Problems with SystemState backup of a 2008 servers placed behind a firewall

[Anders_Refsahl]

Hi

I have al lot of trouble with taking backup of some 2008 servers behind a firewall.
We has opend the ports listed in the admin guide, and are able to run backup of files.

But I get al lot of errors of files that can't be backed up because they are in use, and I can't take a backup of SystemState.

I have tried to turn off the local firewall, but with no help.
I have run vssadmin list writers, and all the writhers are listed with no error.
And a reboot of the server did not help either.

Do you know if VSS uses any spesific udp/tcp ports I can open in the firewall?
Or anything else I haven't tried?

The error from backup exec, tells me to look at the lokal error in the event log at the server.
But there isn't any VSS error in the Eventlog.

Here are the job error:

Job Completion Status
Job ended: 9. juni 2009 at 15:03:15
Completed status: Failed
Final error: 0xe0008524 - Unable to initialize the snapshot because the Advanced Open File Option (AOFO) is not installed on the target computer. You must install this option, restart the computer, and then run the job again.
Final error category: System Errors

For additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-34084

Errors
Click an error below to locate it in the job log

Backup- <servername>

V-79-57344-34084 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot provider error (0xE0008524): Unable to initialize the snapshot because the Advanced Open File Option (AOFO) is not installed on the target computer. You must install this option, restart the computer, and then run the job again.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

V-79-57344-34084 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "System?State". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot provider error (0xE0008524): Unable to initialize the snapshot because the Advanced Open File Option (AOFO) is not installed on the target computer. You must install this option, restart the computer, and then run the job again.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

[CraigV]

Check this guy's post...

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/using-backup-exec-firewalls

If it works, kudos to him! =)

[Anders_Refsahl]

Thanks, but all "normal" backup jobs is ok.
It's just the jobs that it needs the VSS that fails, eg. SystemState and OpenFiles.

[MitchR]

To ask a stupid question - are you sure it's the firewall causing the problem?  You might try opening up all ports between your BE server and the 2008 server, and then running a backup job.

My hunch is that it might not be the firewall, and there's something else going on here.  Not sure exactly what, though.