EventID 34113: too busy to quiesce to take the snapshot

[JaapB]

Hi,

We want to make VMDK backups of VMs hosted on a VMware ESXi 5.1 host but get the following error:

• unable to create a snapshot of the virtual machine. The virtual machine may be too busy to quiesce to take the snapshot

We use two backup servers in our environment which face this problem. One with Windows 2003 R2/BE2010 R3 and the other with Windows 2008 R2/BE2012. Both Windows and BE are fully patched.

The VMs don't have VMware tools or BE agent installed. With the VMware Vsphere Client it is possible to make a quiesce snapshots.

Any help will be appreciated.

JaapB

[CraigV]

Hi,

Check the TNs below:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH129724

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH146397

I also assume that you have SP3 for BE 2010 R3 and SP2 for BE 2012 installed?

EDIT: Get the latest SPs below if not:

http://buex.ec/2010SP3

http://buex.ec/2012SP2

Thanks!

[JaapB]

Those two SPs are already installed otherwise ESXi 5.1 is not supported.

I have been through these TNs already but will look into them again. Maybe i overlooked something.

[Jaydeep_S]

Backup Exec requires VMWare Tools to be installed on the Virtual machines. Could you try installing it and see if that works.

Alternatively, disable Application GRT on the Backup jobs.

[JaapB]

Installed VMware tools and disabled GTR. Same error.

[lmosla]

Hello JaapB, If you haven't already, try recreating the jobs? 

[Kunal_Mudliyar1]

Have you installed the VMware tools without the VSS /filesync driver?

Can you reboot the VM?

Can you install a remote agent on the VM and try the backup  again?

[MusSeth]

Hello JaapB,

could you please check if there are any existing snapshots present, if snapshots are present please remove those snapshots and than try,

if snapshots are removed and still facing the same issue, in browse VM folder the one in question in datastore and check for a delta file which is created with snapshot which needs to deleted when snapshot is deleted, if file is present please delete that file and than try with a backup job.

Please have a look at VMware article http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1005049

hope this resolves your issue

[JaapB]

VSS is not installed. Rebooted the server and installed the remote agent. Backup failed again with the same error.

[JaapB]

Recreated the job, but it did not help. Same error.

[JaapB]

No snapshots or delta files are available on this ESXi 5.1 host. VMDK backup still fails. 

As a test i'm thinking about moving the VM to a ESXi 5.0 host.

[MusSeth]

Are you facing this issue with specific vm or with all the vms...and vm in question is it windows or linux....

[JaapB]

We are facing this issue with all the VMs on the ESXi 5.1 host. Two VMs are Linux VMs (Centos, Ubuntu) and one Windows 2012.

We have this issue for a while but we knew ESXi 5.1 was not supported. We thought the issue would be solved by installing the lastest SP for BE.

[Kunal_Mudliyar1]

Do you have the Vstorage API license installed?

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH196047

[MusSeth]

@jaapb as suggested by kunal please check if vstorage api license is installed or not...as the license is needed to be on esx in order to backup vms from esx...

[JaapB]

vStorage api is not installed on the ESXi 5.1 host. This host is just running the free version for test purposes.

We are using this box to test if our BE environment can backup ESXi 5.1. If it's working we intend to upgrade our vCenter 5.0 environment.  

If this api is needed, why can we backup VMs from a ESXi 5.0 host that also not contains the vstorage api?

[Kunal_Mudliyar1]

Dear JaapB

Vstorage api is used by backup exec to talk to Vmware and pull the vmdk data while the VM is running.

If this is missing this process fails and the backup will fail.

Can you try to use a trial version of Vstorage api and test this backup?

[JaapB]

We will give it a try and report back after the weekend.

Still we don't understand why we are able to backup VMs from ESXi 5.0 that not has the vStorage Api installed.

[MusSeth]

You can have look at this thread this might be helpful https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/error0xe000959a-vmware-x-backup-exec-2012

[Kunal_Mudliyar1]

May be Esxi 5.0 has the vstorage api license integrated with the full license