Veeam Backup Server Large VID Folder

For the past week the system drive on one of the backup servers I manage was gradually filling up as each day progressed. This behaviour was unexpected since things had been stable and the Veeam logs are configured to write to a different volume. After some investigation, I found a number folders relating to Veeam support logs in directory C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Temp\VID.

VID stands for Veeam Intelligent Diagnostics which is a Veeam ONE feature that allows you to automatically detect known issues in configuration and performance of backup infrastructure.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/one/monitor/intelligent_diagnostics.html?ver=120: Veeam Backup Server Large VID Folder

Since this backup server is monitored by Veeam ONE, I thought maybe there was a problem with the Veeam ONE agent collecting the log files. Sure enough, there was an issue Failed to download Veeam Backup & Replication data logs. Arhcive file is corrupted or cannot be opened showing in the Veeam ONE client.

It seems that when the log analysis process fails somewhere along the way, it doesn’t clean up the support logs within the VID folder.

Fortunately this issue has already been raised quite recently in the Veeam forums: https://forums.veeam.com/veeam-one-f28/veeam-one-failed-to-analyze-veeam-backup-replication-server-logs-t86789.html

It seem that the cause of the issue relates to the maximum path length limit of 255 characters being reached during the log collection phase. Here is that article detailing the error: https://forums.veeam.com/monitoring-f5/intelligent-diagnostics-failure-due-to-path-length-t86557.html.

I checked the Veeam ONE Agent analyzer log on the backup server and observed the exact same error message as in that post.

Initially the issue was resolved using a registry key, however it is now fixed in signature package v1.5.53 and above.

To check your current signature:

1. Open the Veeam ONE Client
2. Switch to the Veeam Backup & Replication view
3. Select Backup Infrastructure from the tree
   
4. Select Veeam ONE Agents
   
5. The Signatures version is shown at the top of the pane
   

Once you have confirmed the signature needs updating, you have 2 options:

1. Update Signatures Automatically
   • Click the Update Signatures button from your Veeam ONE server and wait for the latest signature package to be downloaded from Veeam.
     
2. Import Signatures Manually
   • Manually download a signature package from Veeam https://www.veeam.com/intelligent-diagnostics-signatures-download.html
   • Copy the .package file to the machine where the Veeam ONE Client is running.
   • Click the Import Signatures button and select the package file.
     

Next start the log analysis again on the backup server wait for it to complete the process. Once complete the Log Analysis Session State column should show as Finished analyzing data logs.

When I re-checked the state of the VID folder it had cleaned up all the historic files and folders that had been left there and the space had been completely freed up once more.