SNAPSHOTPROVIDERFS VSS causes error 12

[bostjanc]

Greetings!

We are in phase of preparing a document called: BCP (business continuity plan). The idea is to go thru the procedure of restoring one 2008 server in case if something really bad happens.
We have read some articles about how you can achieve a bare metal restore:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/...2008 R2, Windows 7, and Windows Vista?lang=en

So for the restore procedure we would need to have also this command in dsm.opt in our Windows 2008 server: SNAPSHOTPROVIDERFS VSS, right?

But now we are facing some problems.
If we put: SNAPSHOTPROVIDERFS VSS into dsm.opt, and when in the evening incremental backup is started, we receive randomly (one day yes, one day not) error:

11/27/2012 18:18:39 ANS1512E Scheduled event 'INC_DAILY' failed. Return code = 12.
11/27/2012 18:18:39 Sending results for scheduled event 'INC_DAILY'.
11/27/2012 18:18:39 Results sent to server for scheduled event 'INC_DAILY'.

Information about OS&TSM client version:
- Windows server 2008 standard with SP2
- Tivoli storage Manager Backup-Archive Client: Version 6, Release 2, Level 4.00

Any suggestion how we can fix this problem (restarting server is not in option)?

With best regards,

 

[smajl]

If you want to use VSS snapshots then:
- don't let users modify too much data on disks during backup, i.e. schedule during night when there is much lower activity, if you can afford it stop databases on server ,
- fix your inclexc list not to backup databases datafiles (backing up worthless data is useless right?),
- have enough free space on each disk for VSS snapshot cache,
- if not possible to free up let's say at least 10-15% then you can change VSS snapshot cache location on different disk (size needed depends on I/O activity during backup)
- use journal to speed up backup so snapshot will be used for shorter time

You haven't provided enough info about cause of failure anyway. If there are no issues from TSM server side (i.e. no storage space, bck cancelled by admin, ...) and you suspect VSS to be a cause you can find some errors about it in OS Event logs, also in dsmerror.log

 

[bostjanc]

on 3rd of December incremental backup went without error on 4th of December error again.
Here are the results from DSMSCHED and DSMERROR:
CONTENT OF DSMSCHED.LOG

12/04/2012 18:05:24 --- SCHEDULEREC OBJECT BEGIN INC_DAILY 12/04/2012 17:30:00
12/04/2012 18:05:24 Incremental backup of volume '\\servername\c$'
12/04/2012 18:05:24 Incremental backup of volume '\\servername\d$'
12/04/2012 18:05:24 Incremental backup of volume 'SYSTEMSTATE'
12/04/2012 18:06:08 Backing up object 'ASR Writer' component 'ASR' using shadow copy.
12/04/2012 18:06:08 Backing up object 'ASR Writer' component 'This is the path to the boot BCD store and the boot managers.
All the files in this directory need to be backed up.' using shadow copy.
12/04/2012 18:06:08 Backing up object 'ASR Writer' component 'Select this volume (C if it is a critical volume.
Critical volumes are those which ASR must restore.' using shadow copy.
12/04/2012 18:06:08 Backing up object 'ASR Writer' component 'Select to include disk #0 (of signature 0x7fc33bdb) for ASR restore.' using shadow copy.
12/04/2012 18:06:08 Backing up object 'COM+ REGDB Writer' component 'COM+ REGDB' using shadow copy.
12/04/2012 18:06:08 Backing up object 'Registry Writer' component 'Registry' using shadow copy.
12/04/2012 18:06:08 Backing up object 'System Writer' component 'System Files' using shadow copy.
12/04/2012 18:06:09 Backing up object 'WMI Writer' component 'Windows Managment Instrumentation' using shadow copy.
12/04/2012 18:06:16 ANS5283E The operation was unsuccessful.
12/04/2012 18:06:17 ANS1228E Sending of object 'servername\SystemState\NULL\System State\SystemState' failed
12/04/2012 18:06:17 ANS5283E The operation was unsuccessful.

12/04/2012 18:07:19 --- SCHEDULEREC STATUS END
12/04/2012 18:07:19 --- SCHEDULEREC OBJECT END INC_DAILY 12/04/2012 17:30:00
12/04/2012 18:07:19 ANS1512E Scheduled event 'INC_DAILY' failed. Return code = 12.
12/04/2012 18:07:19 Sending results for scheduled event 'INC_DAILY'.
12/04/2012 18:07:20 Results sent to server for scheduled event 'INC_DAILY'.


CONTENT OF DSMERROR.LOG
12/04/2012 18:06:16 ANS5250E An unexpected error was encountered.
TSM function name : BaStartSnapshot
TSM function : failed to start the snapshot
TSM return code : -1
TSM file : backsnap.cpp (5967)
12/04/2012 18:06:16 ANS5283E The operation was unsuccessful.
12/04/2012 18:06:16 ANS1327W The snapshot operation for 'servername\SystemState\NULL\System State\SystemState' failed with error code: -1.
12/04/2012 18:06:16 ANS1377W The client was unable to obtain a snapshot of '\\servername\c$'. The operation will continue without snapshot support.
12/04/2012 18:06:17 ANS1228E Sending of object 'servername\SystemState\NULL\System State\SystemState' failed
12/04/2012 18:06:17 ANS5283E The operation was unsuccessful.

12/04/2012 18:06:57 ANS1377W The client was unable to obtain a snapshot of '\\servername\d$'. The operation will continue without snapshot support.
12/04/2012 18:07:19 ANS1512E Scheduled event 'INC_DAILY' failed. Return code = 12.