VssSyncStart operation failed: The data area passed to a system call is too small

[VANREE_Software]

One of our VMs, a Windows 2008 Std server, suddenly cannot take quiesced snapshots anymore, all other VMs are fine.

During backup operation (Nakivo) we noticed that the VM could not be quiesced and I started investigating and found that a manual snapshot (Not ticked: Snapshot the virtual machine's memory and ticked: Quiesce guest file system), would reproduce the problem. When I try a snapshot including memory it succeeds!?

The manual snapshot progress counter goes to 95% before it shows the error result:

An error occurred while saving the snapshot: msg.snapshot.error-QUIESCINGERROR.

In ESXi event log we see the following error:

Warning message on Server1: The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing. The error code was: 5 The error message was:

'VssSyncStart' operation failed: The data area passed to a system call is too small. (0x8007007a)

The event log in the Windows server does not show any errors or warnings. I can see the following events in the System log:

Information    19/12/2014 14:21:31    Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider    7036    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:21:31    Virtual Disk Service    4    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:21:30    Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider    7036    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:21:30    Virtual Disk Service    3    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:21:29    Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider    7036    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:21:29    Virtual Disk Service    4    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:21:27    Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider    7036    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:21:27    Virtual Disk Service    3    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:21:26    Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider    7036    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:20:22    Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider    7036    None

Information    19/12/2014 14:20:22    Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider    7036    None

Basically the Virtual Disk service starts and stops without errors.

Our ESXi cluster runs version 5.5.0, 2143827 and all VMs have the latest tools installed.

On the troubled VM I even removed the tools and reinstalled them, which did not make a difference.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Edwin

[SparkRezaRafiee]

Usually restarting VM tools service and then starting Virtual Disk service fixes the issue.

In some cases that doesn't work and rebooting the VM fixes the problem.

If you see VSS error in event logs in APPLICATION logs with something liek the below description:

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error DeviceIoControl(\\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&3b4c39bd&1&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b} - 0000000000000558,0x00560000,0000000000000000,0,00000000003EAD60,4096,[0]).  hr = 0x80070001, Incorrect function.

Then the workaround to resolve the issue is:

- Go to Device manager

- Disable floppy drive, then disable floppy disk controller (floppy drive disappears in Device manager)

and

Disable VSS application quiescing using VMware Tools:

1. Open the C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Tools\Tools.conf file in a text editor, such as Notepad. If the file does not exist, create it.

2. Add these lines to the file:

[vmbackup]

vss.disableAppQuiescing = true

3. Save and close the file.

4. Restart the VMware Tools Service for the changes to take effect.

5. Click Start > Run, type services.msc, and click OK.

6. Right-click the VMware Tools Service and click Restart.

Once implementing the changes the Hot-Clone of the VM completed successfully.

see also VMware KB-1031298.