Backup finished with exception - an error occurred while backing up the index.

[ELLADMIN]

According to the job monitor, my backup job finished with exception.

Exception was the sharepoint search service instance. - The comment showed - "An error occurred while backing up the index. Error: Can not create snapshot.."

can anyone help figure out this unknown issue?

[ELLADMIN]

This is for snap manager for sharepoint. Folks

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@ELLADMIN wrote:

According to the job monitor, my backup job finished with exception.

Exception was the sharepoint search service instance. - The comment showed - "An error occurred while backing up the index. Error: Can not create snapshot.."

can anyone help figure out this unknown issue?

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[AndyD]

For this issue, and due to SharePoint being as complex as it is, it will help to isolate this error to the individual components.

With that said, let's start with SnapDrive for Windows, since that is the service that will create the snapshot.

On the server in your SharePoint farm that is housing the indexes, have the indexes been migrated to a LUN, or do they still reside on the C:\ drive?

If they have been migrated to a LUN, can you open SnapDrive for Windows, right click the LUN, and create a snapshot?  Is the snapshot created successfully, or do you receive an error when attempting to do this?

[ELLADMIN]

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@AndyD wrote:

For this issue, and due to SharePoint being as complex as it is, it will help to isolate this error to the individual components.

With that said, let's start with SnapDrive for Windows, since that is the service that will create the snapshot.

On the server in your SharePoint farm that is housing the indexes, have the indexes been migrated to a LUN, or do they still reside on the C:\ drive?

If they have been migrated to a LUN, can you open SnapDrive for Windows, right click the LUN, and create a snapshot?  Is the snapshot created successfully, or do you receive an error when attempting to do this?

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AndyD - It has been migrated to a LUN and I am unable to create a snapshot. 

------------------------- SnapDrive Operation Start ---------------------------------
Snap create operation on server - *****failed for reason given below
Unable to create a Snapshot copy. Please check the application event log for more details.
--------------------- The complete operation list is shown as follows -------------------

********************* Server Name: **************************

1. Checking policies
2. Checking access control
3. Preparing LUNs for Snapshot copy creation
4. Creating a Snapshot copy for the LUN
5. Unable to create a Snapshot copy. Please check the application event log for more details.
------------------------------------------ Operation Done ---------------------------------------

[AndyD]

Great! We have narrowed down the issue.  Can you open the Application event log and look to see what errors, if any, that SnapDrive is generating? What is the message in these errors stating?

[ELLADMIN · Accepted solution]

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@AndyD wrote:

For this issue, and due to SharePoint being as complex as it is, it will help to isolate this error to the individual components.

With that said, let's start with SnapDrive for Windows, since that is the service that will create the snapshot.

On the server in your SharePoint farm that is housing the indexes, have the indexes been migrated to a LUN, or do they still reside on the C:\ drive?

If they have been migrated to a LUN, can you open SnapDrive for Windows, right click the LUN, and create a snapshot?  Is the snapshot created successfully, or do you receive an error when attempting to do this?

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AndyD - I went through the application log and saw the log: 

Unable to create a Snapshot copy.
Error message : ZAPI: An attempt to create Snapshot copy '12032014' of the 'SM_Index' volume with 'async' option 'false' failed on the storage system . Error code: 135. Error description: No more snapshots available.

I deleted some snapshots and I was able to create one and also ran a full job and it finished successfully.

Do I enable storage efficency on the volume so that the snapshots can be automatically deleted? Or do I change my snapshot policy? 

Do it have to do with the size of the LUN also? Reason why I asked because on my sharepoint central administration. There health check of sharepoint showing that they are drives at risk of running out of space and it was referring to the index drive. its only carved out to be 35 GB. Does it need to be more?

[AndyD]

It sounds like we have a few things going on here.

1. For the "No more snapshots available" error, I would suggest looking at your SMSP backup retention.  Data ONTAP only allows a maximum of 255 snapshots per volume.  If the LUN in question is the only LUN on the volume, then that means you are attempting to retain more than 255 backups, which will cause the issue you are seeing.  If the LUN is sharing a volume with other LUNs, then that retention amount will need to be evaluated, as the snapshot limit is for total snapshots.  If you have other LUNs (for example, SQL database LUNs) on that volume, they will also use part of the 255 snapshot limit.
2. Setting snapshot autodelete will assist with ensuring snapshots can be taken, but keep this in mind.  If snapshot autodelete is enabled, and if Data ONTAP auto deletes snapshots, any backups relying on those snapshots will be incomplete and unable to be used for restoration.  The backups will still show up in SMSP, but when you attempt to restore from them, you will receive a "can't find snapshot" or "unable to access file" error.
3. Additionally, scheduled snapshots on the volume should be disabled.  The only snapshots on the volume should be the ones SnapDrive takes.  If you perform a snapshot list from the filer CLI or look at the snapshot list within System Manager for the volume, and if you see snapshots named "daily," "weekly," or "hourly," it means the snapshot schedule on the filer is enabled and should be disabled.  The snapshots named "daily," "weekly," or "hourly" should be manually deleted.
4. The error message being presented has nothing to do with the amount of space available, although that is something you will want to address.  The easiest, and least disruptive, way to do this is via SnapDrive.  In the SnapDrive GUI, right click the LUN in question and select resize.  Please ensure you have enough space in the volume to expand the LUN to the desired size.

[ELLADMIN]

thanks AndyD  I will look into what you said.