Backup Exec 2010 - Exchange 2010 vmware backup fails due to too busy to quiesce to take snapshot

[Vantage47]

Hi There,

 I am trying to perform a VMWare backup of Exchange 2010 but it fails with the following errror:

vcmexc2 vmbkup -- The job failed with the following error: Unable to create a snapshot ofthe virtual machine. The virtual machine may be too busy to quiesce to take the snapshot.

I am able to backup all the other Virtual Machines without any problem but it always fails on Exchange with the above error.

We have done a couple of snapshots through vCentre, would this be an issue? Could there be a conflict between the two?

Thanks

Matt

[teiva-boy]

Delete your snapshots, and try again.  Snapshots in vCenter are a bad idea and should only be used temporarily for a few hours or days once your maintenance is done.  It causes lots of extra I/O writes and performance penalties when they are used.

[Vantage47]

Teiva-boy, thanks for the comments, we only used the snapshots once before we had a backup solution in place, now we are using backup exec we will use that instead.

I have deleted all the snapshots through vCentre and re-run the job but get the same error.

I have also restarted the VM Tools service as this was mentioned as being one of the solutions however i still get the same error.

I notice that when the backup job runs in BE it invokes a snapshot job anyway in vCentre, this is the error that is returned:

"A general system error occurred: protocol error from vmx"

I will try the VM forums as well but if anyone has any experience of this error your help would be appreciated.

cheers

matt

[alefesta]

Hi Vantage47,

could you please tell me what kind of protocol you use in the vcb script? Maybe these articles may help you:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100734...

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100955...

[teiva-boy]

BE2010, doesnt support VCB anymore.  It's 100% vStorage API's.

[alefesta]

well teiva boy indeed tyhe vStorage API is the correct name but it's just the new version of VCB and in any case it still continue to use a transport layer to backup VM.

As from the guide.. you have to set up the transport and it depends on which version of Vpshere you got.

ftp://exftpp.symantec.com/pub/support/products/Backup_Exec_for_WindowsNT/338514.pdf

[ZeRoC00L]

Probably you will have to remove the vmware VSS provider and installe the Symantec BE VSS Provider !

[teiva-boy]

It's NOT a new VCB, it's the replacement to it.  Entirely new technology.  

VCB was junk, and a poor fix to backing up the environment.  Though they were the ONLY vendor to offer a solution so that says something.

Never confuse the two, as they are totally different beasts in installation, setup, hardware requirements, OS's supported, and above all...  Performance.  vStorage is much faster as it does not require a proxy staging area to move data twice.

[STVA]

I had the same message and seen that on the selection list, when I look as "text only" I had an old line specifying an old VM that no longer exist. That causes this error, I removed this line and it solves the problem. hope it helps you

[ZeRoC00L]

Vantage:

See this article about removing the vmware VSS provider and installing the Symantec one:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH66073

[Vantage47]

hi

Thanks for your comments, apologies not updating sooner, Zerocool ill have a look at that article and hopefully that will resolve the problem, ill post the results whether it is successful or not.

thanks

[smtp25]

When I recieved this error I too checked out the VSS provider business .. none of that line of troubleshooting worked.

Solution for me: Delete and re-create the selection list.  backup worked perfectly after that.  Have 30 selection lists and they all had to be recreated .. they all failed at the same time so not sure what caused it, i'm suspecting a change in the way they were organised in Folders within vCentre