Forum Discussion

BaltoStar_12467's avatar
Aug 08, 2014

BIG-IP : deleted data-group/file contents are re-appearing in re-created data-group/file of same name

f5 BIG-IP LTM VE v11.4.0 on ESXi

Does BIG-IP somewhere retain contents of deleted data-files - perhaps in a hidden cache file or a database ?

Consider the following sequence :

Via BIG-IP browser admin , I delete a data-group and then its related data-file. When I peruse BIG-IP's data dirs, the corresponding data-file is no longer present :

/config/filestore/files_d/Common_d/data_group_d/:Common:test_data_file_57958_1

This is as expected.

Also not present are any other data-files with names of the form :

/:Common:test_data_file_*

This is also as expected.

Next via the iControl API I create a brand new data-group/file of same name

test_data_file

Via browser admin, I open the newly created data-file, and I'm very surprised to see remnants of the previous deleted data-file’s data ( at the top of the file ), along with some, but not all, of the data I supplied in the new external data-file ( the one that was pointed to with the Browse button during the Create sequence ).

This is completely unexpected.

Really weird. Somehow BIG-IP is remembering the contents of a deleted data-file and then co-mingling that data with the new data supplied for a new data-file of same name.

  • Does BIG-IP somewhere retain contents of deleted data-files - perhaps in a hidden cache file or a database ?

    there is .trash_bin_d under /config/filestore. anyway, i think it may not relate to your issue. if the issue is reproducible, i think you had better open a support case.

    [root@ve11a:Active:In Sync] filestore  ls -al
    total 40
    drwxr-xr-x  5 root root 4096 Jul  7 07:12 .
    drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 Aug 10 04:02 ..
    drwxrwxrwx  3 root root 4096 Apr  8 20:34 files_d
    drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Jul 31 19:50 .snapshots_d
    drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Aug  6 06:47 .trash_bin_d