Backup Exec 2010 VMWare Agent Backup fails first time

[BusSysDept]

Hi,

While this is a question that may be better directed at Symantec I thought I post it here before wadding through their first line support on the off chance someone will say ah ha! I have encountered and solved this problem...

We have installed ESX5.0 Essentials, we are using Backup Exec 2010 with VMWare Agent to backup the Virtual Servers.  We have not installed the Remote Agent (allow when we have this sorted we may move on to that).  VMWare Tools are installed and the  VMWare Snapshot Provider service is installed and set to Manual.  The guest operating systems are Windows 2008 R2 std x64.

The first time I run the backup job from Backup Exec it fails with an 'Unable to quiesce application', second time around all is good.  Leave it a while before running it again and it will fail.  Smells like the first job gets the VSS started and then the it runs second time around.

The Virtual Server logs for the OS just say The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing.  The error code was : 4 The error message was: Quiesce aborted.

Any thoughts...?

[RDPetruska]

Thread moved from General Issues to VMware ESXi 5.

[ashleymilne]

Have you run the vssadmin list writers command to check the status of your vss writers? I would start there.

[BusSysDept]

Yes we did check that, didn't see any issues.  All are reporintg stable and no errors.  I have also now removed the VMWare VSS as well and set the Windows VSS to automatic start.  Still no joy.  1st time fail, 2nd time backsup ok.  May try reinstalling the VMWare VSS and setting that to auto start.

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: {66a1290f-4d89-4ffe-8a00-3eb592c62ca6}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
   Writer Instance Id: {4f79f08d-9027-4749-a6f1-91b150d03d48}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Instance Id: {5c3dfbeb-6207-4f5e-b823-491b1f3c62c3}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
   Writer Instance Id: {1630c27e-7bdc-404f-8c6a-0a525f68d807}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {33641f66-f55d-4de7-9798-350a32b67a94}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {5da8aab0-c3b1-41d8-85de-2025a8371ba9}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {4287e4d6-ca41-4603-8c57-8f997a0199f9}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

[aravinds3107]

is it possible for you try to re-install VMware tools on one VM without File Sync Drive and Vmware VSS Option and try the backup..

[BusSysDept]

The VMWare Tools executable (VMware-tools-8.6.0-519389-x86_64.exe) I am using doesn't lisk File System Sync Drive as an option.

[aravinds3107]

If you are doing a custon installtion you should find them under VMware Device Drivers

[BusSysDept]

Yes, under VMWare Drivers the following are listed...

Record/Replay Driver

Paravirtual SCSI

Virtual Printing

Memory Control Driver

Mouse Driver

SVGA Driver

Audio Driver

VMXNet NIC Driver

VMXNet3 NIC Driver

Volume Shadow Copy Service

No File Sync drivers...

[aravinds3107]

Try disabling "Volume Shadow Copy Service" and re-install Vmware tools

[BusSysDept]

At this point as a work around I am running two scheduled jobs, the first fails but seems to kick off the necessary processes to allow the second job to run successfully.  Ugly but I need to get these servers up and running.

I will try the disable Windows VSS writers & re-install the VMWare VSS writers however even if that resolves this issue when we try to layer on an BE Agent for SQL Backups it looks like we would encounter another problem in that after Windows 2000 Svr Symantec recommend using the Windows VSS rather than installing those from backup exec.  Although interestingly regardless of whether I tick or untick install AOFO option on the agent install I wind up with the Symantec BE VSS service showing in the services tab.

I think I will have to brave the Symantec helpdesk to get a proper resolution on this...

Will keep this discussion updated with any progress that I make.

[mikejroberts]

I have had the same problem since vSphere 4.1, but with vRanger.  When a VM is deployed, it always fails the first quiesced backup attempt, but after that it usually runs fine.  I figured it was a vRanger issue, but I guess not. I typically run a test backup job until it works, and then put the VM in the regular backup group.  This is not convenient, but it works - most of the time.