Change logfile location?

[Tobias_Elfstrom]

Hi
In Veeam Backup & Replication 6.1 (version 6.1.0.204) is it possible to change the default logfile location from %ProgramData%\Veeam\Backup ?

Even though none of the lots in them self are that big there are a log of them since I have quite a few jobs and Veeam seems to save at least the last 10 of each logfile. Some of them zip'ed, some gziped, some not compressed at all, not sure whats goining on there.

I would prefer not to change the location of %ProgramData% in itself , just the logfile location for Veeam.

BR Tobias

[foggy]

Tobias, you cannot change the location of the log files, it is hard coded. Some of the logs are truncated and compressed automatically to prevent disk flooding, but you can delete them if you'd like to free up space and clean up the folder.

[Gostev]

Only older logs are compressed automatically, which is why some logs are compressed and other are not.

[Tobias_Elfstrom]

OK, thanks for the replies. No need to search for how to do it then, just work around it.

[Gostev]

I forgot to mention that those compressed logs are also pruned by retention automatically, so the size of the log folder will stop growing at some point. All of this is controlled through the registry, but I do not have this information handy.

[ccitrano]

Hello,

I've got Veeam B&R installed on a Windows 2008 Server that is tight on space on the C Drive.

I see very large log files accumulating in C:\ProgramData\Veeam\Backup. Once these files accumulate and the disk fills, my backups start failing.

I see a registry key called LoggingLevel and I thought you could lower that to a 1 so that minimal amounts of logging data was produced once your environment became stable. Is this still the case?

Also, is it possible to change the location that these files are stored in. I have other drives available that are much larger and better suited to handle the data.

Cheers.
Chuck.

[foggy]

I see a registry key called LoggingLevel and I thought you could lower that to a 1 so that minimal amounts of logging data was produced once your environment became stable. Is this still the case?

Yes, you can specify logging level from 1 to 6 (6 - maximum detailed logging). However, it is not recommended to set it to a low value - support will not be able to assist you in case of some issues due to lack of information.

[ZachW]

There should be multiple keys in there that you can alter to assist..

1. The first should be MaxLogCount which by default should have a value of '10' indicating that all logs files going above the amount of then instances stored shall be removed, obviously the oldest being purged first.
2. MaxLogSize with a value of '10240' which is measured in KB and amounts to 10MB which states that no one log file should go above 10MB in size without starting the creation of another log file
3. LoggingLevel with a value of '4' this is the amount in which actions are logged within Veeam, 1 being the lowest and 6 being the highest. I would highly recommend keeping the value at the default to assist support in a non re-occurring issue.. Because if we are unable to replicate an issue within the environment then these log files are all we have, and the less de-bug data we have the harder it is to give an explanation.

[Backerupper]

I believe this has been mentioned previously but has now gotten worse in v7.

We have a fairly sizable installation (500+ VMs) and our backup server creates a good amount of logs.

In the past, to ensure that the c drive does not fill on the backup server, I typically go in, sort the log folder by date and delete the oldest files.

Now with v7, the logs are put into their own folders making it extremely difficult to say, delete all logs older than 60 days.

It would really be nice to have either:
a) A way to change the location of the logs (the c drive is not a good place for 30+GB of log files)
Or
b) Have a automated way to remove old log files (delete everything older than 60 days)

Cheers

[Gostev]

All of this has been available in the product for a while now. Log retention is fully automated, and can be very granularity controlled via the registry keys, there are multiple parameters available. You can request this information through support (which may also prompt them to create a support KB article). Thanks!

[foggy]

I've merged the topic into existing discussion, where logs management is discussed in more detail and these parameters are explicitly outlined. However, support can even provide a couple of settings more.

[Backerupper]

Interesting...I started with a support case (00441426) and they directed me to post a feature request in the forums...I will follow-up again with them.

I still stand behind the request to be able to change the location of the logs files - get them off the c drive and they can grow all they want and are available if needed for support...

Thanks

[foggy]

I still stand behind the request to be able to change the location of the logs files - get them off the c drive and they can grow all they want and are available if needed for support...

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

[nefes]

There is a workaround for that. You can create Junction Point at C:\ProgramData\Veeam and point it to any folder of any disk you want.
That way all logs will be written to the selected folder.

[Gostev]

I wonder v7 has the registry key for this, I remember talking about this with devs a few months ago.
Also, I pinged our support requesting the said KB to be created once they get a moment.

[SynthosKralupy]

Hello,

is it possible to safely removed all log files under C:\ProgramData\Veeam\Backup\? There are almost 6 GB files and my C: drive has no free space.

And better, is it possible to redirect this folder to another drive?


Thank you in advance.


Pavel.

[foggy]

Pavel, please see the topic above for available options. Sure, you can clean up the folder manually, if needed.

[rimvydukas]

All of this has been available in the product for a while now. Log retention is fully automated, and can be very granularity controlled via the registry keys, there are multiple parameters available. You can request this information through support (which may also prompt them to create a support KB article). Thanks!

Gostev, is there any way to change logs location via registry key in v7? It is rather important for a large virtual infrastructures. If there is no way, maybe its about a time to implement this? Not everyone want to have 30GB of logs on C: disk and have a risk to fill this disk up:/

[dellock6]

As a quick workaround, you can maybe use an NTFS ymbolic link, and redirect the logs folder to another drive. Not as good as a configuration option in the software, but it could help.

Luca.

[rimvydukas]

Yes, I know this workaround, I only want to know - can we expect this important option is software itself? But thanks for your help:)

[foggy]

There is actually a key that allows to redirect Veeam B&R log files to another folder:

Code: Select all

HKLM\SOFTWARE\VeeaM\Veeam Backup and Replication\LogDirectory (STRING)

[Backerupper]

Hip...Hip...Horray!

Hip...Hip...Horray!

Please spread the word (to support) as I'm sure many large environments will welcome this info

[Ben Milligan]

Here is updated KB Article for this: http://www.veeam.com/kb1825

[mcwill]

Unfortunately we were just hit with expanding log storage taking down our Veeam server which is totally my fault for ignoring the Veeam One error but I do have a couple of observations...

It appears that a lot of the logs under V7 are now stored in subfolders which is fine, however if the Veeam server was upgraded from V6.5 or earlier then the existing logs are no longer being managed by Veeam so we are looking at a large increase in the required log space. It's also not immediately obvious which logs are archaic and can be manually removed without damaging the log history.

The logs in V7 are a lot more detailed, where we previously had 10 copies of a job log each up to 10MB in size under V6.5 now the V7 logs are created per "task" which appears to be at the VM level? If we have an average of 10 VMs per job this means a 10 fold increase in required logging space?

Oh, one additional point. If a backup job fails due to the C: drive filling up, no email alerts are dispatched.

Regards,
Iain

[foggy]

It appears that a lot of the logs under V7 are now stored in subfolders which is fine, however if the Veeam server was upgraded from V6.5 or earlier then the existing logs are no longer being managed by Veeam so we are looking at a large increase in the required log space. It's also not immediately obvious which logs are archaic and can be manually removed without damaging the log history.

Yes, logs from previous version are retained in the root directory. You can remove them manually by date, for example, or ask support for assistance in defining those that are not needed anymore.

The logs in V7 are a lot more detailed, where we previously had 10 copies of a job log each up to 10MB in size under V6.5 now the V7 logs are created per "task" which appears to be at the VM level? If we have an average of 10 VMs per job this means a 10 fold increase in required logging space?

In v7 logging was redesigned to support parallel processing.

Oh, one additional point. If a backup job fails due to the C: drive filling up, no email alerts are dispatched.

Tracking free space on the disk, where logs are stored, is a good point, thanks for heads up.

[mcwill]

Tracking free space on the disk, where logs are stored, is a good point, thanks for heads up.

I wasn't looking for an additional tracking email, what I meant was that the existing email alert that is sent when a backup job fails wasn't sent if the job failed due to a lack of disk space. This means the server fails silently.

In v7 logging was redesigned to support parallel processing.

Because the default options for the registry keys hasn't changed, this means by my calculations that the logs on our small setup will require an additional 7GB of storage (previously using approx. 3GB), I'd hate to think the effect this has on larger operations.

Thanks,
Iain

[foggy]

I wasn't looking for an additional tracking email, what I meant was that the existing email alert that is sent when a backup job fails wasn't sent if the job failed due to a lack of disk space. This means the server fails silently.

Mm.. Ok, this should be investigated. I will ask QC to reproduce this.

[nefes]

If disk C: fills up, all applications will fail in some way.
For B&R no space on the disk with logs means that any action that require logging will throw an exception and there's no way to resolve it. And more dangerous situation is when B&R SQL database resides on same volume - in that case writes to database will fail too and it will lead to DB inconsistency. Emails being not sent is the smallest evil happening in such case.

[mcwill]

Thanks for the info Nikita,

In that case perhaps you need to revisit log file management on the system. V7's default settings will easily consume 10GB of log space on the system drive for a small setup with no GUI management or warning to their presence. We and I suspect a high percentage of other customers will size their system drive to hold the OS & program files not large data blocks.

Regards,
Iain

[slaburda]

Here is updated KB Article for this: http://www.veeam.com/kb1825

Hi, Can I use this settings to rotate logs on Veeam Backup Proxy? Normaly on Backp Proxy does not exist "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication" in registry. Thanky You.