Networker

[Networker] VSS/7.6.x.x

2012-02-16 15:22:58
Subject: [Networker] VSS/7.6.x.x
From: Eddie Albert <Eddie.Albert AT CITIZENSFLA DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:55:42 -0500
This subject has come up quite a bit for me lately. I thought I would
share what I have and see if any others have updates or more info they
would like to share?

Networker does not control VSS - it simply asks VSS for the files that
are open.  Microsoft VSS is problematic at times and I have seen many
times where VSS will not respond properly and Networker (or for that
matter any other backup software I have worked with) is just waiting for
the ack back and then the notification that the files are ready to be
backed up.

Having dealt with VSS issues since Windows 2000, I have compiled a list
of MS KB articles.  Here is what I have for Windows through 2008 (note
that some may not apply to our situation, but others may find them
useful):

Knowledge base articles - known Windows 2008 VSS issues:

SYMPTOM: VSS snapshot creation may fail after a LUN resynchronization on
a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 -
November 25, 2009
ENVIRONMENT: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976099


SYMPTOM: Backup fails with VSS Event ID 12292 and 11
ENVIRONMENT: Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
CAUSE: ServiceDll registry value for Swprv is missing or incorrect
SOLUTION: Edit the Registry following the steps in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2009513


No VSS writers are listed when you run the "vssadmin list writers"
command in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2009550
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2009533

Windows 2008 R2 64-bit backup failed
http://solutions.emc.com/emcsolutionview.asp?id=esg108377

System State backup using Windows Server Backup fails with error: System
writer is not found in the backup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2009272


A VSS hardware snapshot database keeps growing with duplicated
...(959476) - ... VSS) requestor instances with VSS hardware provider to
delete snapshots in Windows Server 2008 ... Important Windows Vista and
Windows Server 2008 hotfixes ...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959476

A snapshot may become corrupted when the Volume Shadow Copy ...(975688)
- Fixes a problem in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 in which a
snapshot may become corrupted when the VSS snapshots providers takes
more than 10 ...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975688

A virtual machine online backup fails in Windows Server 2008 R2 ... This
issue occurs because the Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Service (Hyper-V VSS
... Important Windows 7 hotfixes and Windows Server 2008 R2 hotfixes are
included in ...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2521348

You cannot safely remove volumes after you perform a VSS backup ...
(2487341) - ... files after you perform a Volume Shadow Copy Service
(VSS) backup operation in Windows Server 2008 SP2. ... Windows Vista
hotfixes and Windows Server 2008 hotfixes ...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2487341

Also, please note that not all of these fixes come with Windows update
and may be used on a case by case situation. Now, from the client side,
one thing you can do is to check on the status of VSS from the command
line using vssadmin.

Here are a couple of MS KB articles to get you started:

Vssadmin usage
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754968(WS.10).aspx

Manage Volume Shadow Copy Service from the Vssadmin Command-Line
            http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd348398.aspx

How to enable the Volume Shadow Copy service's debug tracing features in
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2008
            http://support.microsoft.com/kb/887013

Oh - one other thing we can do from both the server is to render the
daemon.raw file. To do this, make a copy of the /nsr/logs/daemon.raw
file - I typically rename the copy to be daemon_YYYYMMDD.raw.

>From the command line, navigate to the directory the copied daemon.raw
file is in, then run:
            nsr_render_log daemon_YYYYMMDD.raw >daemon_YYMMDD.log

ie. nsr_render_log daemon_20120127.raw >daemon_20120127.log

Semper fidelis et paratus, /ALE


-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On
Behalf Of bangrn
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 8:41 PM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: [Networker] Any one on 7.6.3.1 Networker server version?

Hi Iny,

Do you have any issues on savepnpc and VSS clients?
So the groups are not hung after applying the fix?

Pls advise what VSS issues you had before on W2k3 before you applied the
patch.

We are still on 7.6.2.2 and we got VSS hung backups. Expecting that the
7.6.3.1 will fix the issue.

thanks

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