SME backup fails with vss error

[abhishekrana]

Hi,

we are running SME 5.0 on windows 2008 servers. exhcnage 2007. while backup i am receiving following error.

[08:01:14.035]  Status for writer Microsoft Exchange Writer: FAILED_AT_PREPARE_SNAPSHOT(0x800423f3 - VSS_E_WRITERERROR_RETRYABLE)

[08:01:14.035]  Exchange has reported error writer status.
[08:01:14.035]  Error code: 0x800423f3 VSS_E_WRITERERROR_RETRYABLE: The writer failed due to an error that might not occur if another snapshot is created.

can anyone tell what could be the reason for this.

[bjornkoopmans]

Hi,

I'm getting the exact same error, only we use SME 6.0 and Exchange 2010 SP1. Were you able to find a solution for your problem?

Kind regards,

Bjorn

[stephan_troxler]

There seems to be a problem with the Exchange vss writers. You can check their status on the Exchange server with the following command. All affected writers should have state 1 "stable" here

>vssadmin list writers

Here is an article with some more information and links to MS KB articles about this topic:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2008/08/25/3406172.aspx

A restart of the depending Exchange services can fix the problem usually.

Stephan

[bjornkoopmans]

Hi Stephan,

Thanks for the info.

I figured the vssadmin list writers could provide some usefull info, but the results for the Microsoft Exchange Writer vary throughout the day:

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
   Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
   Writer Instance Id: {f8a35524-1156-49ce-b225-d51e66d74e0e}
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
   Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
   Writer Instance Id: {f8a35524-1156-49ce-b225-d51e66d74e0e}
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Retryable error

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
   Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
   Writer Instance Id: {f8a35524-1156-49ce-b225-d51e66d74e0e}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Backups of single databases always succeed. However, it seems that the more databases I backup, this greater the change that I run into this error.

Any ideas? Could this KB be applicable? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2462710

Thanks!

Bjorn

[abhishekrana]

Hi,

Can you check if you are facing problem with Any specific storage group?

if you are facing issue with any perticular storage group then try running esutils on exchange database and try offline defrag of the database.

Thanks,

Abhishek

[bjornkoopmans]

It doesn't seem to be a specific database, because I can backup them individually. Just not as a group. A single log-LUN is shared amongst 10 databases (each on their own LUN), so I should backup these 10 databases at the same time. And I have 4 such groups to backup (= 40 databases). Each database is about 400 GB.

Bjorn

[abhishekrana]

just to be more clear weather previously full backup has worked? if so then try reconfiguring the backup job through wizard again.

Abhishek

[bjornkoopmans]

Sorry, I forgot to mention: we are still in the process of implementing SME, so we have no historie to compare with.

Bjorn

[abhishekrana]

if you have got DFM then check in netapp managment console for disk latency or else you can check the same from console by following command.

sysstat -s -u 1 and check for disk utilization %. if that is normal then reconfigure the backup job through wizard.

[abhishekrana]

Hi  Bjorn,

i think you must be having windows 2008, so just check if any other backup is not conflicting with SME backup. usually this happens if either tape backup schedule is clashing with SME schedules.

also check if your other backup software should not use data ontape VSS provider this happens if there is any configuration issue.

Thanks,

Abhishek

[bjornkoopmans]

Hi Abhishek,

Indeed I'm using Windows 2008 (as the original poster stated). There is another backup solution present on the system (Tivoli Storage Manager), however it was inactive during my tests. I am very sure of that.

I know there is an issue of TSM using the ONTAP VSS provider, but I was not aware that this could interfere with my SME backups. Can you elaborate on that, please?

Thanks!

Bjorn

[abhishekrana]

Hi Bjorn,

As already mentioned can you check the status of VSS writer by following command.

cmd promt: vssadmin list writers.

And check the status of microsoft exchage writer, if its in "retryable error" state you have to restart the server to resolve this error.

After restart of server this should be in stable state and checking running the SME backup after that.

Thanks,

Abhishek

[alexandernow]

My cust's BackUp failed with the error msg

"VSS_E_WRITERERROR_RETRYABLE: The writer failed due to an error that might not occur if another snapshot copy is created."

On his filer, in the Exchange volume there was a (busy,LUNs) snapshot.

After rebooting the Exchange server, the vsswriter freed the snapshot and SME BackUps ran fine again.

[dmauro]

just for the records, busy lun have nothing to do with VSS retryable error.

VSS writer is Exchange, nothing to do with the underlying storage.

when you have a Microsoft Exchange VSS Writer in the following state:

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'

   Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}

   Writer Instance Id: {cc2dd7f9-68d3-4c6a-87b9-c32b81b25e2e}

   State: [7] Failed

   Last error: Retryable error

it means Exchange writer consistently disallows backups and you need to clear this state before trying the next backup.

typically Exchange Information Store Service needs to be restarted. Possible also other Microsoft Exchange related services need a restart.

So, it makes sense that your exchange server reboot cleared this VSS writer state indeed.

Domenico.

[JGPSHNTAP]

Agree with above poster..

When we've seen this is in our environment, we fail the active node to the passive, reboot the active node (windows clusters) and then fail back.  Sometimes the VSS writers fail and only thing to fix it is reboot.. It's windows