cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Exchange 2003 on Win 2K3 SP1 server hang during backup

peter_Milford
Level 2
Backup Exec 10.0 SP1 with HF 16, 14, and 7 on a Windows 2000Advanced SP4, Exabyte EZ17 M2 Library attached to Adaptec SCSI card. Intel 1000f NIC.

Server being backed up is Exchange 2003 Advanced Svr on Win2K3 Enterprise w/SP1. The drives are NTFS, RAID5 (2X 5 SCSI disks on an Adaptec 2000s RAID Controller). Inel 100/1000 NIC.

The problem is that the Exchange server freezes during backup. It is still pingable, but Exchange, IIS, remote desktop all are totally unresponsive. The system is still up but I cannot log in to shut it down as it is completely hung as if it were at 100% CPU. Have to hard boot it to bring it back to life. After it comes up, there are no error messages in the event log except for the server being shut down abruptly by myself.

This was originally happening during the mailbox backups. I also just tried backing up the “shadow copy components” and got the same issue.

I have now reinstalled the remote agent and run a new backup against the Exchange server. This time the mailbox and public folder backups completed successfully, but the Exchange server hung when the backup got to Microsoft information store\first storage group.

Here is from the logs:

AOFO: Started for resource: "\\POSTOFFICE\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
The following volumes are dependent on resource: "C:" "E:" "F:" .
The snapshot provider used by VSS for volume C: - Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0 (Version 1.0.0.7).
The snapshot provider used by VSS for volume D: - Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0 (Version 1.0.0.7).
The snapshot provider used by VSS for volume E: - Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0 (Version 1.0.0.7).
Note: Backup Exec did not perform a snapshot of all volumes simultaneously because the option 'Process logical volumes for backup one at a time' was selected as a backup job property.
Network control connection is established between 192.168.0.8:1255 <--> 192.168.0.6:10000
Network data connection is established between 192.168.0.8:1920 <--> 192.168.0.6:25419

The error message in the most recent backup exec job log is "An unexpected error occurred when cleaning up snapshot volumes. Confirm that all snapped volumes are correctly resynchronized with the original volumes."

I am also backing up 2 other Windows 2003 systems, one SP1 and one not and they are backing up fine (although they have no exchange and have a very small total file size). I have Use Advanced OFO option with automatically select open file technology selected. Under exchange I have “perform consistency check before backing up ….” And “continue with backup if consistency check fails”

Any suggestions?
3 REPLIES 3

John_Chisari
Level 6
Partner Accredited
Try the following:-

If you want to do Snapshot backups of Exchange
1. Uncheck the option to Process Logical Volumes for Backup one at a time.
2. Do not do a consistency check either before or after the backup.

If you do not want to do Snapshot backups of Exchange (I think this is probably a good idea, will explain after) - then uncheck Use Advance Open File in the backup job that does the Exchange IS.
The main reason I suggest not doing Snapshot backups of Exchange is for the reason of restore.
You cannot restore a Snapshot backup to the Recovery Storage Group, you cannot restore a Snapshot backup to an Exchange server with a different name.

Shilpa_pawar_2
Level 6
Hi,

As suggested earlier deselect AOFO if you are not taking snapshot backup of exchange. Create 2 separate jobs for exchange and other data.

Also refer this technote:
http://support.veritas.com/docs/257796

NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked "assumed answered" and would be moved to "answered questions" pool.

peter_Milford
Level 2
This was resolved by disabling AOFO for the backups for that server and not attempting to back up shadow copy components. While this resolves the issue of being able to back up the information without the server crashing and I can carry on, I does not really resolve the problem if I intended to do shadow copy or snapshot backups.