advpack.log

[mg]

When our Windows 2000 server was configured a few years ago, the C:
drive was created with 4gb of space. At the time this seemed plenty.
We recently received a warning about a low free space condition on
this server. When checking the file allocations, I found one file
taking up over 1.1GB of space. The file is C:\WINNT\ADVPACK.LOG.

I cannot find any information about this file on the Microsoft web
site, Google, Altavista or Dogpile. I did find a reference to the file
in the system registry at
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Advanced INF Setup\AdvpackLogFile

1) What is the purpose of this file? It appears to be growing in size
by the minute!

2) Can I change the registry data to allocate a new file? If so, can I
point the file to a different drive? Or must the file be in the
C:\WINNT directory?

TIA
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There are only 10 types of people in the world:
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those that don't.

 

[Herb Martin]

When our Windows 2000 server was configured a few years ago, the C:
drive was created with 4gb of space. At the time this seemed plenty.
We recently received a warning about a low free space condition on
this server. When checking the file allocations, I found one file
taking up over 1.1GB of space. The file is C:\WINNT\ADVPACK.LOG.

I cannot find any information about this file on the Microsoft web
site, Google, Altavista or Dogpile. I did find a reference to the file
in the system registry at
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Advanced INF Setup\AdvpackLogFile

1) What is the purpose of this file? It appears to be growing in size
by the minute!

I don't know -- my 2003 server has no such thing.

2) Can I change the registry data to allocate a new file? If so, can I
point the file to a different drive? Or must the file be in the
C:\WINNT directory?

You can also move the following: "Program Files" and "Documents and
Settings" using a LinkD.exe junction point.

You might remove all of the (OLD) uninstall directories with names like
$something$ which are hidden in the WinNT directory:

dir /ad /od $*$

This command will setup to delete it:

for %a in ('dir /ad /od /b $*$') do @echo rd /s /q %a

The above will NOT do the "delete" or "remove directory" but merely
echo the correct commands onto the command screen so you can copy
and pasted them AFTER you determine they are correct.

[ rd /s /q is TOO dangerous to use without checking. ]

Also look for OLD log files in System32\logfiles etc if you have IIS
installed.

 

[mg]

When our Windows 2000 server was configured a few years ago, the C:
drive was created with 4gb of space. At the time this seemed plenty.
We recently received a warning about a low free space condition on
this server. When checking the file allocations, I found one file
taking up over 1.1GB of space. The file is C:\WINNT\ADVPACK.LOG.

I cannot find any information about this file on the Microsoft web
site, Google, Altavista or Dogpile. I did find a reference to the file
in the system registry at
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Advanced INF Setup\AdvpackLogFile

1) What is the purpose of this file? It appears to be growing in size
by the minute!

I don't know -- my 2003 server has no such thing.

2) Can I change the registry data to allocate a new file? If so, can I
point the file to a different drive? Or must the file be in the
C:\WINNT directory?

You can also move the following: "Program Files" and "Documents and
Settings" using a LinkD.exe junction point.

You might remove all of the (OLD) uninstall directories with names like
$something$ which are hidden in the WinNT directory:

dir /ad /od $*$

This command will setup to delete it:

for %a in ('dir /ad /od /b $*$') do @echo rd /s /q %a

The above will NOT do the "delete" or "remove directory" but merely
echo the correct commands onto the command screen so you can copy
and pasted them AFTER you determine they are correct.

[ rd /s /q is TOO dangerous to use without checking. ]

Also look for OLD log files in System32\logfiles etc if you have IIS
installed.

We've already deleted the older uninstall directories. We've moved
most of the log files (IIS, event, system, application and SMTP) to
our D: drive which has 30GB of free space.
--
Email hint - Everything after the @ is spelled backwards.

There are only 10 types of people in the world:
those that understand binary, and
those that don't.

 

[Herb Martin]

We've already deleted the older uninstall directories. We've moved
most of the log files (IIS, event, system, application and SMTP) to
our D: drive which has 30GB of free space.

That still leaves (at least) My Documents and especially Program Files.

These are easy with Linkd.exe.

 

[mg]

That still leaves (at least) My Documents and especially Program Files.

These are easy with Linkd.exe.

The My Documents folder doesn't contain much. The Program Files folder
is about 1GB. I'm more interested in the one file advpack.log that is
1.1GB and growing. The files in the Program Files or My Documents
folder aren't growing.

What's that old 80/20 cliche? I would much prefer to knock out one
1.1GB that a whole bunch of files amounting to about 1GB.
--
Email hint - Everything after the @ is spelled backwards.

There are only 10 types of people in the world:
those that understand binary, and
those that don't.

 

[Herb Martin]

The My Documents folder doesn't contain much. The Program Files folder
is about 1GB. I'm more interested in the one file advpack.log that is
1.1GB and growing. The files in the Program Files or My Documents
folder aren't growing.

Between the two (program files) and the file you have HALF the disk
volume occupied.

What's that old 80/20 cliche? I would much prefer to knock out one
1.1GB that a whole bunch of files amounting to about 1GB.

Doing the program files move is only slightly more complicated than
removing the one file.

As *I* said, I don't have that file and perhaps someone else will comment
upon it.

It is also odd that your Documents and Settings is small, since the Internet
Explorer caches are in there.

 

[mg]

When our Windows 2000 server was configured a few years ago, the C:
drive was created with 4gb of space. At the time this seemed plenty.

snip<

I took a look at the contents of the advpack.log file. It appears to
be an appending log file. I'm going to make a registry change to point
to advpac1.log.

Made the registry change. advpack.dll is now writing to the new
advpac1.log file. The old log file is still locked. A restart should
allow me to delete the old advpack.log file.

New questions -
Is there any way to prevent advpack.dll from writing to a log file in
append mode? Is it possible to turn on circular logging?
--
Email hint - Everything after the @ is spelled backwards.

There are only 10 types of people in the world:
those that understand binary, and
those that don't.

 

[mg]

It is also odd that your Documents and Settings is small, since the Internet
Explorer caches are in there.

This machine is one of our servers. It doesn't see much IE use.
--
Email hint - Everything after the @ is spelled backwards.

There are only 10 types of people in the world:
those that understand binary, and
those that don't.

 

[mg]

Here are the entries in the log file.

--------------- advpack.dll is loaded or Attached --------------------
Date: 03/20/2007 (mm/dd/yyyy) Time: 10:34:57 (hh:mm:ss)
--------------- advpack.dll is unloaded or Detached ------------------
--------------- advpack.dll is loaded or Attached --------------------
Date: 03/20/2007 (mm/dd/yyyy) Time: 10:34:58 (hh:mm:ss)
--------------- advpack.dll is unloaded or Detached ------------------
--------------- advpack.dll is loaded or Attached --------------------
Date: 03/20/2007 (mm/dd/yyyy) Time: 10:34:59 (hh:mm:ss)
--------------- advpack.dll is unloaded or Detached ------------------
--------------- advpack.dll is loaded or Attached --------------------
Date: 03/20/2007 (mm/dd/yyyy) Time: 10:35:00 (hh:mm:ss)
--------------- advpack.dll is unloaded or Detached ------------------

What's going with this advpack.dll? Is there any way to reduce the
frequency of it running? Or turn off it's logging?
--
Email hint - Everything after the @ is spelled backwards.

There are only 10 types of people in the world:
those that understand binary, and
those that don't.