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glum's avatar
glum
Level 4
13 years ago

Unable to quiesce an application and granularity of logs

Hi!

 

When I try to make backups of VMware virtual machines (guests), it always fails with the following error:

Final error: 0xe000959a - An attempt to take a snapshot of a virtual machine failed because it was unable to quiesce an application.

I have had an active support case with Dell for nearly a year due to this instability, without getting any further.
Since the jobs seem to abort when one machine fails to make a snapshot, I divided my jobs into three groups -
such that I have a backup job for Windows-guests, Linux-guests and FreeBSD-guests. They all fail with the same
error message. One of my problems is that the log doesn't tell me which particular guest it was unable to make
a snapshot of. Is there a simple way to find this? I can browse through all my VMware guest logs in vCenter, but
that takes a lot of time.

Whether it fails or succeeds is random, and I can't find any pattern in which machines cause the job to fail.

So, my question is whether this is a known issue, and if there's a way to quickly find which guest caused the job
to stop?

2010
Backing Up
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
  • Backup_Exec1's avatar
    Backup_Exec1
    13 years ago

    Hi ,

    If it is failing on random guest intermittently please try doing the following

    1  Try taking a snapshot by using the vSphere client as (quiesce checked, snap memory unchecked) and check for logs. You can continue to test this way. No need to run backups.

    2 You can also look in the Summary tab of the virtual machine in the vSphere client and it will tell you whether the VMware Tools are up-to-date or not. If VMware tools are not upto date please update them.

    Moreover if it is random & if on most of occasion if it is working , then looking logs on vsphere for those random failure should help you with some information ,but looking at this I don't think could be an issue with backup exec

     

    Thanks

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  • Backup_Exec1's avatar
    Backup_Exec1
    Level 6
    13 years ago

    Hi

    Can you verify are you able to take snapahot of virtual machine from vcenter or vclient you are not able to take snapshot from there itslelf it would be an issue from Vmware side

     

    Thanks

  • glum's avatar
    glum
    Level 4
    13 years ago

    Yes, I am always able to make snapshots from within Virtual Center.

     

  • Botvitnik's avatar
    Botvitnik
    Level 3
    13 years ago

    Hi Glum.

    There are no information about NetBackup version and VMware version and OS version.

    I installed backup VMware I hope so version 4.1 by NetBackup 7.0.1 and 7.1.0.2 on Windows 2008R2.

    For off-host backup VMware machine I was using snapshot technology. I need VMware Centrum.

    Configuration backup VMware:
    From NetBackup Administration Console is need follow settings:

    - In NetBackup management \ Host Properties \ Master Server \ pbc1 we choice
    'Properties' a VMware backup hosts. Here we set name of the 'master backup server' as name VMware backup host and press OK. This set for master server who will backup all snapshost from VMware Centre.
    - From menu 'Media and Backup Management' \ Credentials \ 'Virtual Machine
       Servers' we set choice new 'name VMware centre' VMware Centre on port 443, as management for all VMware machines.
    - Next we create policy for backup VMware machines

    Policy has to set:
    • Typ 'FlashBackup-Windows',
    ◦ Some storage for backup
    ◦ Pool

    ◦ Mark 'Perform block level incremental backups'
    ◦ Mark  'Perform off-hosts backup'

    ◦ Use: VMware backup hosts
    ◦ Machine: 'name master backup server'
    ◦ Options: ▪ Client name selection: VM hostname
    ▪ Virtual machine backup: Mapped full VM backup
    ▪ Transfer type: Try all types
    ▪ Virtual machine quiesce: Enabled
    ▪ Exclude unused and deleted blocks: Enabled
    ▪ Existing snapshot handling: Ignore
    ▪ Next is for VCB and it is left default  'Disabled'.
    Press button OK.
    • Schedule as Full and time windows.
    • In Backup selections is put parametr ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES
    • Clients: Press New we got windows with 'Browse and Select Virtual Machine' . After some time we will see client tree and we can choice some clients

    - Press OK.
     

    Good luck.

    Frantisek

     

  • glum's avatar
    glum
    Level 4
    13 years ago

    Hello, and thanks for your feedback.

    The first link mostly concerns agents and registry settings, which are Windows-specific.
    The majority of my machines are Linux or FreeBSD-machines, and I have exactly the same
    quiesce-issues on those. I did review those settings and they appear correct.

    For the second link - yes, I have provided an administrator account (the job completes
    on most of my guests most of the time, but sometimes fails on a random guest).

    I was unable to figure out how to check whether my ESXi is licensed for vStorage API, however.

  • Backup_Exec1's avatar
    Backup_Exec1
    Level 6
    13 years ago

    Hi ,

    If it is failing on random guest intermittently please try doing the following

    1  Try taking a snapshot by using the vSphere client as (quiesce checked, snap memory unchecked) and check for logs. You can continue to test this way. No need to run backups.

    2 You can also look in the Summary tab of the virtual machine in the vSphere client and it will tell you whether the VMware Tools are up-to-date or not. If VMware tools are not upto date please update them.

    Moreover if it is random & if on most of occasion if it is working , then looking logs on vsphere for those random failure should help you with some information ,but looking at this I don't think could be an issue with backup exec

     

    Thanks

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    ...you already asked the OP in your first post to verify whether taking a snapshot in VMware was possible, and he stated all was OK...

  • glum's avatar
    glum
    Level 4
    13 years ago

    Ah, you are absolutely right. When I was testing this, I didn't have quiesce checked.
    The only message I can find in logs, however, is:

    "The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing. The error code was: 4 The error message was: Backup aborted."

    Perhaps there's some place I haven't looked? I better browse some VMware forums for that.


     

  • Backup_Exec1's avatar
    Backup_Exec1
    Level 6
    13 years ago

    Hi

     

    Yes I had asked OP in my first comment but in this comment though I am asking the same , I have asked that in detail and by selecting specific option as below

     Try taking a snapshot by using the vSphere client as (quiesce checked, snap memory unchecked)

    Thanks