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System Maintenance

Guide for maintaining a Bifolk production installation.

Target Audience: System administrators

Health Checks

Quick Check

# Containers running
docker ps | grep bifolk

# Application responding
curl -I http://localhost:8000

# Django system check
docker compose exec bifolk-app python manage.py check --database default

# Recent logs
docker logs bifolk-app --tail 50

Health Check Schedule

Frequency Tasks
Daily Containers running, no critical errors in logs, web interface accessible
Weekly Database connectivity, disk space > 20%, no performance issues
Monthly Full health check, review user accounts, verify backup success

Viewing Logs

Application Logs

# Last 100 lines
docker logs bifolk-app --tail 100

# Follow logs in real-time (Ctrl+C to stop)
docker logs bifolk-app --follow

# Search for errors
docker logs bifolk-app 2>&1 | grep -i error

# Save logs to file
docker logs bifolk-app > bifolk-app-logs-$(date +%Y%m%d).log

Database Logs

# Recent database logs
docker logs bifolk-db --tail 100

# All services
docker compose logs --tail 50

Log Rotation

Log rotation is already configured at the container level in the Docker Compose files. Each service is set to: - Log driver: json-file - Max size: 10 MB per log file - Max files: 3 rotated files

No manual configuration is required — logs are automatically rotated and limited.

Tip

If you need to change log rotation settings system-wide, you can configure /etc/docker/daemon.json as an alternative. However, the Compose configuration takes precedence for individual containers:

{
  "log-driver": "json-file",
  "log-opts": {
    "max-size": "10m",
    "max-file": "3"
  }
}

After editing, restart Docker: sudo systemctl restart docker

Database Maintenance

Vacuum and Analyze (PostgreSQL)

# Vacuum and analyze all tables
docker compose exec bifolk-db psql -U bifolk -d bifolk -c "VACUUM ANALYZE;"

# Full vacuum (requires exclusive locks, use during maintenance windows)
docker compose exec bifolk-db psql -U bifolk -d bifolk -c "VACUUM FULL ANALYZE;"

Database Size

# Total database size
docker compose exec bifolk-db psql -U bifolk -d bifolk -c \
  "SELECT pg_size_pretty(pg_database_size('bifolk')) AS database_size;"

# Largest tables
docker compose exec bifolk-db psql -U bifolk -d bifolk -c "
  SELECT tablename, pg_size_pretty(pg_total_relation_size(schemaname||'.'||tablename)) AS size
  FROM pg_tables
  WHERE schemaname NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'information_schema')
  ORDER BY pg_total_relation_size(schemaname||'.'||tablename) DESC
  LIMIT 10;"

Clear Sessions

docker compose exec bifolk-app python manage.py clearsessions

Static and Media Files

Static Files

# Collect static files
docker compose exec bifolk-app python manage.py collectstatic --no-input

# Clear and recollect
docker compose exec bifolk-app python manage.py collectstatic --no-input --clear

Media Files

# Check media file usage
docker compose exec bifolk-app du -sh /bifolk/media/

# Fix permissions if uploads fail
docker compose exec bifolk-app chown -R django:django /bifolk/media

Disk Space

# Host filesystem
df -h

# Docker disk usage
docker system df

# Clean unused Docker resources
docker system prune -f
docker image prune -a -f

Warning

Only run docker volume prune if you are certain no important data is stored in unnamed volumes.

Scheduled Maintenance

Cron Examples

# Weekly database vacuum (Sunday 2 AM)
0 2 * * 0 docker compose exec -T bifolk-db psql -U bifolk -d bifolk -c "VACUUM ANALYZE;" >> /var/log/bifolk-vacuum.log 2>&1

# Weekly session cleanup (Sunday 3 AM)
0 3 * * 0 docker compose exec -T bifolk-app python manage.py clearsessions >> /var/log/bifolk-maintenance.log 2>&1

# Weekly Docker cleanup (Sunday 4 AM)
0 4 * * 0 docker system prune -f >> /var/log/docker-cleanup.log 2>&1

Emergency Procedures

Application Down

# Check logs
docker logs bifolk-app --tail 100

# Restart container
docker restart bifolk-app

# If persistent, rebuild
docker compose down && docker compose up -d --build

Database Issues

# Check database health
docker compose exec bifolk-db pg_isready -U bifolk

# Restart database
docker restart bifolk-db

Disk Full

# Find large files
du -sh /* 2>/dev/null | sort -h

# Clean Docker resources
docker system prune -a -f