Task logs for certain system tasks remain on disk

[donnybell]

Severity

Not blocking

Version

Confirmed in 2025.2.10454 (but likely has been present for a while)

Latest Version

None

What happened?

Task logs for certain system tasks remain on disk. Similar to https://github.com/OctopusDeploy/Issues/issues/6065 and https://github.com/OctopusDeploy/Issues/issues/7451

Confirmed the following affected tasks types:

• Synchronize Community Step Templates
• Send Telemetry
• Check System Integrity
• Check target health for Default Machine Policy
• Synchronize external security groups
• Apply retention policies
• Process recurring scheduled triggers
• Check target health for cloud targets
• Acquire Step Packages

Possibly related to event retention.

Confirmed there is no reference to the ServerTasks IDs for the Task Logs on disk in the database. Orphaned ServerTasks yield a 404 via /api/tasks/ServerTasks-XXXXX.

Reproduction

Run the workaround script against a local instance that has event retention enabled.

Error and Stacktrace

More Information

No response

Workaround

# This script is intended to remove orphaned task logs from disk. Running the script as is will print the names of the task log files to be deleted. 
# Line 45 responsible for deletion is commented out. Please take a backup of your task logs folder before uncommenting line 45 and deleting files.
# This script may not be suitable for working with a large number of task log files and may require adjustments to work in batches.

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop";

# Define working variables
$octopusURL = "http://YOUR_OCTOPUS_URL"
$octopusAPIKey = "API-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
$header = @{ "X-Octopus-ApiKey" = $octopusAPIKey }
$taskLogsFolder = "PATH\TO\TASKLOGS" # i.e. C:\Octopus\TaskLogs

# Get list of files
$regex = '^(servertasks)-(\d+)_([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\.(txt)$'
$taskLogs = Get-ChildItem -Path $taskLogsFolder -File | Where-Object { $_.Name -match $regex } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
$taskIdNumbers = $taskLogs | ForEach-Object { if ($_ -match $regex) { $matches[2] } } | Sort-Object {[int]$_} -Unique
Write-Host "Found $($taskLogs.count) logs"

# Loop to find files that can be deleted
$tasksToDelete = @()
ForEach ($taskIdNumber in $taskIdNumbers) {
    try {
        Write-Host "Checking ServerTasks-$taskIdNumber"
        $taskCheck = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri "$octopusURL/api/tasks/ServerTasks-$taskIdNumber" -Headers $header
        }
    catch {
        $response = $_.Exception.Response
        if ($response.StatusCode -ieq "NotFound") {
            $tasksToDelete += $taskIdNumber
            Write-Host "Including ServerTasks-$taskIdNumber for task log deletion"
        }        
    }
}

$filesToDelete = @()
ForEach ($task in $tasksToDelete) {
    $list = $taskLogs | Where-Object { $_ -like "*$task*" }
    ForEach ($item in $list) {
        if ($filesToDelete -notcontains $item) {
            $filesToDelete += $item
        }
    }
}

# Delete
ForEach ($file in $filesToDelete) {
    # Remove-Item -Path "$taskLogsFolder\$file"
    Write-Host "$taskLogsFolder\$file was deleted"
}