Hi Steve,

Off-hand I am not sure what this is, but a couple of things:

1. Are there any anomalous messages in the error log during the timeframe
of the backup that exhibits the problem?

2. Consider capturing a dump (*) of the TSM client backup process, e.g.,
dsmcsc.exe, when the backup is in the "frozen" state, open a PMR with TSM
support, and send in the dump, the dsmerror.log, and the dsmsched.log.

(*) In case you are not familiar with capturing a dump: start task manager,
find the TSM client process that appears frozen, right-click on the
process, and select "Create Dump File".

Best regards,

- Andy

____________________________________________________________________________

Andrew Raibeck | Tivoli Storage Manager Level 3 Technical Lead |
storman AT us.ibm DOT com

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager links:
Product support:
http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Overview/Software/Tivoli/Tivoli_Storage_Manager

Online documentation:
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGSG7/welcome
Product Wiki:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home/wiki/Tivoli%20Storage%20Manager

"ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU> wrote on 2015-03-06
11:28:19:

> From: "Schaub, Steve" <Steve_Schaub AT BCBST DOT COM>
> To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Date: 2015-03-06 11:29
> Subject: VE 7.1.1.1 backup "freezing" a VM & question about "megablocks"
> Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
>
> First, many thanks to Wanda & others who have been so helpful in
> answering my previous VE questions!
>
> We had a situation yesterday where 2 VE backups were causing the
> VM's to go unresponsive.  No response to ping, unable to RDP, etc.
> As soon as the backup finished (or was killed in one case), the
> servers picked back up where they left off.  They never rebooted,
> but you can actually see in the Windows event logs a gap where no
> activity happens.  Has anyone seen this behavior before?  VE is at
> 7.1.1.1, the Hosts are ESXi 5.0 U2, vCenter is 5.5, windows 2008R2.
>
> Secondly, while reading the docs, I ran across the idea of
> performing periodic full backups in VE due to fragmentation of
> "megablocks"?  Is this needed?  If so, how do you manage it (how
> frequently, do you try to scatter the fulls across every day, how do
> these interact with daily incrementals, etc)?  If it matters, all
> our backups land on a VTL.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Steve Schaub
> Systems Engineer II, Backup/Recovery
> Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee
> 423-535-6574 (desk)
> 423-785-7347 (cell)
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Please see the following link for the BlueCross BlueShield of
> Tennessee E-mail disclaimer:  http://www.bcbst.com/email_disclaimer.shtm
>