ECS: Metadata Cleanup jobs issue on ECS 3.8.1.x

ECS systems may experience increased capacity or have a large backlog of Space Reclamation tasks. 

• Metadata Cleanup jobs are a new feature in ECS 3.8.1. 
• There is an issue on ECS 3.8.1.3 GP1 and earlier releases which may cause ECS systems to improperly process some Metadata Cleanup jobs.
• If a Metadata Cleanup job cannot be processed, ECS may try to create new jobs to run the same task.
• This may flood the internal cleanup queues with Metadata Cleanup jobs, which may impact capacity and Space Reclamation.

• Metadata Cleanup Jobs are disabled as part of ECS 3.8.1.3 GP2 and later versions for the ECS 3.8.1 family.
  • ECS versions earlier than ECS 3.8.1.0 are not impacted by this issue.
  • If you are upgrading from a version prior to ECS 3.8.1.0, the recommendation is to upgrade to ECS 3.8.1.4 or later. 
  • For customers already on ECS 3.8.1.0 - ECS 3.8.1.3 GP1, the recommendation is to upgrade to ECS 3.8.1.4 or later. 
    • Alternatively, you can open a Support case to disable the Metadata Cleanup Jobs manually. 
• ECS Engineering is working on a solution to detect any impacted cleanup jobs created when ECS was on the impacted code. This KB article will be updated accordingly. 
• A permanent fix will be available in a future ECS release.