Hi all,
We are trying to understand the content creation process of the arcgisoutput directory and its maintenance mechanism.
Environment:
Multi-machine Enteprise 10.9.1 deployment. Standard server directories arrangement like below. ArcGIS server account has full permissions to all directories.
We discovered a massive amount of SD files and empty folders in the arcgisoutput directory. Files are dated from Day 1 of the system till today. They have a GUID-like name, NOT the publishing job ID, the hosted feature layer portal item ID, or the SD portal item ID (SD files stored on the Portal content directory). Deleting them manually doesn't seem to affect anything based on testing hosted feature services only.
We are expecting the directory to be ArcGIS system maintained. After research, it seems not the case.
From official info https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/10.9.1/administer/windows/about-server-directories.htm
Admin can manually clean the directory using admin REST API https://developers.arcgis.com/rest/enterprise-administration/server/cleandirectory.htm
There are other discussions like the thread https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-enterprise-questions/deleting-arcgisoutput-sd-files/td-p/1337083 However, they didn't discuss how and why it happened.
Questions:
1. What is the Purpose of those SD files, and how are they created?
2. What is the Purpose of those empty folders, and how are they created?
2. Are they supposed to stay in this 'temporary' arcgisoutput directory permanently?
3. If not, what is the best practice for maintaining this arcgisoutput directory?
It would be great to learn a bit more insight that the official doc doesn't cover.
Thanks.
-Hua
