A problem rhat should be addressed in VSR 23.1 (and older versions)

[CQ]

Hi,

I work in a shop that exclusively uses Dell desktop and laptop computers.  As most of you know, generally several partitions are configured.  Examples would be a drive recovery image partition, various support partitions, etc.  Dell has a habit of leaving little room in some of their partitions.  In some cases, that makes a VSS Snapshot impossible.  In such cases, you either need to expand the partitions or make a separate independent image of the partitions.  As a habit, I have VSR send me emails of errors, successful images, etc.  For recovery points, I do an image every day and create a  new recovery point set  twice a month.  For the daily, incremental images, I count how many emails I receive from VSR.  When all is well, I receive the same number every day.  This assures me all was imaged properly,  Recently, I noticed my email was short one message.  Upon further investigation, I found that VSR stopped making an image of the Dell Support partition.  Turns out, a Dell upgrade I ran to that partition made it impossible to use VSS anymore because of inadequate free space.. Two days of images ignored the partition AFTER I had done Dell updates.  I am sure other computer brands might have similar issues.

The problem:

VSR did not warn me in ANYWAY that the job was no longer imaging that partition.  No email or any pop up error when the job runs. The job just ran normally.  If I had not caught it, the problem would have continued.  I found 1 job on a different pc where a partition had not been imaged for over 230 days because a VSS snapshot would no longer run because of free space issues.  When I opened job settings, VSR immediately told me about the partition that lacked space for a VSS Snapshot.  Easy enough to fix IF I knew about it.

I strongly suggest this problem be addressed in a future release.   In the interim, I will recheck jobs after Dell updates a partition.  If I am missing something here, comments are appreciated. 

Thanks,

CQ

[akihiro1]

What kind of partition is skipped from the backup job? Is it the FAT 32 partition in pre-installed OS by DELL?
Is the partition included as backup sources when editing the backup job after skipping the partition from backups?
To resolve the issue, did you manually include the partition in the existing backup job again? 

[CQ]

The Pre-installled OS Image partition is NTFS and is used to restore the computer to an OOBE state.   This partition cannot be included in a Recovery Point Set job because the partition lacks enough free space for a successful VSS snapshot.  Specifically, the partition is 12,70 GB in size but only has 227.63 MB of free space.  You need at least 320 MB of free space. This is common in Dell machines and the issue is resolved by simply creating an Independent Recovery Point job for the partition.  You receive the following error when trying to add a partition which lacks free space to a Recovery Point set:

The specific issue is with a partition that WAS part of a Recovery Point Set job but NO LONGER has enough free space for a VSS snapshot.  In my case, the DellSupport  partition (NTFS) lost free space during a Dell update, Dell must have added additional data  to the partition.  The partition now only has 63.60 MB of free space left and a VSS snapshot can no longer be done.  VSR 23.1 simply STOPPED imaging that partition when running the Recovery Point Set job with NO WARNING there is now an issue with the Recoveyr Point Set job.  My solution was to simply add the DellSupport partition to the Independent Recovery Point job  and remove it from the Recovery Point Set job. 

My point is that VSR 23.1 should have Warned me there was an issue when the DellSupport partition could no longer be imaged.  I can't solve a problem unless I know about it!  As I said in my original post, this issue could have continued indefinitely.  You think all your data is being properly imaged when, in fact, it is not.

I hope this clarifies the issue.

Thanks,

CQ