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ccmcache is full, but not tombstoning content after 1,440 minutes

Robbins, Adam 0 Reputation points
2024-03-20T13:28:37.4033333+00:00

MECM 2303 w/ hotfix rollup, build 9106. We have had our cache size set to 20 GB for 11 years and have not had ANY cache related issues with any deployments, that we were aware of, ever. I have read a ton of posts from various sources referencing ccmcache issues with filling up and never clearing itself out, people using cleanup scripts, scheduled tasks, etc., but we have just taken it for granted having never had an issue. I haven't paid much attn. to the CAS.log over the years either, only when TS individual devices.

A few years ago, we started packaging the Adobe CC apps separately vs. all in a single package to give us more deployment options vs. collecting and reimaging annually. We have never actually tried superseding any of them up till now. Each app is approximately 2.5 GB with a total of 20.5 GB for these 8 apps. Our previous versions came in at 19.6 GB in total.

On 3/18, to test a worse case scenario, expecting it to take 2-3 days to get it done, I deployed all 8 Adobe CC apps as Required, packaged separately, with supersedence of the previous version for each, so 16 apps in total needing to be downloaded. (I am familiar with Adobe's uninstall utilities making supersedence unnecessary.) There was only 510 MB sitting in ccmcache prior to deployment. Software Center received all 8 advertisements, and successfully downloaded 3 of the new apps, plus the 3 needing superseded, and performed the uninstall/install without issue, but this consumed 18.2 GB of our 20 GB. The other 5 apps show "Update failed - "There is not enough temporary space reserved to download the software."

Today is 3/20, here is the date range of content sitting in ccmcache currently: 3/18 10:36 AM - 3/18 1:04 PM

...so we are well past the 1,440 minute client setting: 'Maximum duration before the client can remove cached content (minutes)'.

The CAS.log shows the following:

CacheManager: Grooming cache, target free space size is 1954067456 bytes, allow deletion of active items = 'FALSE', allow deletion of pinned items = 'FALSE'.

CacheManager: There are currently 19589832704 bytes used for cached content items (14 total, 13 active, 1 tombstoned(inactive), 0 expired).

CacheManager: MaxCacheDuration since last referenced (Expiration):43200 mins - MinDuration since last referenced (inactive):1440 mins

CacheManager: Sorting list of cached content based on state and age to determine best deletion order.

CacheManager: Even if all currently inactive cached content was removed there would not be enough space available for the request.

CacheManager: Attempting to set or update cache size, requested size 20480.

For some reason it seems like it is not tombstoning / marking the stale content as inactive and proceeding with cleanup. I have tried deleting 1 of the failed deployments, re-deploying, rebooting, etc. I have confirmed our client settings and the CAS.log seems to confirm we should be seeing expiration after 30 days and inactive/tombstoned after 24 hours.

Can anyone offer an explanation of what we're seeing here? I assume it won't actually clear the stale content out until after the 30 days at this point.

Microsoft System Center
Microsoft System Center
A suite of Microsoft systems management products that offer solutions for managing datacenter resources, private clouds, and client devices.
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  1. XinGuo-MSFT 16,246 Reputation points
    2024-03-21T08:59:06.31+00:00

    Hi,

    Cached content isn't automatically deleted and is only removed if new content requires its disk space. It remains in the cache for the configured number of minutes after the client uses that content. If you configure the content with the option to persist content in the client cache, the client doesn't automatically delete it. If the cache space is used by content that was downloaded within the configured number of minutes, and the client must download new content, either increase the cache size or choose the option to delete persisted cache content.

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/configmgr/core/clients/manage/configure-client-cache

  2. Robbins, Adam 0 Reputation points
    2024-03-25T13:07:05.4766667+00:00

    After the Required application deployment advertisements were removed from the system, ccmcache then started tombstoning cache and performing the groom operation to make space for additional installs. I assume this is for whatever reason intended and likely "known but undocumented" client behavior and this is where the bickering comes in about whether ccmcache is actually taking care of itself or not. Guess will have to just have to deploy in stages vs. all at once.

    I'm retesting with Available deployments to see how they behave.