OFO fails after upgrade from 9.1 to 10.1: Snapshot error (0xE00084AF)

[Mark_Berry]

I have been backing up SBS 2003 SP1 with BE 9.1. I use the Advanced Open File Option on the C (system) and D (data) drives. It worked fine for both my weekly full backup to tape and my daily differential backup to disk.

Yesterday I upgraded to BE 10.1 with the OFO. This morning the differential backup failed with snapshot errors on both the C and D drives, as well as the Exchange First Information Store and the Shadow Copy Components. Each failed store gave a message like this:

AOFO: Initialization failure on: "C:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE00084AF): The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed.

I was directed to

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/261831.htm

and have tried as many of its suggestions as possible (fixed 90% static disk, split the job for C and D, etc.), but the job has failed five more times with the same error.

According to the Job History, the successful jobs from 9.1 were also using the Microsoft VSS. I have no way to check the OFO settings that it was using under 9.1 (other than restoring a pre-10.1 backup), but unless the upgrade cleared the settings, everything was set to default.

Drive stats:

C: 10.2GB used, 4.2GB free
D: 27.0GB used, 25.6GB free
F: 97.0GB used, 14.7GB free

Drive F: is where disk backups are stored. Since its free space varies widely, I don't want to set it as a fixed OFO snapshot location.

Before the last failure, I deleted two instances of the Backup Exec AOFO Store folder. After the failure, I no longer see any instance of that folder.

How can I get OFO to work under 10.1 as it did under 9.1?

Thank you,

Mark

[shweta_rege]

Hello,


1. Veritas do not recommend to perform Backup of SQL or Exchange servers with AOFO option. You may refer to the following technote for more details,



http://support.veritas.com/docs/263784


2. Please refer to the following technote for next step of troubleshooting :



http://support.veritas.com/docs/194940




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.

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[Mark_Berry]

Thank you for your reply.

This worked fine in version 9.1. Here is the result of Thursday's job:

OFO: Started for device: "C:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
OFO: Started for device: "D:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
OFO: Started for device: "Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

----------------------------------------------

On Friday, after the upgrade to 10.1, the exact same job has these errors:

AOFO: Initialization failure on: "C:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE00084AF): The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

AOFO: Initialization failure on: "D:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE00084AF): The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\MYSERVER\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE00084AF): The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

AOFO: Initialization failure on: "Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE00084AF): The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
----------------------------------------------

The main job that ran over the weekend uses an expanded selection list in which the SQL agent does some backups. This generated the same error on these instances: root, BKUPEXEC, SBSMONITORING, and SHAREPOINT.
----------------------------------------------

Based on the artciles you mentioned, I tried the following:

1. Back up only drive D. OFO options are set to 90% and 2 seconds. This drive contains the SQL databases, but the SQL server is not included in the backup. The job hung until I stopped SQL Server; then it completed successfully. Note that in this case, Backup Exec decided to use Veritas VSP.

2. Next I tried to back up only Shadow Copy Components. This completed successfully using Microsoft VSS.

3. I am starting to think that Backup Exec no longer is automatically excluding database files. After reviewing document 259152, I checked for the Exclude Active Files registry key. It was not present, so I added it with a value of 1. Then I changed the OFO settings back to use all defaults (including 5 second quiet time) and re-ran the backup of drive D:. This time the backup also completed successfully. So perhaps the Exclude Active Files now defaults to FALSE? (In 9.1, it defaulted to TRUE.)

4. I tested the complete backup again (C:, D:, Exchange, and some SQL data via the SQL agent). Unfortunately, it failed again exactly as before.

By comparing the job logs from last Thursday and today, I noticed that with 9.1, the First Information Store was backed up, whereas with 10.1, it is no longer backed up; it only generates an error message.

The article you refer to, 263784, states "OFO and AOFO can be used for backing up database type files that Backup Exec does not offer an agent for." I have agents for SQL and Exchange, and I should not need an agent for Shadow Copy Components. I rely on Active File Exclusion to skip the database files when creating the snapshot. It does not seem like I should have to run two jobs each day, carefully selecting which files need OFO protection, and perhaps accidentally forgetting to back up a critical file.

This all worked fine under 9.1. How do I get it to work under 10.1?

Regards,

Mark Berry

[Shraddha_Dhaval]

Hi,

Please refer to the following document.

http://support.veritas.com/docs/279955


Hope this will help you.


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[Mark_Berry]

Hello,

Article 279955 is titled "The SQL databases are skipped after an upgrade to Backup Exec 10.0." As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with my Open File Option issue.

I look forward to your response to the issue described in my previous posts.

Mark

[Ashutosh_Tamhan]

Hello,

Have you upgraded your remote agents and reinstalled AOFO on the clients?

Please try creating a separate job of once of the resources and observe the results!

Regards, Ashutosh 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.

[Mark_Berry]

Yes, I upgraded the remote agents. The backup of _remote_ clients and server using remote agents is working fine.

The failures are happening on the SBS server itself, which is where Backup Exec, SQL and Exchange are installed. I double-checked the BE agent licenses with BEUtility and all agents are licensed.

I have been able to work around the issue by creating one job with OFO to back up my disk partitions, and another job without OFO to back up SQL, Exchange, and the Shadow Copy Components.

This still does not explain why the combined backups (with OFO) that worked fine under 9.1 are no longer possible under 10.1. Any job I had under 9.1 now has to be split into two jobs under 10.1, essentially doubling the administration effort.

There is no reason that OFO can't be smart enough to know when to ignore a partition in a job. Apparently this is what it was doing under 9.1.

Please report this bug so that OFO can once again be used on ANY job.

Mark

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

Run the sgmon before running the backup job.

How to create SGMON.LOG
<<>>

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.

[Mark_Berry]

What would I do with the SGMON log if I were to create it? The job runs for several hours before it completes with the failure message.

[Gauri_Ketkar]

Hi

This is the correct way of backing as you have SBS !

" I have been able to work around the issue by creating one job with OFO to back up my disk partitions, and another job without OFO to back up SQL, Exchange, and the Shadow Copy Components "


Also refer to the technote given in the first thread explaining intended use of AOFO!

Revert for any further Query
Hope this will help you


Thank you
Gauri