VSS/VCB Issues

[tkutil]

I am having a problem on one server that whenever I run a VCB I get VSS errors. Anyone seen this before?

ESX3.5 Update 2

System Event Log

Source VolSnap

Event ID 8

The flush and hold writes operation on volume C: timed out while waiting for a release writes command.

Application Event Log

Source VSS

Event ID 12289

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error WaitForSingleObject(000002C4,40000) == . hr = 0x00000000.

Source VSS

Event ID 12293

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on the Shadow Copy Provider {564d7761-7265-2056-5353-2050726f7669}. Routine details CommitSnapshots({9c709153-c894-4f97-a5c3-adb0c5be11b2}) .

Source VSS

Event ID 12298

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: The I/O writes cannot be held during the shadow copy creation period on volume
?\Volume{18f2a733-6fae-11dd-82f4-806e6f6e6963}\. The volume index in the shadow copy set is 0. Error details: Open[0x00000000], Flush[0x00000000], Release[0x00000000], OnRun[0x8000ffff].

[Thorsten_Schnei]

Hi,

have you found a solution for your problem ? I'm having the same issue on a couple of VMs. As this is not happening all of the time it might due to high load on the SAN when the snapshot shoud be taken.

Cheers

Thorsten

[tkutil]

restarting this server cured the problem for now.

[mwalbert]

Any luck on a permanent fix? I've got the same set of issues, and have tried almost everything to no avail.

[Lightbulb]

You might want to apply the Windows 2003 VSS rollup patch (Post SP2)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940349

The patch fixes a number of VSS issues.

[jackyareva]

Dear Lightbulb,

After according to your help and install the update, it still not works. I also can find out the error message what tkutil mentioned above, in oder to find out the reason, I tried to get more information as below

C:\>vssadmin list writers

vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool

(C) Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: 'System Writer'

Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}

Writer Instance Id: {7ff996cd-b3a7-49c8-a898-142d421dfe9a}

State: Failed

Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'MSDEWriter'

Writer Id: {f8544ac1-0611-4fa5-b04b-f7ee00b03277}

Writer Instance Id: {97a509cf-4e41-4c4a-a0a7-d6903fd81286}

State: Stable

Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Event Log Writer'

Writer Id: {eee8c692-67ed-4250-8d86-390603070d00}

Writer Instance Id: {a39b35fb-9d4c-4ae3-9965-99ecd59eec63}

State: Stable

Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'

Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}

Writer Instance Id: {91f84cc7-1f6a-42bc-b695-03b210b6a13e}

State: Stable

Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'

Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}

Writer Instance Id: {7015315e-e50d-4437-96cf-a67b01995a74}

State: Stable

Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WINS Jet Writer'

Writer Id: {f08c1483-8407-4a26-8c26-6c267a629741}

Writer Instance Id: {737a60b4-8191-4204-800b-0dd86f72d0e9}

State: Failed

Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Dhcp Jet Writer'

Writer Id: {be9ac81e-3619-421f-920f-4c6fea9e93ad}

Writer Instance Id: {d03d8daf-e9ad-4f51-815e-75f0046bb90e}

State: Failed

Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'

Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}

Writer Instance Id: {4664c629-e8bd-4ab3-b200-43de56d423de}

State: Failed

Last error: Timed out

Could you provide me some help about it?

Thanks in advance

[Greg_Fe]

I have experienced the same issue during high SAN loading when pperforming VCB backups. Has this problem ever been resolved.