I have a couple of farms (#1 = 2010 Enterprise, SP1 w/ June 2012 CU; #2 = 2010 Enterprise, SP1 w/ Dec 2012 CU) and I'm having the same issue in each.

The timer job to import usage files (job-usage-log-file-import) is constantly receiving error messages regarding a failure to delete older usage files (Failed to delete usage log file 'D:\Logs\Usage\SPDEVWEB-20130910-0726.usage' after data import. Exception: System.IO.IOException: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.).

If I try to delete these manually, I receive an error of "The action can't be completed because the file is open in SharePoint 2010 Timer".

When I look at OWSTimer.exe process in Process Explorer, I can see that each log file that hasn't been delete is still being held in memory.  The only way to clear these files is to restart the OWSTimer service on each server, which doesn't seem to be the correct solution to this issue.

In the larger farm (#1), the OWSTimer services has consumed a large number of private bytes by holding these logs in memory and over time the usage logs are filling up the disk drive as they are not being properly cleared.  It took less than 1 month in farm #1 to consume 87 GB of space just for usage files.

Has anyone else experienced a similar issue or can provide a resolution?  Any help is appreciated! :)

I believe if you were to change the location of the log files then SharePoint will truncate the current files and re-start from scratch. That might help to deal with the immediate problem.

It's worth checking the state of your Usage logging and see what interval you've got for storing the files.

You've almost certainly seen it but here's the technet on configuring usage logging: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee663480(v=office.14).aspx

The interval in farm #1 is 5 minutes between usage file creation/ imports; farm #2 is set at 30 minutes (which I believe is default).

I can try moving the location of the files in farm #2 to their default home (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\Logs), but I'm not very confident this will resolve the issue.

The issue is still present if the default log settings are used.  

There is another farm in the environment (SP 2010 Enterprise, SP1 w/ Feb 2013 CU) that is also experiencing this issue.

So I now have three farms where the import job cannot delete the usage files because they are being held by the OWSTimer service.  The only way to clear the files is to restart the OWSTimer.  Since imports occur every 30 minutes by default, it does not make sense to be required to restart the Timer service so frequently.

I am now uncertain if this is a bug or intended functionality.  I can't imagine that the default setting of the import job would be 30 minutes if restarting the timer service first is a requirement to release the hold on the files previously processed.  And if it were...why the error messages in trace?  I'm a bit confused...

• Edited by spchickadee Wednesday, September 11, 2013 3:56 PM

Hello vlootens,

In this thread they were talking about an OS update (KB2775511) which is causing this:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/e8af5657-7ca4-4ae7-bbe8-9609bb341ca8/usage-data-import-job

Maybe this helps

Had the same issue. Restarted the SharePoint Timer in Services, and a few seconds later all of the outdated .usage files disappeared.

This OS update issue has been solved since the December 2013 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2010:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2916922