What is this file listed under the SVI folder for shadow copies, and why is it so large?

[RMGIT4550]

Hello, I'm currently experiencing an issue on our file servers regarding shadow copies.

For a little background, our environment hosts 3 file servers to serve the various amounts of different companies under our service. We have shadow copies enabled on all 3 servers with limits set on each drive that gets copied.

On two of our servers, the drive delegated to shadow copies is almost always at 90% full. When comparing them to the one server that isn't full and working as expected, we notice there is a specific file in the System Volume Information folder that is way bigger than it should be:

The file name in question is {3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752} and it is also at the end of the name in each shadow copy listed. This same file name is also located on all of the servers with two out of 3 being over 80GB in size, the other is only 64KB. The one with a 64kb file size seems to be handling shadow copies as expected. I also have noticed this file is listed in the registry under a key named VSS Default Provider.

I've tried looking this up and I cannot find anything pointing me to an answer. Is anyone able to tell me why this file is getting massive and how to remedy this?

[#2]

Hi @RMGIT4550,

The shadow copy index file {3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752} is very large, and is causing the drive delegated to shadow copies to be almost always at 90% full.

You can try the following steps:

1. Reduce the number of shadow copies that are stored. You can do this by changing the settings in the System Protection control panel.
2. Exclude certain drives or folders from shadow copies. You can do this by creating shadow copy exclusions.
3. Delete old shadow copies. You can do this using the vssadmin command-line tool.

The shadow copy index file is used by the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to track the changes made to files on your system. The file can grow very large, especially if you have a lot of changes to your files or if you have shadow copies enabled on multiple drives.

If the shadow copy index file is too large, it can cause the drive delegated to shadow copies to become full. This can prevent VSS from creating new shadow copies, and can also make it difficult to restore data from existing shadow copies.

By reducing the number of shadow copies that are stored, excluding certain drives or folders from shadow copies, and deleting old shadow copies, you can reduce the size of the shadow copy index file and improve the performance of VSS.

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Kindest regards,

Leon Pavesic
(LinkedIn)

[#3]

Thank you @LeonPavesic, this was the most straightforward answer I got from any forum. Others couldn't answer my question of what exactly this file was, they only focused on the shadow copies.

As for reducing the size, I've been doing most of the suggestions you have listed (aside from exclusions). I'm hesitant to do that due to our file structure and the amount of data we have stored. Nonetheless, I'll just continue to regularly try and clean out shadow copies.

I've been reading other forums about the SVI folder, this file I've mentioned doesn't have any association with the search and indexing services does it?

[#4]

Hi @RMGIT4550,

thanks for your update,

The file {3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752} is a shadow copy index file. It contains information about the files and folders that are included in the shadow copy. This index file is used by VSS to quickly identify which files need to be restored when you restore from a shadow copy.

To answer your question directly, the file {3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752} does not have a direct association with the search and indexing services. However, the search and indexing services may use the shadow copy index file to improve their performance. For example, the search service may use the shadow copy index file to quickly identify which files have been changed since the last time the index was updated.

Please click Mark as Best Response & Like if my post helped you to solve your issue.
This will help others to find the correct solution easily. It also closes the item.

If the post was useful in other ways, please consider giving it Like.

Kindest regards,

Leon Pavesic
(LinkedIn)