How to remove old unused kernels on CentOS Linux

Objective

The objective is to remove old unused kernel.

Operating System and Software Versions

  • Operating System: – CentOS 7

Requirements

Privileged access to your CentOS server will be required.

Difficulty

EASY

Conventions

  • # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
  • $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Instructions

Under a normal circumstances the number of installed and unused kernels does not affect server’s performance. However, removing old unused kernels will free some disk space. If your server is configured with a separate /boot partition and you run into a issue with low disk space, removing unused kernels will provide remedy.

Check for current Kernel

First, check what kernel is currently used by your server:

# uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 3.10.0-693.5.2.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Oct 20 20:32:50 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

List all installed kernels

In this step we will list all currently installed kernels:

# rpm -q kernel
kernel-3.10.0-327.36.3.el7.x86_64
kernel-3.10.0-514.2.2.el7.x86_64
kernel-3.10.0-693.5.2.el7.x86_64

Kernel kernel-3.10.0-693.5.2.el7.x86_64 is currently loaded and used. based on the about output this is the latest version.



Remove old kernels manually

At this stage we can use yum command to manually remove unused Linux kernels:

# yum remove kernel-3.10.0-327.36.3.el7.x86_64 kernel-3.10.0-514.2.2.el7.x86_64
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package kernel.x86_64 0:3.10.0-327.36.3.el7 will be erased
---> Package kernel.x86_64 0:3.10.0-514.2.2.el7 will be erased
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=======================================================================================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                         Arch                                            Version                                                      Repository                                          Size 
=======================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Removing:                                                                                                                                                                                                              
 kernel                                          x86_64                                          3.10.0-327.36.3.el7                                          @anaconda                                          136 M 
 kernel                                          x86_64                                          3.10.0-514.2.2.el7                                           @updates                                           148 M 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Transaction Summary                                                                                                                                                                                                    
=======================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Remove  2 Packages                                                                                                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Installed size: 284 M                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Is this ok [y/N]:

Remove old unused kernel automatically

Using package-cleanup command which is a part of yum-utils package we can uninstall any number of old kernels automatically. As an example using --oldkernels --count=2 option with package-cleanup command the command will remove all unused kernel while keeping last three most recent kernel versions installed.

Let’s remove all kernels expect the latest currently loaded kernel:

# package-cleanup --oldkernels --count=1
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
--> Running transaction check
---> Package kernel.x86_64 0:3.10.0-327.36.3.el7 will be erased
---> Package kernel.x86_64 0:3.10.0-514.2.2.el7 will be erased
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=======================================================================================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                         Arch                                            Version                                                      Repository                                          Size
=======================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Removing:
 kernel                                          x86_64                                          3.10.0-327.36.3.el7                                          @anaconda                                          136 M
 kernel                                          x86_64                                          3.10.0-514.2.2.el7                                           @updates                                           148 M

Transaction Summary
=======================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Remove  2 Packages

Installed size: 284 M
Is this ok [y/N]:

Configure yum to auto-remove old kernels

By default CentOS will keep last 5 kernels installed on your system. This behavior is defined by installonly_limit=5 line within /etc/yum.conf file. Update the /etc/yum.conf configuration file appropriately to keep desired number of old kernels on your system after update. The minimum value to be set is 2. Example of /etc/yum.conf configuration file to keep only last two kernel versions:

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1
plugins=1
installonly_limit=2
bugtracker_url=http://bugs.centos.org/set_project.php?project_id=23&ref=http://bugs.centos.org/bug_report_page.php?category=yum
distroverpkg=centos-release