VMware Cloud Community
rlaor
Contributor
Contributor

VDR does not delete the snapshot files when job terminated at the end of backup window!

Hi,

VDR seems to have a serios bug when the backup job is terminated at the end of the backup window(i.e. the backup is incomplete) - it does not delete the snapshot file although it says it does.

More than that - every night (my backup windows is at night) a new snapshot file is created (see attached datastore browse screen shot).

These snapshot files do not appear in the snapshot manager and can only be seen when browsing the datastore.

This issue becomes critical as everynight I have several backup tasks that are incomplete. Soon all my VMs will have snapshot files.

Has anybody experiance that?

Can someone from VMWare respond please?

Thanks,

Roy

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18 Replies
billmaxpowers
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, I am having the same issue. Just filled up a datastore on me. Will have to discontiuine use until a solution is made. Other than that it has been working well.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Roy, we have been able to reproduce this in-house and we have rolled the fix into a patch release that we are planning to make available to customers in a few weeks. If you haven't already, can you open up an SR so that VMware support can keep keep you in the loop on the progress of the patch.

The issue is somewhat intermittent - not everyone and not every VM that being protected per customer has this issue - so it has been a bit tricky to engineer a fix.

admin
Immortal
Immortal

FYI - see my response to previous posting - if possible, can you open up an SR so we can track? Thanks

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rlaor
Contributor
Contributor

Azmir,

I already opened an SR for this issue last week but so far haven't recieved any satisfactory response admiting that there is an issue here.

Is the planned patch is for the VDR VA or for the ESX? Does such a patch requires to restart the ESX?

What is the best and safer way to delete these stale snapshot files?

Roy

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rlaor
Contributor
Contributor

Azmir,

VMware support engineer that handles this SR is not aware neither of this bug, not about any fix or planned patch.

So how can VMware support keep me in the loop on the progress of the patch?

Roy

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Ray, I have been advised that the all the VDR support engineers are aware of the items that will be rolled into the patch release and their role to ensure that customers with open SRs will be notified as these issues are resolved. We did a quick look in the SR cases opened for VDR and I could not find a match to you. Can you send me (privately if you wish) the SR # you have open? Thanks

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rlaor
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Azmir,

The SR # is 1425047772.

Roy

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kot99
Contributor
Contributor

we've got same problem...vdr does not remove snapshots from VM after backup...

does any solution or patch released ???

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Mirko_Huth
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi azmir,

please keep us posted about this patch. I have the same issue.

Thanks!

Mirko

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wimdes
Contributor
Contributor

we have the same issue. message from VMWare support: don't use VMDR any more until it's fixed!!!

this must be about the worst thing any ESX backup software can do - except for completely destroying the virtual machines!

the only way to clean up the mess seems (after shutting down VMDR): rename virtual machine, shut it down, clone (to original name), start cloned machine and delete old one.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Good to know I'm not the only one. It may not happen to everyone but I now have it in both deployments I tried it at.

I also see that it cannot be depended on to start backups, two servers are selected for a job with the default time window, but it only backs up one.

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GarethWilson
Contributor
Contributor

i was just browsing these forums and came accross this thread and found out that each of my 27 vm's that we are backing up with vdr have at least 2 open snapshots on them, i have logged a SR call for this before my datastores run out of diskspace lol

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niljersweden
Contributor
Contributor

Hi!

I have the same issues and found a workaround on this site.

Br

//Jerry

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rlaor
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you for the tip.

I'm still waiting for VMware to release a patch that fix this issue. Till then I'm not using VDR.

Roy

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AndyShinn
Contributor
Contributor

This thread caught my eye and concerned me since I was starting to use VDR instead of Consolidated Backup. Is it possible there is a certain case or setup that has this bug only?

I just checked all my VM that are being backed up and none of them show any snapshots and I cannot find any VMDK in their datastore that show the incremented numbered snapshots drives. I don't appear to be having this issue.

My setup has vCenter on Win2k8, SQL 2005 Standard. I had a very hard time getting vCenter VDR plugin to recognize the VDR appliance. But that's the only snag I have had with VDR so far.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

VDR v1.0.1 has been posted - see my other thread in this forum. Also, we posted a KB today on how to collapse the snapshots - there is an attachment that is script that can be used to perform the check and remediation. Once this is done and VDR v1.0.1 is deployed, then this issue is resolved.

http://www.vmware.com/support/

Choose Knowledgebase and search for ddb.delete under VMware Data Recovery

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rlaor
Contributor
Contributor

Azmir,

Thanks a lot.

Roy

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

>Choose Knowledgebase and search for ddb.delete under VMware Data Recovery

actually search for ddb.deletable

KB Article: 1012383

Updated: Jul 14, 2009

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