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#1
Suddenly, VSS mis-behaving
I run both (a) Macrium Reflect Standard and (b) NovaBackup, as my normal everyday/everyweek backup scheme. Reflect is used for weekly "system image" backups (for my Win7 boot partition) and Novabackup is used for daily "data backups".
Both products make use of VSS (volume shadow copy), taking one before beginning their function.
For some reason, after years of no VSS-related problem whatsoever starting on Monday of this week the VSS function from Novabackup has started failing. This in turn causes subsequent errors trying to backup about 30 Windows-related files which are "client file busy".
However the VSS function from Reflect is still working perfectly.
I'm not overly concerned with the Novabackup errors, since I would use the weekly Reflect system image to restore from if I ever really did have a disaster justifying going back to a recent system image. But I'm still trying to figure out what exactly is at the root of this sudden VSS failure, and only for its use as invoked by NovaBackup.
I've done lots of hunting around, and the Event Viewer shows nothing related to VSS itself. But when I run VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS right after trying one of these problematic Novabackup jobs, it shows "timed out" for a number of the writers:
I have no idea what "timed out" means, and would like some assistance from others who might know.Code:Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601] Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\Users\Darryl Sperber>vssadmin list writers vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool (C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp. Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer' Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124} Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer' Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06} Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer' Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2} Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'System Writer' Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220} Writer Instance Id: {4c6b9d28-8e43-4eab-88be-b022acf9f414} State: [7] Failed Last error: Timed out Writer name: 'ASR Writer' Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4} Writer Instance Id: {89281613-e9c2-4058-be5f-6f6edf7b7412} State: [7] Failed Last error: Timed out Writer name: 'MSSearch Service Writer' Writer Id: {cd3f2362-8bef-46c7-9181-d62844cdc0b2} Writer Instance Id: {8fa7840e-7a9c-4324-bf56-4feeaf88138b} State: [7] Failed Last error: Timed out Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer' Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f} Writer Instance Id: {62ce75d3-5394-47e7-b6f4-381984435efa} State: [7] Failed Last error: Timed out Writer name: 'Registry Writer' Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485} Writer Instance Id: {691d6cc1-a6da-43d8-92bb-b47a2d162b13} State: [7] Failed Last error: Timed out Writer name: 'WMI Writer' Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0} Writer Instance Id: {3bc72bbf-43a2-491f-a4dd-1b3055f408af} State: [7] Failed Last error: Timed out Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer' Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f} Writer Instance Id: {f39c4785-e877-473b-acac-d192024257a5} State: [7] Failed Last error: Timed out Writer name: 'BITS Writer' Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0} Writer Instance Id: {0d8822d1-41da-46ea-929e-eb2576184218} State: [7] Failed Last error: Timed out C:\Users\Darryl Sperber>
I've checked VSSADMIN LIST SHADOWSTORAGE, which originally showed only about 3.5GB max size on C. Well, that seemed small, although I've never changed it from however it got allocated originally and VSS for NovaBackup has been working just fine until this week. And besides, VSS still works fine for Reflect, even with that same 3.5GB setting.
Anyway, I enlarged it with VSSADMIN RESIZE SHADOWSTORAGE /FOR=C: /ON=C" /MAXSIZE=18GB and tried the Novabackup job again. Still no luck. Still "timed out" on those same writers.
So, either 18GB is still too small (but again, 3.5GB was fine for Reflect) or there's something else responsible for this failure.
To try and figure out what's going on I really do need to know what "timed out" means. Is there some external drive location which is being looked for? I don't think so.
Anybody have any insight? Remember, this is Win7 x64 Pro, not Windows Server of any flavor.
Also, I have a second machine which is essentially identical conceptually, running all the same software. And no problem at all with VSS and NovaBackup on that machine. Again, I never had a problem with VSS at all on this machine for years, until suddenly this week when it started failing.
Anybody help?? TIA.
Just for reference, Reflect happened to have run its weekly "system image" just last night, and it's VSS function ran fine.
Here's the VSS log from Reflect:
Code:(Gathering writer metadata...) (Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...) Initialize writer metadata ... - Get exclude files - Enumerate components - Get file list descriptors - Get database descriptors - Get log descriptors - Get exclude files - Enumerate components - Get file list descriptors - Get database descriptors - Get log descriptors - Get exclude files - Enumerate components - Get file list descriptors - Get database descriptors - Get log descriptors - Get exclude files - Enumerate components - Get file list descriptors - Get database descriptors - Get log descriptors - Get exclude files - Enumerate components - Get exclude files - Enumerate components - Get file list descriptors - Get database descriptors - Get log descriptors - Get exclude files - Enumerate components - Get file list descriptors - Get database descriptors - Get log descriptors - Get exclude files - Enumerate components - Get exclude files - Enumerate components Discover directly excluded components ... - Excluding writer '' since it has no selected components for restore. - Excluding writer '' since it has no selected components for restore. - Excluding writer 'BITS Writer' since it has no selected components for restore. - Excluding writer 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer' since it has no selected components for restore. - Excluding writer 'MSSearch Service Writer' since it has no selected components for restore. Discover components that reside outside the shadow set ... Discover all excluded components ... Discover excluded writers ... Discover explicitly included components ... Verifying explicitly specified writers/components ... Select explicitly included components ... * Writer 'Task Scheduler Writer': - Add component \TasksStore * Writer 'VSS Metadata Store Writer': - Add component \WriterMetadataStore * Writer 'Performance Counters Writer': - Add component \PerformanceCounters * Writer 'WMI Writer': - Add component \WMI * Writer 'Registry Writer': - Add component \Registry * Writer 'COM+ REGDB Writer': - Add component \COM+ REGDB Creating shadow set {1556deec-d030-42ba-b148-965d4dca2745} ... - Adding volume \\?\Volume{f6fd8606-4ee6-11e1-afd0-806e6f6e6963}\ [C:\] to the shadow set... - Adding volume \\?\Volume{f6fd8609-4ee6-11e1-afd0-806e6f6e6963}\ [O:\] to the shadow set... Preparing for backup ... (Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...) (Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...) Creating the shadow (DoSnapshotSet) ... (Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...) (Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...) Shadow copy set succesfully created. List of created shadow copies: Querying all shadow copies with the SnapshotSetID {1556deec-d030-42ba-b148-965d4dca2745} ... * SNAPSHOT ID = {ee8e7922-4890-4983-abe5-d05a101562d6} ... - Shadow copy Set: {1556deec-d030-42ba-b148-965d4dca2745} - Original count of shadow copies = 2 - Original Volume name: \\?\Volume{f6fd8609-4ee6-11e1-afd0-806e6f6e6963}\ [O:\] - Creation Time: 9/21/2012 9:30:52 PM - Shadow copy device name: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy5 - Originating machine: MDR - Service machine: MDR - Not Exposed - Provider id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5} - Attributes: Auto_Release Differential * SNAPSHOT ID = {e16c474f-9b43-4342-aaac-de14ee8831a5} ... - Shadow copy Set: {1556deec-d030-42ba-b148-965d4dca2745} - Original count of shadow copies = 2 - Original Volume name: \\?\Volume{f6fd8606-4ee6-11e1-afd0-806e6f6e6963}\ [C:\] - Creation Time: 9/21/2012 9:30:52 PM - Shadow copy device name: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy4 - Originating machine: MDR - Service machine: MDR - Not Exposed - Provider id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5} - Attributes: Auto_Release Differential