How to Automate Cleanup of Old Logs

Prerequisites

Before automating log cleanup, make sure you have:

• SSH access to your VPS
• Root or sudo privileges

Method 1: Using logrotate (Recommended)

Connect to your VPS:

ssh hxroot@YOUR_SERVER_IP -p 22

Create custom logrotate config:

sudo nano /etc/logrotate.d/cleanup

Add rules:

/var/log/*.log {
    weekly
    rotate 4
    compress
    delaycompress
    missingok
    notifempty
    create 644 root root
}

/var/log/nginx/*.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    compress
    delaycompress
    missingok
    notifempty
    create 640 www-data adm
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        [ -f /var/run/nginx.pid ] && kill -USR1 `cat /var/run/nginx.pid`
    endscript
}

/var/log/journal/*.journal {
    weekly
    rotate 2
    compress
    missingok
}

Test logrotate:

sudo logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.conf

Force run:

sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf

Method 2: Using Cron with find

Create cleanup script:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/cleanup-old-logs.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Delete logs older than 30 days
find /var/log -type f -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete
find /var/log -type f -name "*.gz" -mtime +90 -delete

# Clean systemd journal older than 7 days
journalctl --vacuum-time=7d

# Remove temporary files older than 2 days
find /tmp -type f -atime +2 -delete
find /var/tmp -type f -atime +2 -delete

echo "Log cleanup completed at $(date)" >> /var/log/cleanup.log

Make executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/cleanup-old-logs.sh

Schedule via cron:

sudo crontab -e

0 3 * * 0 /usr/local/bin/cleanup-old-logs.sh

Clean Apache/Nginx Access Logs Older Than 30 Days

find /var/log/apache2 -name "access.log.*.gz" -mtime +30 -delete
find /var/log/nginx -name "access.log.*.gz" -mtime +30 -delete

Empty Log Files Without Deleting Them

sudo find /var/log -type f -name "*.log" -exec truncate -s 0 {} ;

Monitor Log Cleanup Effectiveness

du -sh /var/log
ls -la /var/log/ | head -20

Set Up Email Alert on Cleanup Failure

Add to script:

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Log cleanup failed on $(hostname)" | mail -s "Cleanup Error" admin@example.com
fi