What is Veeam doing when it says "Enumerating directories"?

[robnicholsonmalt]

What exactly is Veeam agent doing when it says "Enumerating directories"? This backup has been stuck at that prompt saying 0:00:03 for about 25 minutes now.

[Mildur]

Hello Rob

Is Drive E+G protected by a file level backup?

Best,
Fabian

[robnicholsonmalt]

They are yes. OS volume and a specified folders off the E: and G: drives.

[Mildur]

Hi Rob

Thanks. For a file level backup, we need to list all folders and files and compare it against the backup data. This process is called enumeration. New and Changed files will then be backed up by the backup session.

File level backup is generally slower than volume level backup. If you have a huge amount of small files on drive E+G, the backup process can really slow.
What you can do to optimize it?
- Create volume level backups instead of file level backup
- Use our CBT driver (Veeam Changed Block Tracking Driver) for file level backups.

Best,
Fabian

[robnicholsonmalt]

In terms of comparing it against backup data, is this a checksum kind of process? If so that would maybe explain it as I did this:

1. Veeam backed up a large 500GB folder consisting of Macrium Reflect images.
2. Temporarily moved *some* of those files into another folder on the same G: drive.
3. Moved them back again.
4. Ran Veeam backup again.

I'm guessing that Veeam (probably rightly) thought the files moved out & back might have been changed and read them to do the checksum? When the 2nd backup completed, it certainly didn't back them up again as the backup time for the files was quite short.