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ERR - Unable to backup System State or Shadow Copy. Please check the state of VSS and associated Wri

DoubleP
Level 5

Hello,

Our master servers are linux 8.0, as are our media servers. The clients experiencing the issue are windows boxes. For the last three or four days, a few of our backup jobs are failing for clients using shadow copy. It's not all or them, just a few. Sometimes they're successful (partially--"1" code), but mostly they fail. Even the "successful" completions are showing a variation of "ERR - Unable to backup System State or Shadow Copy. Please check the state of VSS and associated Writers."

We've stopped/started NB services on the boxes. We've had our Windows SAs check things out--VSS is working, as are the writers.

Here is an example from the job details of the error:

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:49 AM - Info bpbrm (pid=21085) reading file list for client

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:50 AM - Info bpbrm (pid=21085) starting bpbkar on client

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:50 AM - connecting

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:50 AM - connected; connect time: 0:00:00

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:52 AM - Info bpbkar (pid=1684) Backup started

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:52 AM - Info bpbrm (pid=21085) bptm pid: 21126

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:52 AM - Info bpbkar (pid=1684) change time comparison:<disabled>

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:52 AM - Info bpbkar (pid=1684) archive bit processing:<enabled>

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:52 AM - Info bptm (pid=21126) start

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:52 AM - Info bptm (pid=21126) using 262144 data buffer size

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:52 AM - Info bptm (pid=21126) setting receive network buffer to 262144 bytes

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:52 AM - Info bptm (pid=21126) using 512 data buffers

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:54 AM - Info bptm (pid=21126) start backup

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:54 AM - Info bptm (pid=21126) backup child process is pid 21127

Aug 22, 2018 8:22:54 AM - begin writing

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:34 AM - Error bpbrm (pid=21085) from client client.company.com: ERR - Unable to backup System State or Shadow Copy. Please check the state of VSS and associated Writers.ERR - Unable to backup System State or Shadow Copy. Please check the state of VSS and associated Writers.ERR - Unable to backup System State or Shadow Copy. Please check the state of VSS and associated Writers.ERR - Unable to backup System State or Shadow Copy. Please check the state of VSS and associated Writers.INF - Estimate:-1 -1

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:34 AM - Error bpbrm (pid=21085) from client client.company.com: ERR - Unable to backup System State or Shadow Copy. Please check the state of VSS and associated Writers.INF - EXIT STATUS 69: invalid filelist specification

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:34 AM - Warning bpbrm (pid=21085) from client client.company.com: WRN - archive bits will NOT be cleared

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:35 AM - Critical bpbrm (pid=21085) unexpected termination of client client.company.com

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:35 AM - Error bptm (pid=21127) system call failed - Connection reset by peer (at ../child.c.1280)

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:35 AM - Error bptm (pid=21127) unable to perform read from client socket, connection may have been broken

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:38 AM - Info bptm (pid=21126) EXITING with status 42 <----------

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:38 AM - Error bpbrm (pid=21085) could not send server status message

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:39 AM - Info bpbkar (pid=1684) done. status: 42: network read failed

Aug 22, 2018 8:56:39 AM - end writing; write time: 0:33:45

 

---

 

Sometimes the error code is a 42, or 13, or 69

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Unfortunately, there was never a valid solution. The issue cleared up on its own (at least no one ever claimed they did anything). Magic!

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6

Lowell_Palecek
Level 6
Employee

Whenever you see this:

>Error bpbrm (pid=21085) from client...

... Look at the client logs for more information. In this case, do the following:

- Turn up the logging levels on the client. On the Logging screen set the general level to 5. On the Windows Client / Client Settings screen, set the level to 2. Make sure the bpbkar and bpfis files exist in NetBackup\logs.

- Run a backup.

- Check the bpfis and bpkar logs for information about the error and the sequence of actions leading up to it.

- Check the Windows application event log for VSS errors.

Mike_Gavrilov
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

1) Did you check VSS Writers state?  https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000037440  ?

2) Did you check if some bpbkar32 processes are still running on the client?

Guys, thanks for your responses. Yes, I checked the writer, I didn't get any errors. Right now I have support checking things out. 

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified
I have cleared the solution.
Please let us know once you have found a valid solution.

X2
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP   

Also, check how much free space is available on C:\? And if there is a limit on the size of shadow copy.

I had simiar failures on a couple of machines and found an event under Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System which indicated that the size limit of shadow copy was reached and it couldn't continue and the backup kept failing. Increased shadown copy limit/remove it, and the backup worked after that.

Unfortunately, there was never a valid solution. The issue cleared up on its own (at least no one ever claimed they did anything). Magic!