FSAUtility.exe not retrieving items

[DPJayJay]

I have come into some extreme file system archive retrieval issues, in that some users open a file, it fails first time, them opens second time.  Most of the time a 20491 event log entry is logged on the file server stating:

Error Catastrophic failure [0x8000ffff]

While I try to resolve the performance issues and errors, I have tried to use FSAUtlity to restore files to their orginal location.  for example:

fsautility -t -s \\fileserver.com\home$\user1

However, none of the files are restored, the log shows a high number of errors:

<Item>
      <Item>.\picture.jpg</Item>
      <ErrorCode>File exists</ErrorCode>
</Item>

And a DTRACE with FSAUtility set to verbose shows no information highlighting that files have been successfully recovered.

Can anyone help shed some light on what to look for?  Documentation on the "File Exists" error is lacking and verbose output shows nothing.

[Gonz]

Are you dtracing not only fsautility but also EVFileSrvArcMngr, that process is the one that actually performs the operation.

Another suggestion.

Try to recover one single file with fsautility -t -f

-f stands for force mode and this will you will overwrite existing placeholders and files when names match.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[DPJayJay]

I get the following:

928,362 20:23:57.758 [8,052] (EVFileSvrArcMngr) <6308> EV-M {FileServerArchiveManager.KVS.EnterpriseVault.FileServerArchive.IFileServerClient.RestoreFile} Exception: The file: \\?\UNC\fileserver.com\Home$\User1\File.xls already exists in the restore location and will not be replaced ...

a view of Windows Explorer shows the file still with its O attribute, and it fails when the user tries to open it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as this likely spans across 3500 user home drives!!

[DPJayJay]

And if I try with -t -f

C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault>fsautility -t -f "\\fileserver.com\home$\user1\file.xls"

Error: Invalid user switch for -t (Restore original files) option.

[DPJayJay]

I get the following:

Restore files
Folder      : \\fileserver.com\home$\User1\file.xls
Error: The path  \\fileserver.com\home$\User1\file.xls
 is not associated with an archived volume. If you migrated placeholders to this location, let the Fil
e System Archiving task process the volume, then stop the task and re-run this command

[samkad]

Can you try restoring a single file from vault store first ? This will help us to find out whether your archive is intact and file got archived properly. 

Using archiveexplorerui.asp navigate to the folder  and the file you want to restore and right-click to select restore file -> original location.  check if the file gets restored correctly by opening it.

[DPJayJay]

As per recommendations to prevent external OWA users accessing file system archives via OWA when not on the network.

I have also let a full archive task run against all these folders (took over 24 hours to complete), ans still get the same results.

[DPJayJay · Accepted solution]

I have now tried using FSAUtlity –b –s “<Path>” –recurse and this has worked recalling all the files associated with the placeholders.

Now resolved.

Thanks for your help in this! :)