Drive filling up, thinking NBU_VSP_Cache is to blame

[Hanzo581]

Ok, we have a shared drive on our Netbackup Master server that is mysteriously filling up despite a very small amount of data being visible.  I found this article.

http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/low-disk-space

It says tells of ways to delete the old snapshot but we do not see it, we've tried the process explorer tool and rebooted and still cannot see it.  (a post in the comment said after rebooting the file should become visible and able to be deleted).

Any other ideas on how to clear this out?

[Marianne]

You have marked NBU 7.5 as the version in use?

7.5 uses VSS only. VSP is no longer in use.

NetBackup does not create 'hidden' files. Logs and images that are known for large filesystem usage, are all clearly visible. All NBU files/folders are under NBU installation folder.

Which OS on your master?

[Hanzo581]

Yes we use 7.5.0.1 on NBMaster which is Server 2003 SP2.

When we look at the drive, we see the total size as 150GB,free space as 4.25GB, but when we actually look at what is on the drive it is a fraction of that, around 500mb used.  (we have it set to show hidden files).

[Marianne]

Where is NBU installed? 

As I've said previously - NBU files/folders can be seen clearly.

I don't think your space issue is caused by NBU.

[sksujeet · Accepted solution]

OK this is out of NBU scope but I know what is causing this, I had the same issue couple of times on my servers.

As you said you already checked show hidden files, do uncheck the option hide protected operating file system and hide extension of known file types in tools -folder options.

If you see system volume information or recycler make sure you have rights on those folder, if you don't have rights it will just show 0 bytes. Either logon as local system administrator or open these folder and in the security tab give yourself full rights. Once done check the space again.

Most probably it will be your System Volume information folder causing this. If this is not the one make sure you have rights on the other folders and check the space once you have full rights on those.

Best way is to logon as local administrator.

[Hanzo581]

That is exactly where the 145GB is, awesome information.

Question though, what is this data and is it important or can it just be wiped out?

[sksujeet]

This data is created because you have the shadow copy configured. Shadow copy is making a block level copy of any changes occured to a file since last shadow copy.

You can either limit the size by right clicking the drive and go to properties and there is option called Shadow Copies. Make it disable or limit the size. Right now it is set to "no limit".

More information can be gathered from Google, lot of articles about shadow copies. This is out of scope for this forum.

Edit:

Note: You won't be able to delete this data unless you limit the size of shadow copy or use process exploere to kill the handle. Please make sure if you do any of these things it might kill the active System Files and panic the server which might reboot the server 

[Hanzo581]

Ok, great.  As soon as we get a window where backups aren't running we are going to decrease the limit and then knock out the files.

Thank you all for the assistance!