EventLog Mon :Symantec System Recovery Errors occured on Site

[Lane_Valenzuela]

Windows Server 2012

Error EC8F17B7: Cannot create recovery points for job:

Drive Backup of RECOVERY (*:\), OS (C:\). Error E4F3000E: Snapshot failure while using Volume Shadow Copy Service. Please check application event log for VSS errors.

Error code: VSS_E_FLUSH_WRITES_TIMEOUT (-2147212525). (UMI:V-281-3215-6071) Details: Source: Symantec System Recovery 

Keep getting this error when having automatic backup done. It works and then it doesnt work. Everything seems to show up fine. Is there a KB article I can read about this becuase I havent found one yet pertaining to this. Any help would be appreciated.

[TRaj]

Reboot and immediately run the same command again (C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin list writers) and see if the writers show as stable. We need to know the state of the writers before SSR begins to backup.

Also looks like VSS is not ON , Try checking Volume Shadow copy service and make sure it is turned ON.

Is this a VM ?

SSR version ?

Are all the backups failing full as well as incremental ?

If it is a VM checked this : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/843bea02-039e-4a3f-b030-1f972b169a88/win...

[Lane_Valenzuela]

Thank you for the Reply,

Yesterday after posting I foung some information and did vssadmin list writers and several of them where failed.

I did a server restart last night because business was running and couldn't do it while it was. Checked now and all writers are stable and I even see new writers listed as well, however Backup failed still because it went before scheduled restart I did. Will have to wait again tonight to see if works.

Volume Shadow Copy is set to Manual.

This isn't a VM its on Server running Windows Server 2012.

Version: 11.0.1.47662

All backups are failing.

[TRaj]

Please check the Event log and look if there is any flag waved after the SSR failure

Refer : http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH202930
 

Will await for a response.

[Lane_Valenzuela]

Get a warning at 8:10PM after the backup should start:

Volume Shadow Copy Warning: VSS spent 0x000000000040 seconds trying to flush and hold the volume \\?\Volume {91e86594-1986-11e3-93e8-806e6f6e6963}\. This might cause problems when other volumes in the shadow-copy set timeout waiting for the release-writes phase and it can cause the shadow-copy creation to fail. Trying again when disk activity is lower may solve this problem.

Then after that get a volsnap error:

The flush and hold writes operation on volume C: Timed out while waiting for the file system cleanup.

Then after that I get the first posted error I have in thread.

I notice Shadow copies are being made 7am and 12pm everyday would that be causing the VSS to timeout starting at 12pm? Could I switch it to 6-7pm before backup starts at 8pm to solve this issue?

Ran command vssadmin list shadowstorage:

Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 109gb (9%)

Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 111gb (9%)

Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 111gb(10%)

Also did vssadmin list shadows and was given a bunch of created shadow copies.

[TRaj]

I notice Shadow copies are being made 7am and 12pm everyday would that be causing the VSS to timeout starting at 12pm? Could I switch it to 6-7pm before backup starts at 8pm to solve this issue?

Yes try this

Also do you have a partitions named "Dell Utility" ? Can you let us know the partitions being backed up ?

Check disk management and compare the same on SSR as SSR has a option "show hidden drivers" , try enabling the same and check if it provides a hidden partition

Your  Shadowcopy storage is an issue.

To successfully create a shadow copy, at least one NTFS file system volume is required with at least 320 MB of free space. (The message for this event states that the minimum size is 300 MB, but the correct minimum size is 320 MB.) 

Please read this : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd364809(v=ws.10).aspx

The Used space should be much lower.. Did you check the existing shadow copies for the volume in Disk Mgmt?

 C: Properties --> Shadow Copies tab

 Set storage to no limit and try again.

Will await for a response.

[Lane_Valenzuela]

I checked Partitions and all say Healthy/Online.

Do not use Dell Utility.

I set the Shadow Copy Storage to No Limit and still getting the issue.

[Lane_Valenzuela]

So I notice that C drive in Shadow Copies is enabled but the Z drive where backup drives is Disabled. Doesn't seem thats correct and shouldn't it be enabled? I'll wait for repsonse on this before I try enabling.

[Lane_Valenzuela]

Anything anyone can help me with on this issue? Site has been haven issues for over week now.

Haven another error id seen.

SSR event ID100 and lists same issue as in my original post.

[TRaj]

So I notice that C drive in Shadow Copies is enabled but the Z drive where backup drives is Disabled. Doesn't seem thats correct and shouldn't it be enabled? I'll wait for repsonse on this before I try enabling.

Yes even the Z drive must have the shadow copy enabled.

Also please try a split backup job for C: and Z: ( or any other drive getting backed up along with C:) , may be this is an issue with a single drive.

Have you worked on the part of "VSS Shadow Copy Creation and Storage Space Availability" as I had informed your Shadow copy is an issue.

Please work on Increasing the Shadow Copy storage area on the affected volume from 1% to 5%.

Also please refer : (This is only in case if you have a system reserved partition or a small partition with no drive letter )

I think I figured it out. The VSS_E_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE error was coming from the first job, the one that includes the System Reserved partition. I was able to resolve this by:

assigning a drive letter to the System Reserved partition in Disk Management.

going to an elevated command prompt and issuing this command:

FSUTIL USN DELETEJOURNAL /N /D X:

where X is the letter I assigned to the System Reserved partition above.

I then removed the drive letter using Disk Managment, and was able to complete a run of that job in SSR 2013.

One symptom of this was that size of files + free space was less than 50MB of the actual 100MB in that partition.

SSR did a full image instead of incremental, even though I requested an incremental from Run Backup With Options.

Will try the other job as soon as this is done.

UPDATE:

Resolving the System Reserved partition issue allows the second job to run as well. It also did a full backup, not an incremental.

Link : https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/upgraded-besr-2010-ssr-2013-backups-failing-vss-error

[TRaj]

You can follow the article if the above doesn't work : http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH200584

[TRaj]

Hi Lane,

Did the suggestions help?

Thanks

[Lane_Valenzuela]

Hi Traj,

Im sorry for being late on this had the High-Rely unit sent in for repair as it was part of the issue.

So I have C: drive and backup drivers with shadow copy enabled. I will backup manually but it appears to be haven a problem doing it on its own at scheduled time.

[TRaj]

So I would like to know what is the behaviour of the server while trying to perform a schedule.

If you say the shadow copies are enabled what is the limit set , can you set it to "no limit" and run the schedule.

Did you read the above suggesstions ? Did any of them help ?

[TRaj]

Any updates here ?