Disk Space Management

[hbrillon]

I am experienced in drone mapping but new to WebODM, Docker, and WSL. I am running WebODM on a Windows 11 laptop with odm.wslconfig configured to attribute 15/20 virtual cores and 48/64 gb of RAM to WebODM.

After processing two projects, the \AppData\Local\Docker\wsl\data now occupies 134 gb of disk space. I could not find clear instructions on how to clear this disk space without removing the project parameters from my dashboard. Existing topics seem to use previous versions of Docker and/or Windows where Docker used to contain resource parameters, including disk space allocation for the VM. Now, these parameters are in the odm.wslconfig file and there is no disk allocation.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

[Saijin_Naib]

Welcome!

If you wait two days, WebODM will clean up temp files.

However, note that the ext4.vhdx that WSL2/Docker for Windows uses is a dynamically expanding volume, meaning that its minimum size on disk becomes the largest size it was ever allocated for.

So, to re-shrink it, you will need to use a tool like the Windows Hyper-V Management tools to shrink the disk after WSL2 has been taken offline.

[hbrillon]

Thank you, I will look into this. What if I need to clear disk space manually before 36 hours have elapsed? Is there a workflow for this?

[Saijin_Naib]

Easiest method would be to have WebODM tell everything in the pipeline not to hold onto intermediate products with the ---optimize-disk-space flag.

https://docs.opendronemap.org/arguments/optimize-disk-space

[hbrillon]

Thank you kindly for your help. At what step should I use this flag? When running a new project? When starting WebODM? Also, if I am using the WebODM GUI, how do I give command line instructions?

Sorry for the beginner questions. Deeply appreciate the help and loving the tool so far!

[Saijin_Naib]

This is per-Task, and you can enable it by editing the Task Options when you go to create the Task by clicking the pencil/edit button.

[hbrillon]

Hello,

Just reporting back, as it has been several days.

We expected C:\Users\[myuser]\AppData\Local\Docker\wsl\data\ext4.vhdx to shrink after two days of inactivity in WebODM. It has not shrunk at all.

Any ideas I should be trying here to regain some disk storage without deleting WebODM projects from the dashboard?

Thanks!

[Saijin_Naib]

@hbrillon

We expected C:\Users[myuser]\AppData\Local\Docker\wsl\data\ext4.vhdx to shrink after two days of inactivity in WebODM. It has not shrunk at all.

Please see my note above:

Disk Space Management

Welcome! If you wait two days, WebODM will clean up temp files. However, note that the ext4.vhdx that WSL2/Docker for Windows uses is a dynamically expanding volume, meaning that its minimum size on disk becomes the largest size it was ever allocated for. So, to re-shrink it, you will need to use a tool like the Windows Hyper-V Management tools to shrink the disk after WSL2 has been taken offline.

So, you will manually need to shrink the ext4.vhdx after you clean the files within the volume.