Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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massimiliano.rizzi
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VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by massimiliano.rizzi »

Hello experts,

I am trying to backup a Windows SBS 2011 Standard VM running on a licensed VMware ESXi 5.0 host. Veeam Backup & Replication for VMware (latest 6.1 build) has been installed on a dedicated physical Windows server running Windows Server 2008 R2.

While other VMs acting as member servers of the Windows SBS 2011 network are successfully processed (no errors reported) in the same backup job, the following error occurs in realtime statistics of the job and in the log when processing the Windows SBS 2011 Standard VM itself:

==================================================
"VSSControl: Failed to prepare guest for freeze, wait timeout 900 sec."
==================================================

I understand that the KB1377 Article provides a solution to address the same exact issue described above, however after examining the events recorded in both the application log and the system log within the Windows SBS 2011 Standard Guest OS each time Veeam Backup & Replication attempted to process it I noticed the following VSS 8230 Warning events recorded in the system log:

==================================================
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Failed resolving account spsearch with status 1376. Check connection to domain controller and VssAccessControl registry key.
Operation:
Initializing Writer
Context:
Writer Class Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
Writer Name: Shadow Copy Optimization Writer
Error-specific details:
Error: NetLocalGroupGetMemebers(spsearch), 0x80070560, The specified local group does not exist.
==================================================

The above warning messages are recorded for Registry Writer, ASR Writer, Shadow Copy Optimization Writer and VeeamFreezeWriter at the same time as Veeam Backup & Replication starts Freezing guest operating system.

My feeling is that I am facing a permission/required user rights issue within the Windows SBS 2011 Standard Guest OS instead of the VSS timeout issue described in Veeam KB Article 1377.

Any help/information based on past experience/troubleshooting step to narrow down the problem will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Regards,

Massimiliano
massimiliano.rizzi
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by massimiliano.rizzi » 2 people like this post

Hello,

I confirm I have great news and I am glad to share the fix: to resolve the issue PSCONFIG command line utility must be run within the Windows SBS 2011 Standard Guest OS to update the SharePoint databases after installing SharePoint 2010 Patches as part of the two-step SharePoint Foundation patching process:

==================================================
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/ ... tches.aspx
==================================================

Based on the information I have found, failure to do so can result in backups definitely failing until PSCONFIG command line utility is run to update the SharePoint databases.

I hope the above information can help someone having the same problem.

Thakns and Regards,

Massimiliano
MJenkins
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[MERGED] Failed to prepare guest for freeze

Post by MJenkins »

We are getting this error when trying to backup SBS2011:

“Failed to prepare guest for hot backup. Error: VSSControl: Failed to prepare guest for freeze, wait timeout 900 sec
Error: VSSControl: Failed to prepare guest for freeze, wait timeout 900 sec”

Our consultants say it's the SharePoint Services causing the failure, stopped them and then the backup worked.
Has anyone had a simular problem?
Vitaliy S.
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Looks like Massimiliano has a fix that should help you ;)
massimiliano.rizzi
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Re: Failed to prepare guest for freeze

Post by massimiliano.rizzi »

We are getting this error when trying to backup SBS2011:

“Failed to prepare guest for hot backup. Error: VSSControl: Failed to prepare guest for freeze, wait timeout 900 sec
Error: VSSControl: Failed to prepare guest for freeze, wait timeout 900 sec”

Our consultants say it's the SharePoint Services causing the failure, stopped them and then the backup worked.
Has anyone had a simular problem?[/quote]

Hi Michael,

I confirm that I have had no issues after applying the above fix and that I am really enjoying Veeam B&R. :D

Have a great day.

Massimiliano
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by MJenkins »

Thanks for the help!
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by straycur » 3 people like this post

I had a problem with a VM running Sharepoint 2010 with SQL Server 2008R2 in Windows 2008 R2 failing backups with error:
"VSSFreezer: Failed to prepare guest, wait timeout 900 sec"

At the suggestion of Veeam support, I increased the timeout in the registry per: http://www.veeam.com/kb1377
And patched up from 6.5.0.129 to 6.5.0.144, with no improvement, backups still failed with wait timeout 900 sec error.


Starting with the blogs.technet.com link referenced in this post, I found another article that added a test to see if an upgrade was needed:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/ ... 0-sp1.aspx

The test is:
1. Launch an elevated (Run as Administrator) SharePoint 2010 Management shell from start, All Programs, Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products, SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.
2. Once the shell opens, type the following command followed by enter:
(get-spserver $env:computername).NeedsUpgrade

In my case, it returned True, as shown in the example, so I proceeded to run the SharePoint upgrade command:
1. Open an Administrative command prompt.
2. Change directory to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN
3. Run PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

After that, ad hoc and regular job backups of the Sharepoint VM completed successfully.

This post in Veeam Community Forums pointed me in the right direction, and I've advised Veeam support that this post had a good solution.

Although I have a lot of experience with IBM backups, I'm new to Veeam and the Veeam forum, and appreciate the support both from Veeam support and the user community; this looks like an active and talkative group.

Thank you very much !
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by foggy »

Susan, thanks for the feedback and for sharing the workable solution. Much appreciated.
kte
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[MERGED] Failed to prepare guest for hot backup. VSS timeout

Post by kte »

Failed to prepare guest for hot backup. Error: VSSControl: Failed to prepare guest for freeze, wait timeout 900 sec
but whn he retries it work
VSS wait timeout KB ID: 1377 Would this solve the issue ??
Must I change this on the backup server or on the VM ?

K
Vitaliy S.
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Re: Failed to prepare guest for hot backup. VSS timeout

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Koen,

You need to apply this setting on the backup server, should help.

Thanks!
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by bogurzak »

Hi I also have SBS 2011 installed. The Veeam 7 R2 installed on another virtual machine. Get the same message:
"Unable to release guest. Error: VSSControl: Failed to freeze guest, wait timeout".
Changed VssPreparationTimeout to 20 min and then to 30 min according to KB1377.
I did use psconfig for SharePoint yesterday. Rebooted the Server. Did a check ((get-spserver $env:computername).NeedsUpgrade) >>> false).
Still backups fail with the same error message.
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by bogurzak »

The following vss writers have state: Waiting for completion or Failed

Code: Select all

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
   Writer Instance Id: {7abd5138-7924-4ff0-ad82-c9300dc098a3}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'FRS Writer'
   Writer Id: {d76f5a28-3092-4589-ba48-2958fb88ce29}
   Writer Instance Id: {cb5c5c96-1260-4b10-9ecd-fba4f56c2a46}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Instance Id: {41ba201c-128c-44a9-90b4-a0bd954fbfa9}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'FSRM Writer'
   Writer Id: {12ce4370-5bb7-4c58-a76a-e5d5097e3674}
   Writer Instance Id: {73cde522-4e4b-4608-9c48-dd5f0a4b3e73}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'MSSearch Service Writer'
   Writer Id: {cd3f2362-8bef-46c7-9181-d62844cdc0b2}
   Writer Instance Id: {00779b67-e6df-4acc-8fd6-c06322c0b9ad}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'NTDS'
   Writer Id: {b2014c9e-8711-4c5c-a5a9-3cf384484757}
   Writer Instance Id: {bba924a8-0d54-4c6f-8faf-e3bb44c8033d}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Certificate Authority'
   Writer Id: {6f5b15b5-da24-4d88-b737-63063e3a1f86}
   Writer Instance Id: {0e1d99c4-8909-40e1-a91b-ac4547b56af9}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {632d5bcf-31b6-40e5-ba31-9da96be7d361}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'IIS Config Writer'
   Writer Id: {2a40fd15-dfca-4aa8-a654-1f8c654603f6}
   Writer Instance Id: {08b639a1-150b-4a24-84ea-a73f785ac12c}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'IIS Metabase Writer'
   Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}
   Writer Instance Id: {efd096fa-635b-4815-b047-6ff5b7e07c92}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {5c6b244d-0e73-4735-92eb-81fa75f70803}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
   Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
   Writer Instance Id: {34f4790e-606c-48d9-b617-20e4b0e2574a}
   State: [9] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
   Writer Instance Id: {bde9758b-147c-4228-8927-760bcd59021a}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'TS Gateway Writer'
   Writer Id: {368753ec-572e-4fc7-b4b9-ccd9bdc624cb}
   Writer Instance Id: {c6d5d3aa-9ae4-464b-bc9c-d476161795bb}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'NPS VSS Writer'
   Writer Id: {35e81631-13e1-48db-97fc-d5bc721bb18a}
   Writer Instance Id: {e6113863-49e0-4a66-89d5-2725c783e5fe}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'VeeamFreezeWriter'
   Writer Id: {18ec56c4-e042-497d-a3d4-eea24284fa03}
   Writer Instance Id: {bf3c7208-0666-4915-85d0-152aef695543}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {39181494-565b-4b78-8cd5-b5ecf3aced4c}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Dhcp Jet Writer'
   Writer Id: {be9ac81e-3619-421f-920f-4c6fea9e93ad}
   Writer Instance Id: {e8b5f252-3525-42f3-87a0-625d4b73073e}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error
bogurzak
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by bogurzak »

Ok I think I found solution. Read kb1680 "VSS Timeouts in Exchange". One of the sugestions was restart COM+ Event System Service:
("COM+ Event System Service may need to be restarted. Root cause unknown. In some cases customers have scripted this service to restart prior to backup"). This service will also restart the following services: System Event Notification Service, File Replication Service, DHCP Server, DFS Replication, Backgound Intelligent Transfer Service.
Also noticed that COM+ System Application service. I started it and vss writters showed no errors. The backup finished successfully.
I am not sure what exactly helped. Checked the COM+ System Application service it was stopped. Should it set manual and stopped by default?
Vitaliy S.
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by Vitaliy S. » 1 person likes this post

Yes, I think you should leave it with the default values which are "Startup type: Manual" and "Service status: Stopped".
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by Christophbischoff » 1 person likes this post

When

changing the timeout value wouldn't help
and
(get-spserver $env:computername).NeedsUpgrade is false

try to change the following two reg values. After that, my veeam Backup in SBS2011 worked.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\VSS\VssAccessControl]

Change value of YOURDOMAIN\spfarm from 1 to 0
Change value of YOURDOMAIN\spsearch from 1 to 0

You have to restart the VSS Services and retry Backup
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by Foxyrider »

Perfect - I had updated a few SBS 2011 updates overnight and then the backup failed with the VSScontrol error as above.

I ran the PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures command then retried the backup and hey presto - seems to be speedier than ever TBH.

Thanks for the tip - thought I would post :)
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[MERGED]Server can't be backedup if vmware tools service are

Post by JurryP86 »

Hi,
At a new customer i've installed veeam 7 with patch 4.

All servers are backuped succesfully but one server (active directory) fails to start.
Even when i edit the register fora timeout of 40min (2600sec) , nothing hapens..

The error is : " vss control: failed to prepare guest for freeze, wait timeout 2600sec"

In the vss-logs there are no errors.

No I tried a lot of things, and noticed that, when I stop the Vmware Tools Service, the backup starts right away, with just the warning of "vmware tools are not running"...

Does this sound familiar to someone?

Thx for the effort,

Best regards,
Jurry
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by Shestakov »

Hello Jurry,

Please review this thread and a Knowledge Base article.
P.S. Whatever type of error you have, you can always contact Veeam Support team.

Thank you.
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by JurryP86 »

Hi,

I checked this ofcourse, but without any succes. I also contacted the Veeam Support Team , but also without any luck.

I now managed to get it working :) by NOT quiescing the VM. Then everything works fine. Lucky for me there are no Databases involed.
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by Shestakov »

Jurry, I`m glad you made it work, could you share your experience how you did it?
Also, what is your support case number?
foggy
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Re: VSS timeout 900 sec. // Case ID 5200978

Post by foggy »

JurryP86 wrote:I now managed to get it working :) by NOT quiescing the VM. Then everything works fine. Lucky for me there are no Databases involed.
Please note that backing up domain controllers with application-aware image processing disabled is not recommended. I would recommend further investigating VSS issues with support.
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[MERGED]: VSS Timeout

Post by tolgaunturk »

Hi All,

We are using another backup software which is Acronish Backup Advataged. We are also trying Veeam V9 U1 but we have some problems VSS Service. We tryied a lot off solution and we are bored. Do you have opinion for this case ?

Regards
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Re: VSS Timeout

Post by PTide »

Hi,

Have you already tried methods described in this article? Also what kind of VM are you trying to backup?

Thank you.
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