Backup Exec 2012 hangs with USB harddisk and state Active

[A_O_]

Problem:

An USB harddisk is getting spontaneously a status "Offline" according to the messages from Backup Exec en Windows application Log.

Within 1 min (!) the USB disk is getting again spontaneously a status “OK” according to the Backup Exec but has in the same time state “Active” and no backups are possible anymore. Backup Exec 2012 hangs and also the administrator is getting no messages about failing of the backup.

Only killing of Backup Exec Engine service which is hanging and stopping/restarting afterwards all rest of the services of Backup Exec can resolve the problem of  hanging of Backup Exec.

How to avoid this problem? It happens very often.

[CraigV]

Download and run b2dtest.exe to make sure that the external USB drive is actually supported as a B2D location for Backup Exec.

Thanks!

[pkh]

1) Is the USB drive plugged in directly to the media server?

2) Is it functioning correctly in the Windows Device Manager?

3) You might want to try another USB cable and another USB port.  I am sure you have experienced USB connection problems due to these items.

[VJware]

In addition to the above, pls ensure

1) BE 2012 is patched up with Sp4

2) Try recreating the Disk Storage in the UI. Disable and then delete the storage from the UI. Remove the .cfg files from the actual USB drive. And then run the configure storage wizard in BE and create the Disk Storage.

3) Disable write caching for the USB drive from Windows Device Manager

4) Disable the option to pre-allocate disk space incrementally from the UI - Storage - Disk Storage properties.

[A_O_]

Thanks a lot for all suggestions!

- to run b2dtest.exe is not necessary I think because these USB harddisks are used also for the successful backups

- I have changed the USB cable and USB port to be sure.

- In addition, I see that Volume Shadow Copy Services at the Backup Exec server have also problems with the writers, time-outs.  Because of that backup of the Backup Exec server itself is also failed several times. Restart of corresponding services does not help.

Maybe is this the reason for hanging of the next USB harddisk? How to resolve in this case the problem with VSS writers?

P.S.

VSS writers state:

vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command

(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'

   Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}

   Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}

   State: [1] Stable

   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'

   Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}

   Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}

   State: [1] Stable

   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'

   Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2}

   Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381}

   State: [1] Stable

   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'System Writer'

   Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}

   Writer Instance Id: {b7412ff5-0908-42f0-aedc-6e6be1a190ca}

   State: [7] Failed

   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'

   Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}

   Writer Instance Id: {17c6ca7d-d772-4f28-a5e4-2f489d1c1b31}

   State: [1] Stable

   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'

   Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}

   Writer Instance Id: {b99c504c-9ac4-4688-859a-f7089514d16d}

   State: [7] Failed

   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'

   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}

   Writer Instance Id: {e66bde60-c08c-4b3d-9d26-a3dec8a34825}

   State: [7] Failed

   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'IIS Config Writer'

   Writer Id: {2a40fd15-dfca-4aa8-a654-1f8c654603f6}

   Writer Instance Id: {353a4780-a784-412b-8f94-ea877425c03a}

   State: [7] Failed

   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'

   Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}

   Writer Instance Id: {587107f1-b081-4226-9346-06901bd3afc0}

   State: [7] Failed

   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'

   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}

   Writer Instance Id: {98bafc6f-b91a-4c4f-89ce-954b2d6de49b}

   State: [7] Failed

   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'

   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}

   Writer Instance Id: {1791e77a-f261-458a-99e2-91044be9e1e6}

   State: [7] Failed

   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'IIS Metabase Writer'

   Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}

   Writer Instance Id: {43109fec-fa23-4010-9584-f2683cc50f59}

   State: [7] Failed

   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'BITS Writer'

   Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}

   Writer Instance Id: {3247317f-5ad6-4bdd-8f07-89ea19018e53}

   State: [1] Stable

   Last error: No error

[pkh]

1. You need to reboot the server to clear the writers problem. 2 Enable Shadow Copies on the volume and specify no disk space limit

[A_O_ · Accepted solution]

I have restarted the server. No problems anymore with VSS writers.

The USB harddisk is cleaned through command line (cmd) as follows:

diskpart

list disk

select disk x (x is USB harddisk)

clean

and further USB harddisk.is initialized through Windows Server Manager - Disk Management as GPT instead of MBR and formatted as NTFS.

Full backup of Backup Exec server is now finished with success at this USB harddisk.

I hope that the backup will be successful tomorrow with another USB harddisk!

[A_O_]

Indeed, the backup is now also running good at the following USB-harddisks.

Thanks a lot for all yours suggestion!