>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Letta via toasters <toasters(a)lists.teaparty.net> writes:
> From: Paul Letta <letta(a)jlab.org>
> To: toasters <toasters(a)teaparty.net>
> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 20:57:00 +0000
> Subject: Weird mass delete of files in a volume with ONTAP ASYNC-Delete
> Hi Toasters.
> I’m running 9.14.1P13.
> I used the ONTAP ASYNC-Delete feature from the GUI (storage –
> Volumes – click on a volume – Click on File system – click on
> Explorer) to delete a few top level folders in a volume. That
> worked fine. I saw the background job running and they finished
> fine.
> I needed to delete much more. So I clicked on the trash can for one
> of the folders, clicked ok to start the delete.
Why not do the delete from a CIFS share instead?
> Then I clicked elsewhere in the GUI and clicked back to File-System,
> Explorer – and clicked on the trash can for a different folder.
Hmm... I wonder if you left something selected elsewhere, or even up a
level when you started one of the deletes?
> I did this maybe 6 or 7 times. When I check the jobs in ONTAP, I
> saw them all running.
> But then as I waited, I saw a lot more space being used by snapshots
> (via the df command) than the 6 or 7 folders I wanted to delete.
> At this point, only 1 ASYNC-Delete job was still running, so I canceled it.
> When I look at the live file system.. I see almost all folders (not
> just the 6 or 7 I clicked) have massive files deleted. Luckily for
> me, this volume was just a filesystem that barely changes.. so I
> could snapshot restore from a few hours before, and all was well.
Whew! Love snapshots.
> Now I’m scared to death of that file-explore page in the ONTAP GUI.
> I am the only administrator, so no one else could have been logged
> on to ONTAP. The pattern of deleted files makes a delete coming
> from a CIFS client very unlikely. There is no NFS export to this
> volume.
I've never used it, but I'd probably not ever use it unless I had a
problem doing the deletes from a client instead. But I'm much more in
tune with NFS than CIFS stuff.
> Maybe the file explorer delete button was not intended for multiple,
> simultaneous runs?
Do you have the space to clone the volume to a test copy and play
around and see if you can recreate the problem?
> I don’t know.. I know I will avoid page like a plague forever now.
> Any thoughts ?
Do all filesystem manipulations from the clients if at all possible in
the future.
John
