SYSVOL stops replicating after Veeam 7 backup.

[Fiskepudding]

If you are thinking about a fix for this situation happening, you need to wait for a fix from Veeam.
Workaround is mentioned several times in this article; don’t run DC backups in parallel.

If sysvol replication is already broken and you are thinking about FIXING the broken DFSR sysvol replication, that happens during Veeam backup on some systems, the procedure is exactly the same for 2008 and 2012.

MS article ID 2218556 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2218556)
As I pointed out in this thread the article fails to mention that you need to stop the DFSR service on all DC's before starting this process..

I have done this on both 2008R2 and 2012.

I used authorative restore method many times, it works fine. (as long as you stop DFSR service on all DCs before staring the process)

After you fix the replication, remember to change your backups so your DSs backup in sequence.
Either by scheduling at different times or linking the jobs...or disable parallel processing if they are in the same job

Hope this helps

[ddeplanche]

Hi,

Thank you for this solution Fiskepudding. Do you know if team Veeam have fixed this problem ?

Best regards.

[Fiskepudding]

Short answer; no, as far as I now they have not completely fixed the problem, but they are most def. on the right track.

Long answer;
I reported the problem MID September 2013, so it is probably challenging to find out exactly what causes this.
They provided me with multiple DLL's for testing during this time. As I reported in this thread, the lates DLL's has eliminated the problem for my system, and also others. BUT.. they say the DLL's are not ready for release just yet.

In a mail dialogue I asked support what caused this issue, here is what they replied:

"It's not that easy question - otherwise I'm sure we would be able to have fixed it sooner. There seems to be a combination of factors: partly this is Veeam-related (and we can fix it with the patch as we confirmed) but those checks that we excluded are related to Microsoft possible issues that we were trying to avoid."

"The good thing is that the issue is now documented and confirmed and our R&D is going to implement the best possible fix for it in the future releases. Please let us know if I can close this case for now or if you have any further questions. And thank you once again for your patience and all your assistance during investigation of the issue, your help is tremendously appreciated!"

I am also a bit afraid that a similar issue can resurface, sometime in the future, for whatever reason, Veeam, MS or other.
Since my DC backups are in two separate jobs anyway, I think I will continue to run the DC backups in sequence. (I just linked them, so the time difference between them will be very small anyway.)
To be on the safe side i also put the "old" dll's back and still run the DC's in sequence.

[trafsta]

Backups ran 3 or 4 times in a row over the weekend with the DLL's provided by support (two DC backups running in parallel [started at the exact same time]). So far so good...
(Case # 00445116)

[trafsta]

Also, support indicated to me that this fix will be available/included in the upcoming patch 3.

I, similar to Fiskepudding, have reverted back to running the DC backups in series, not parallel, just in case -I have 12 VMs in a single job, so one DC is at the front of the list and the other DC is at the end of the list and I have it processing 4 VMs in parallel max so it works out just fine like this anyways. It is nice to know that if for some reason the two DCs do backup at the exact same time in the future that this problem will not occur again.

[Gostev]

Also, support indicated to me that this fix will be available/included in the upcoming patch 3.

Not exactly "this" fix, but the proper fix (as per my post above).

[Fiskepudding]

Release notes in patch 3:

Application-aware processing
Application-aware processing breaks DFSR replication of SYSVOL when all domain controllers are backed up at the same time due to the parallel processing.

Would just like to say that after patch 3, I can no longer reproduce the problem. Thanx Veeam!

[veremin]

Thanks, Espen, for coming back to share your findings. Thanks.

[chrisj27]

I am experiencing exactly the same problem and have reached my wits end. DC is windows server 2012 - Veeam backs it up and immediately I see the errors popping out about SYSVOL.

I did include the problem DC in the same backup as the rest and it still happened.

Is this fixed in Veeam patch yet? we are running 7.0.0.764

[foggy]

Chris, the discussed issue was addressed in patch 3, so it is worth to upgrade and check whether it helps in your case.