Backup VSS problems with windows 2008 R2

To check if this is a VSS issue, try to run a backup by disabling the VSS backup.
For this, in Networker client resource set the "Save operations" attribute to VSS:*=off

Unless I'm mistaken 2008 R2 is going out on 22nd of October. Also, that version does contain changes in VSS itself. So, only NW versions released after that date might be good candidates for VSS backup and restore of 2008 R2. From what I have been told Q2 of 2010 will see release of such NW version.

You CANNOT disable VSS backups with Vista and 2008. It is pretty well documented too.

Dear all,

I am running NetWorker 7.5.1 64 Bit client on Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise. Adding the "VSS:*=OFF" to the SAVE Operations gives following error code:

"43705:save: Save Operations value is ignored on this OS platform."

So simply turning off VSS support does not solve the problem, there seems to be a deeper rework in the OS code than the two letters "R2" imply. Any workaround is appreciated, currently I am not able to backup the machines at the moment.

Kind regards,
Peter

Yes, it's correct we cannot disable VSS backups on 2008 because Microsoft has removed the non-VSS legacy backup API. This in turn means 2008 clients are automagically licensed for VSS backups.

If your 2008 server is a DFS host - there is a known issue documented in esg107678 that should explain your issue, and provide a workaround meanwhile.

Otherwise, 'not enough storage' is a generic sort of memory error I believe and more information would be required. What is the output of 'vssadmin list providers' and 'vssadmin list writers'? During what types of backup (ie. filesystem vice SYSTEM saveset) do you see the errors?

You may wish to look into any relevant VSS patches for your version and check the OS logs for VSS writer / provider errors too.

HTH, James.

Goodmorning,

first of all I would like to mention that 2008 R2 must be considered as a new OS. This is because it has been built on the windows 7 core whereas 2008 is built on vista core.

We have run into the same windows 2008 r2 backup problem but have it fixed now. What happens during installation is that the system makes a "system reserved" partition on the disk. Networker and VSS produce the error due to this system disk. When you give the system reserved disk a drive letter the problem is solved. Give it a go!

Thank you Frank Beckers. When I assign a drive letter to the "System Reserved" partition this error goes away and I can back up all 4 of my R2 servers. We had seen this same solution work for our cluster envirnoment but did not put 2 and 2 together.

Thanks! That is great information Frank. I've created a support note (with the caveat that I myself / support has not in fact tested it) to assist other customers with your findings. I'll also relay this to the development team as well in case they are not aware of this (though I assume they are and as Hrvoje notes it will be a test / supportability point following R2's official release). Best regards - James.

James,

R2 and W7 bring some new things like:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd433621(VS.85).aspx

So, we have changes to existing API and new stuff. To address this EMC will need to change their code too. With that in mind, there is no guarantee that existing API can be 100% successful (and probably it is not) in DR protection of W7 and win2k8 R2. As for pure file system backup, it probably works, but then again... if something goes wrong everyone will say "it's not my fault". Thus I would not suggest to use this in helping customers unless you really wish to use it at your own risk (thus if restore one day won't work - no surprises there).

We just ran into the same problem on a Windows Server 2008 SP2 failover cluster. The solution was to make sure all volumes were assigned drive letters.

I hope they address this issue in an upcoming release; I can't waste drive letters for the sake of a bug in my backup solution.

Cheers,
Ian Thomas

Last thing I've been told was that 7.5SP2 has been postponed just so that support for R2 is integrated into it so EMC seems to be on the case.

ok guys,

I have a w2k8 R2 to backup. I see on this thread that the temporary solution is ti give a drive letter to a "system reserved" partition.

Do you go to system manager-disk management to do this ? my disk management does not show the "system reserved" partition when I fired it up

It's really frustrating that EMC seems to be the only vendor having problem with this. TSM and Symantec both have hotfixes already to mitigate this issue with the R2 version of 2008.

EMC is suggesting to assign a driveletter to the system reserved partition. From what I've heard, that's not supported by microsoft.

Jo

Is there a MS document suggesting that is not supported?

By following the history here, I have to say that this suggestion came first by forum participant and afterwards has been used by EMC (and I doubt extra check was done... I assume based on forum feedback someone just created KB article).

I was told that the problem with the size of the VSS system saveset is caused by MicroSoft requirements.

Other vendors are expected to be faced by this problem too, if they follow MS Guidelines.

One of my customers reported a VSS System SaveSet of 9 GB.

EMC produced a technote how to backup and restore Windows 2008, title:

WINDOWS SERVER 2008 OFFLINE SYSTEM RECOVERY USING WINDOWS SERVER BACKUP WITH NETWORKER

You find this in PowerLink in NetWorker documentation, technical notes.

This is not smooth, but seems to be a working way. Hopefully they are working on a better way, e.g. with NetWorker 7.5.2