BESR 8.5 for server not seeing one of my drives

[Complog]

         Install BESR on my windows Server 2008 Std server.  It sees all my drives except for one.  It just so happens that drive is a mirror drive.  Running the windows 2008 internal driver for the nvidia raid controller on the Motherboard (nothing new for manufacturer for Win 2008).  Is there some trick to getting it to see the drive?

[Andreas_Horlach]

Is the drive showing up as a fixed disk in the disk manager? Is it showing as healthy? BESR is enumerating the drives using through Windows DM, so if Windows shows the drives correctly, we should pick up on it.

[Complog]

     Yes it shows up in disk mamanger as healthy.   The drive is a dynamic drive compared to the other drives as basic.  Drive works fine from windows everywhere else.  That is what is so confusing.

[Andreas_Horlach]

What you are describing does not sound out of the ordinary, other than you are attempting to image a dynamic disk. (http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/322695.htm)

We most likely need to analyze the BESR log files and compare the way BESR is seeing the drive versus how Windows is. Is it possible to open a ticket through technical support. From there, the logs can be attached and the data analyzed.

[marcogsp]

Complog -- May I ask why this disk was converted to a dynamic disk in the first place.  I once met an admin who was under the false impression that in order to have a mirrored drives, that the drives had to be dynamic disks.  This may be true if the mirror is a software RAID mirror, but not if a bona fide RAID controller is used. 

The technote that Andreas H. references mentions using the SRD to restore and preserve a dynamic disk.  Is this disk visible in the recovery environment while booted from the SRD?   I have restored BESR images of dynamic disks to  to basic disks without dynamic conversion or ill effects. 

[Complog]

         I can do that.  Where do I need to get that trouble ticket opened?

[Complog]

    Frankly I don't remember.  I am fully aware of the Raid issue and until I reloaded this server with windows 2008 server it worked fine.  I was using BESR to backup this raid array.  It was when I went to Windows 2008 server that it seems have started with the problem. 

[Andreas_Horlach]

I should have mentioned this right off -- make sure that you have the latest build of BESR installed (8.5.3). There were some issues addressed that had to do with the way BESR sees the drives.

[marcogsp]

Regardless of what version you have, could you run the VBS code below and report the results?   Just save the code to a file named EnumerateVols.vbs and run it from the command line with:  "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cscript.exe" EnumerateVols.vbs.

If the BESR automation objects see your missing volume as a valid mountpoint, then it should enumerate it.  If the scipt finds a volume it can't enumerate, then it wil report that as well.


'EnumerateVols.vbs

Option Explicit

Dim sServerName, sVolumesArray
Dim oV2iAuto, oTempVolume
Dim oWshShell

Set oWshShell = WScript.CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" )
sServerName = oWshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings( "%COMPUTERNAME%" )

Set oV2iAuto = CreateObject("Symantec.ProtectorAuto")
Call oV2iAuto.Connect(sServerName)

'Enumerate the Mounted Volumes

For Each oTempVolume In oV2iAuto.Volumes(False)

On Error Resume Next

WScript.Echo "BESR sees drive letter: " & oTempVolume.MountPoint
WScript.Echo "Can " & oTempVolume.MountPoint & " be imaged = " & oTempVolume.Valid & VbCrLf

If Err <> 0 Then
Err.Clear
WScript.Echo "BESR has found a volume that can't be enumerated"

End If

Next

Set oTempVolume = Nothing
Set oV2iAuto = Nothing
Set oWshShell = Nothing

[Complog]

     I already had ran live update to current.  So I am sitting at current.

[Andreas_Horlach]

Contact technical support. It is best to do so by opening a web ticket, or to call 1-800-634-4747.

[Complog]

   Tried your script and get an error "activex component can't create object: 'Symantec.ProtectorAuto'.

[marcogsp]

Complog--When running this script from a Windows 2008 system, make sure you are using the 32 bit version of Cscript.exe.  It is located in the \Windows\SysWOW64 folder.

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/293928.htm

When you get this script to run, you'll know if BESR can see your "missing" drive prrogramatically vs seeing through the GUI.  It might offer some useful info for your support ticket with Symantec Tech support.

[Complog]

Here was the output.  The one nost listed is drive N:  and I imagine it is the one listed at the bottom as BESR has found a volume that can't be enumerated.

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

BESR sees drive letter: P:\
Can P:\ be imaged = True

BESR sees drive letter: C:\
Can C:\ be imaged = True

BESR sees drive letter: O:\
Can O:\ be imaged = True

BESR has found a volume that can't be enumerated

[marcogsp]

Is it safe to assume that drive N: is the Mirrored drive that the BESR GUI is not seeing?  If so, the we know that BESR can not see the drive at the code level.  If either of the other drives is the drive not showing up in the GUI, then we know ther is something wrong with the way the code is presenting the drive to the GUI for presentation.

I usually see "BESR has found a volume that can't be enumerated"  on workstations more than servers.  I've also found that this code will not enumerate a USB external drive even when a drive letter is mapped to it.    The od thing is that I can see these external drives in the GUI.  Would  the drive that can't be seen happen to be an external drive, USB or otherwise?

[Complog]

        Nope internal drive N: is 2 WD SATA internal drives using Nvidia Raid.  Mirrored.  Nothing Fancy.  GUI sees the drive fine.  Drive manager in computer management sees it fine.  The only problem I have with this drive is in BESR.  Keep in mind that this drive worked fine in BESR while the system was formated in Server 2003.  I reformated the C Drive with windows server 2008 and then suddenly BESR would not work with this drive. 

[marcogsp]

Which probably brings us back to what Andreas was saying about how BESR sees the drives vs Windows.  Hopefully the folks at Symantec Tech Support have a simple solution.  In the mean time my brain is enjoying the challenge.

If I remember correctly Server 2008 installs the MS ISCSI initiator by default.  Sometimes the ISCSI initiator doesn't play nice with dynamic disks.  If active, try stopping the ISCSI initiator and restarting the Backup Exec System Recovery Service to see if that changes the view.  Some questions:

• What kind of data exits on Drive N:?  If databases, can they  be restored to the same path after stopping the associated database services?
• Am I correct in assuming that only one partition/volume exists in the mirrored. drives?  Could this drive structure be restored to a basic configuration within the limits of primary partition and extended partition limitations.
• Would it be possible to boot to the SRD and see if the recovery environment can see Drive N?  You might have to supply the driver for the nVidia RAID controller because I'm not sure if it exists on the SRD.  Just use the Server 2008 driver you already found.  If the drive can be imaged in the recovery environment, it will be a snap to restore the data to a basic disk

If this server were in my environment, I think it would be worth trying to revert to a basic disk configuration.  The instructions assume that imaging from the SRD was unsuccessful.

•  Fully document the volume info, stop any services required.
• Copy or move the data to another location for safekeeping.
• In the Disk Management, remove the volumes on the mirrored drive, right click the dynamic disk and choose Revert to Basic Disk.
• Recreate the partition and drive letter configuration
• Copy the data to the new drive structure from the safekeeping location. Restart any applicable services.

If imaging from the SRD was successful, then restoring the data to a basic disk is just a modification of the technote which Andreas already referenced:

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/322695.htm

Instead of converting the "cleaned" drive to dynamic, just restore the image to the cleaned drive.  The restore wizard will prompt to initialize the "cleaned" disk.  Proceed with the restore and be sure to select the option to restore the drive signature.  I've converted a few dynamic disks to basic with this method with no ill effects.

Of course none of this explains why BESR can't see Drive N after upgrading to Server 2008.  It would just allow the Vista/Server 2008 code base to create the drive and see if that has any positive effect.  It's alot of work, but if your case with Symantec Tech Support doesn't pan out, it may be worth trying.

[Complog]

     Solved it earlier today.  Decided I would just copy the data to one of my other drives.  I then removed the parition recreated as basic disc.  Copied data back and bam.  Works like a champ.  Don't know what is going on there but it works now.  I also found that one of my other drives was also set as dynamic and it was fine.  All the other data drives came over from the 2003 server.  Not sure why it made a big deal with the mirrored drive, but there it is anyway.  Got tired of trying to solve this any other way.  Figured if it was something from the old load messing with me cleaning the drive and setting back up in the new environment would do the trick.  It did.