Data Recovery Snapshot Error -3941

[Aegis]

Hi All,

I am currently experiencing an issue with the backup of one VM using Vmware Data Recovery. The VM in question is a Windows 2003 DC.

Initially the error we were experiencing was along the lines of "unable to quiesce the guest when creating a snapshot". After searching through various articles we decided to uninstall VM tools and re-install without the VSS Snapshot & Sync drivers.

We are still not able to create any snapshots of the VM:

"failed to create snapshot for server, error -3941 (create snapshot failed).

When attempting to create a snapshot, the Data Recovery Manager task states that "another task is already in progress", which it is not. This also happens when attempting to create a manual snapshot on the VM. (see attached)

Any advice welcome????

[asitdesai]

The "another task is already in progress" usually means that the previous snapshot operation is hung inside the guest. You can try restarting the VMware Tools Service inside the guest (net stop vmtools, net start vmtools) or may have to restart the VM.

You should also check the system/application event log to see if there is any indication of why the quiesce operation may have failed.

[Aegis]

Hi thanks for your response.

Im a little confused as to what involvement the vm tools has in this. I presume im able to snapshot a vm without having vm tools installed, else snapshotting of particular unix / linux machines wouldnt work. If the vm tools does have an involvement, will the fact i've not installed the VSS and sync driver components cause issues?

Cheerss

[asitdesai]

If the VSS/sync driver components are involved, then the tools are used to quiesce the file system. Since you do not have these installed, the file system will not be quiesced and hence tools will have minimal involvement during the snapshot operation. As long as the tools are installed, the host will at least send a message to the tools to ask if quiescing can be performed.

You can still try to restart the tools but I doubt that will help. Only other option is to restart the vmware management agents host of the VM. You will need to ssh into the host of the VM and run "service mgmt-vmware restart". If the problem persists, you should call vmware suppport to root cause the issue.

[a07859]

i have same problem and not find a solution yet. have another solution? the back up error only in one vm..

[Mortiz]

Hi All,

Maybe the problem will be that VDR can´t resolve correctly the name of ESX servers, i have the same error and after add the ESX network information in VDR hosts file, the backups work correctly.

Can you check it?

Regards

[umarzuki]

i also have the same error.

even after made sure that I can ping to all esxi hosts IP & hostname, it still failed to make backup.

even the "take snapshot" icon on the VM is greyed and there is a message on annotation: "transfer server locked on 2011-09-05...".

the VM's name is transfer server. On Event viewer, at that day there was a VSS error

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error DeviceIoControl(\\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b} - 00000000000003C8,0x00560000,0000000000000000,0,000000000048EB20,4096,[0]).  hr = 0x80070001, Incorrect function.
.

Operation:
   Exposing Recovered Volumes
   Locating shadow-copy LUNs
   PostSnapshot Event
   Executing Asynchronous Operation

Context:
   Device: \\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
   Examining Detected Volume: Existing - \\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
   Execution Context: Provider
   Provider Name: VMware Snapshot Provider
   Provider Version: 1.0.0
   Provider ID: {564d7761-7265-2056-5353-2050726f7669}
   Current State: DoSnapshotSet

[AndreTheGiant]

With VDR 1.2 I can handle backup of Windows 2003 R2 and 2008 R2 DC without errors.

Which version do you have?

Try to reinstall the VMware Tools.

Andre

[umarzuki]

It is a version 1.2.

I had tried removing and reinstalling vmware tools on that Win 2008 R2 Enterprise VM but it still failed to be backed up.

[Mortiz]

Hi,

Could you do a manual snapshot? if not, maybe there are some lock problem with this VM, try to reinstall VMware Tools, if not work correctly, reboot the VM and try again.

I have same problem with other VM (Windows) and i tried to reinstall vmware tools, and in other case, we need to uninstall snapshot provider service.

Regards

[umarzuki]

i cannot do manual snapshot as the "take snapshot" seems to be disabled. So is the "install/upgrade vmware tools" option

did you mean by "snapshot provider service" is the VSS?

i tried removing VMware Snapshot Provider COM application and reregistering it back as per http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1019848

but i could not seem to find "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vss\VCBRequestor.dll", only "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vss\VCBSnapshotProvider.dll" was found.

[AndreTheGiant]

i cannot do manual snapshot as the "take snapshot" seems to be disabled.

This VM is using FT, VMDirectPath or RDM disk?

Andre

[Mortiz]

Hi,

Yes i mean snapshot provider service installed vy vmware tools, but check thats Andrew says (FT, RDM.....) we have a similar problem and uninstalling this driver, the snaphot work correctly.

Regards.

[Mortiz]

I answer my self, yesterday we need to deply a cluster in my virtual environment, when we add the RDM disk to virtual machine (physical compatibility and scsi controller in physical mode too) we lost the snapshot option, it´s disabled.

When EMC Avamar starts backups, vcenter show the following error:

Create virtual machine snapshot
vml-XXXXXXXXX Virtual machine is configured to use a device that prevents the snapshot operation: Device '' is a SCSI controller engaged in bus -sharing.

Check if your virtual machine has any special configuration (FT, RDM.....) as Andre indicate in his last mail.

Regards.

[umarzuki]

that VM is not attached to any physcal disk. AFAIK I never configured FT for it. But the Data Recovery appliance have a physical disk/LUN atached to it for backup storage.

[Mortiz]

Hi again,

Maybe you have a lock problem, using vsphere 4.1 i had a different problems and the same solution for all of them : Remove/Register for inventory.... i don´t know the reason....

How many disk have this VM? Coudl you verify if SCSI controller sharing is mark to none?

Regards

[umarzuki]

thanks for the suggestion. When I unregister that VM from inventory and add it back, VCB finally can start copying it.

weird but works. Even the snapshot icon is not greyed anymore.

[Mortiz]

Yes it´s too weird but.....

Regards!