Image Backups Failing

general discussion
1

Hi there

I found URBackup by chance looking for something that could do image level backups of our Windows servers. We already have file-level backups of them in place. It seems to be just the ticket! Thank you :)

I’ve added 6 servers and they all successfully ran a first full image backup. 5 of them subsequently ran incremental image backups successfully but one won’t.

In the log, I get 2 errors:
Request of image backup failed. Reason: Opening Shadow drive filesystem failed. Stopping.
Backup not complete because of connection problems

The server in question has two drives that are being backed up - C and D. I want image level backups because I want a complete baremetal restore for these. I’m not interested in being able to restore individual files.

The server is running Server 2008 Standard x64. Each failed image backup seems to leave behind a ~15MB file urb???.tmp in the C:\Windows\Temp folder too?

Thanks

Alex

2

Could you take a look at the client-side log C:\Progam files\UrBackup\debug.log ?

And is the first message an error or info? (Just want to be certain because sometimes it can be an info level message and be irrelevant)

3

Both are Error level logs. There is an info level log about SYSVOL but I read in other forum posts that was normal.

In the client debug log, there’s lots and lots of the following error:

08/28/12 11:55:31: ERROR: Error opening device file (\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy203)
08/28/12 11:55:31: ERROR: Opening Shadow drive filesystem failed. Stopping.

Thanks

Alex

4

Thanks. Weird. Especially since it worked once.

It would be nice if you can check if this is a general shadow copying problem by executing

vssadmin create shadow /for=c:

Then copy the volume name and mount it somewhere e.g.

mklink /D C:\shadow_copy \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy30\

and see if you can access the files in the snapshot.

Since the shadow copy number is so high… have you tried restarting?

5 
C:\Users\administrator.LHS>vssadmin create shadow /for=c:
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.  

Successfully created shadow copy for 'c:\'
    Shadow Copy ID: {8d5a799a-97ce-496e-ba96-2fbb44c06303}
    Shadow Copy Volume Name: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy211  





C:\Users\administrator.LHS>mklink /D c:\shadow_copy \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy211
symbolic link created for c:\shadow_copy <<===>> \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy211

However when I try and access c:\shadow_copy it tells me

c:\shadow_copy is not accessible
The parameter is incorrect

I can’t try a reboot right now as it’s a production server but I can do later.

What cleanup do I need to do to remove the temporary shadow copy and link we created for this test please?

Thanks

Alex

6

I had a look at the shadow copies for C: and there were lots (we have a schedule that creates one three times a day so users can restore files).

The snapshot I created from the command line was listed and if I go to previous versions I can access that snapshot from there OK, but not from the symlink on the C: drive.

I’ve deleted them for now so there are now no snapshots and then ran the test again but still got the same parameter incorrect error accessing the symlink.

I’ll try and get that server rebooted this evening and see if that changes anything.

Thanks

Alex

7

I think you forgot the backslash after the number.

You can simply delete the link. The shadow copy can be deleted with http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc788026(v=ws.10).aspx

8

You’re quite right. I can access the files in the snapshot without problems.

Do I still need to reboot or is there another test to run?

Alex

9

You could try another full image backup. If that works it should be UrBackups fault, and a reboot would probably not help.

I think it fails to open e.g. “\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy211” (i.e. the volume) as a file. The next step would perhaps be giving you a version which prints out the error code. Are you using 0.40.1 or 1.0RC?

10

I did the reboot anyway and touch wood it seems to be working.

A full backup completed fine and an incremental is well underway so hopefully it was something that the reboot sorted out.

Thanks for your help.

Alex

11

Oh and for the record, I’m using 0.40.1