cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

VM backup failing with error code 156

AnilaReddy
Level 3

Hi All,

 

I have one master server which is configured with DD Boost, in that few of the VM backups failing with error code 156, i checked vss writers status on server seems all writers are stable.

Master server OS & NBUversion: HP UX & 7.5.0.6
Client OS & NBU version: Windows 2008 R2 & 7.5.0.4

I found some error in event logs on server as below, kindly suggest what else need to check to fix issue.

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error DeviceIoControl(\\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b} - 0000000000000464,0x00560000,0000000000000000,0,00000000002487A0,4096,[0]).  hr = 0x80070001, Incorrect function.

Operation:
   Exposing Recovered Volumes
   Locating shadow-copy LUNs
   PostSnapshot Event
   Executing Asynchronous Operation

Context:
   Device: \\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
   Examining Detected Volume: Existing - \\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
   Execution Context: Provider
   Provider Name: VMware Snapshot Provider
   Provider Version: 1.0.0
   Provider ID: {564d7761-7265-2056-5353-2050726f7669}
   Current State: DoSnapshotSet

6 REPLIES 6

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

You forgot to tell us about the server/client used as Backup Host. And forgot to show us all text in Details tab of one of these failed jobs.

Have you confirmed that vmtools is up to date on the VMs?

Have you created log folders on the Backup Host?

bpfis is the 1st log that is needed to troubleshoot snapshot errors.
VxMS logs may also be needed.
See Troubleshooting chapter in NetBackup 7.5.0.x for VMware Administrator's Guide  http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5605 for log folder details.

The other place to look is in vCenter GUI - any errors in the log when snapshot is attempted?
Can you take a snapshot of the VM from here?
 

Michael_G_Ander
Level 6
Certified

The floppy entry can be ignored in my experience unless there is a "floppy" mounted on the VM. In 90% of status 156 cases I have had, the solution has been to increase the shadow storage area(s). Usually start with around 10 GB for Windows 2008 is there is disk space enough

My way of checking the shadow storage size, is to take a VM snapshot with quiesce file system checked

 

The standard questions: Have you checked: 1) What has changed. 2) The manual 3) If there are any tech notes or VOX posts regarding the issue

AnilaReddy
Level 3

Hi Marianne,

I have disabled queasing and submitted job, backup completed, as per my knowledge if backup submitted after disabling queasing its issue with VM Tools.

Since i have engaged VM Team to verify/upgrade VM Tools for server.

I Dont have access to vCenter GUI, so i'm not able to verify my self.


I will update status one i succed with this issue, Thanks for your help.

suhas_kakade
Level 3
Partner Accredited

make sure that the VMware tools are installed on each virtual machine.
Otherwise, communication problems and other issues can result.

NetBackup may not be able to obtain the volume ID of a drive. so none of the
virtual machine drives are backed upand backup fails

you cannot run more than one backup per virtual machine at a time. If you start a second
backup of the virtual machine while the first backup is active, the second job fails. wait until first job complete and after that run second one.

reduce the number of volumes within the virtual machine.

AnilaReddy
Level 3

Hi Suhas,

Thanks for your reply, i have one doubt here.

for physical machines we can run backup jobs at once for one server, but server performence will go slow and abckup will take time to finish.

What is restricting for VM servers to run multiple jobs at once ? 
do we have any option to restrict jobs for VM server? 
what is the default option for VM server? where we can find the option?

If we run more than one job for VM machine why it failing? what is the error code can we expect?

 

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified
You need to work with VM admins here, check logs on backup host as well as vCentre logs. Concurrent backup limitations is all about resource limitations on Vmware side such as space for snapshots, IO contention on datastores, ESX server limitations, etc. Read up about Resource Limits in NBU for Vmware Admin Guide.