.

Prerequisites

Before starting:

• You must connect to your server via SSH.
• Have sufficient permissions to execute commands on the system.

1. View available disk space

Once inside the server, run the following command:

# df -h

What does this command show?

• Size → Total size of the file system
• Used → Used space
• Avail → Available space
• Use% → Usage percentage

🔎 Normally, the main system usually appears as something similar to /dev/xvda3, which represents the partition where the system is installed.

2. View space occupied by directories

If you want to analyze how much space each folder inside /home takes, use:

# du -h /home

Useful information

• du shows the space used by files and directories.
• -h presents the data in human-readable format (KB, MB, GB).

💡 Tip: For a clearer summary, you can use:

# du -sh /home/*

3. Search for large files in the system

To locate files larger than 50 MB across the entire system:

# find / -type f -size +50M -exec ls -lh {} \;

What does this command do?

• find / → searches the entire system
• -type f → files only
• -size +50M → larger than 50 MB
• -exec ls -lh → shows details in human-readable format