Large number of "backupedContents" folders in arcgis datastore directory?

JamesGough · ‎08-25-2021

On the fail-over/data-recovery site for our ArcGIS Enterprise deployment, the primary datastore machine had a huge number of "backupcontents" directories, taking up around 180GB of space on the disk.

Here is a listing of all of the backup directories:

08/25/2021  03:53 AM    <DIR>          backup
07/17/2020  06:21 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20200717
07/29/2020  04:15 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20200729
08/05/2020  08:42 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20200805
08/06/2020  03:36 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20200806
08/07/2020  05:47 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20200807
08/18/2020  06:31 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20200818
09/30/2020  04:12 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20200930
11/17/2020  12:03 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201117
11/18/2020  04:06 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201118
11/19/2020  12:06 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201119
11/20/2020  05:52 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201120
11/25/2020  12:23 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201125
11/30/2020  02:31 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201130
12/01/2020  02:46 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201201
12/02/2020  03:06 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201202
12/03/2020  05:31 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201203
12/09/2020  05:55 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201209
12/10/2020  05:08 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201210
12/14/2020  05:16 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20201214
01/27/2021  02:54 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210127
02/05/2021  04:33 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210205
02/12/2021  04:35 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210212
02/19/2021  04:35 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210219
03/05/2021  04:34 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210305
03/12/2021  04:33 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210312
03/19/2021  03:37 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210319
03/26/2021  03:37 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210326
04/02/2021  03:35 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210402
04/09/2021  03:35 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210409
04/16/2021  03:35 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210416
04/23/2021  03:36 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210423
04/30/2021  03:34 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210430
05/07/2021  03:34 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210507
05/14/2021  03:34 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210514
05/20/2021  02:10 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210520
05/21/2021  03:36 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210521
05/22/2021  03:40 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210522
05/23/2021  03:36 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210523
05/24/2021  12:22 PM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210524
06/05/2021  03:36 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210605
06/25/2021  03:57 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210625
07/01/2021  03:57 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210701
07/02/2021  03:57 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210702
07/03/2021  03:58 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210703
07/04/2021  03:59 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210704
07/05/2021  03:58 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210705
07/06/2021  04:03 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210706
07/07/2021  04:00 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210707
07/08/2021  04:00 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210708
07/13/2021  03:59 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210713
07/14/2021  04:00 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210714
07/15/2021  03:58 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210715
07/16/2021  03:53 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210716
07/17/2021  03:55 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210717
07/18/2021  03:52 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210718
07/19/2021  03:53 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210719
07/20/2021  03:55 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210720
07/21/2021  03:54 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210721
07/22/2021  03:55 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210722
07/23/2021  03:55 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210723
07/27/2021  03:54 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210727
07/28/2021  03:55 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210728
07/29/2021  03:51 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210729
07/30/2021  03:51 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210730
07/31/2021  03:55 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210731
08/01/2021  03:54 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210801
08/03/2021  03:56 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210803
08/04/2021  03:55 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210804
08/05/2021  03:51 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210805
08/06/2021  03:51 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210806
08/07/2021  03:51 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210807
08/08/2021  03:48 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210808
08/09/2021  03:48 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210809
08/10/2021  03:47 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210810
08/11/2021  03:51 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210811
08/12/2021  03:50 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210812
08/13/2021  03:50 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210813
08/19/2021  03:52 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210819
08/20/2021  03:52 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210820
08/21/2021  03:57 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210821
08/22/2021  03:52 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210822
08/23/2021  03:51 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210823
08/24/2021  03:53 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210824
08/25/2021  03:53 AM    <DIR>          backupedContents20210825

What would cause all of these backups to be created? They don't seem to be normal datastore backup because the "listbackups" utility does not even show them.

They all seem to be created at the time that our nightly data replication is taking place. This process uses webgisdr to backup the production site and then restore it on the DR site. Are these backups created as a normal part of that process?

JonathanQuinn · ‎09-03-2021

@JamesGough this is going to be fixed in 10.9.1. They're automatically created as part of the restore.

View solution in original post

JonSwoveland · ‎08-25-2021

Good you found this before it fills up the drive and corrupts you installation. I've seen that happen now in at least 5 instances. DataStore has its own automatic backup utility, which is ON by default and slowly fills the drive DataStore is installed to. If this happens to be the system drive...well, bad things happen. I suspect this is what is happening in your case. As soon as I finish installing DataStore I disable the auto backup, then configure webgisdr (I'm about 99% certain webgisdr calls the same backup utility, btw).
I really wish Esri would disable this by default, or at least have an option in the installer, so people are aware this is happening.

The following page has more information about this.
https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/10.8/administer/windows/data-store-backups.htm#ESRI_SECTION1...

Hope this helps.

JamesGough · ‎08-25-2021

The thing is, this doesn't seem like the normal datastore backup. When i ran the listbackups.bat tool it didn't show any backups. Also, the backup configuration was to keep backups for 7 days but many of these directories were much older than that.

JonathanQuinn · ‎09-03-2021

@JamesGough this is going to be fixed in 10.9.1. They're automatically created as part of the restore.

JamesGough · ‎09-03-2021

Jonathan, That's great, thanks for the update! In the meantime, i assume its safe to continue deleting them?

JonathanQuinn · ‎09-03-2021

Yes, you can delete them.