AAP on DC

[Zew]

Hey,

I have a case open with Veeam Support and here's the deets:

CASE # 01700701

I noticed that my surebackup job DC wasn't hosting DC services anymore, the only change I made was enabling Application-Aware Processing on the backup job. As I thought this is a critical aspect of the backup job.

Since then when I boot a SureBackup Job with this PDC that auth fails for any other member server spun up on the job along with it. I spent about an hour with the tech on the phone and he linked me this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315457

I couldn't seem to get to login with the local Administrator account for the comp, (was right according to my password file, but wouldn't work and I didn't want to have to do that every time I spun on a Test Enviro) So in a huffy puff (a little upset I must say) I went ahead and unchecked AAP on the job and did another active full. Reran the SBJ and sure enough AD services was working and I could log in with member servers in the same test enviro.

I mentioned I would email the tech back once I had completed the above KB, but I don't believe this is an acceptable solution as I am not willing to go thorugh all those steps everytime I need a temp Test environment.

Can someone please advice to bets practice, should AAP be enabled on a PDC job? if so how can I get my SBJ to work successfully with this enabled?

Thanks

[tsightler]

When you setup your Application Group did you select the DC VM and choose the DC/Global Catalog (and possibly DNS) roles for that server so that SureBackup can "do the right thing" when it powers up that VM in the lab? Are those tests passing when you run the SureBackup job?

[Zew]

Thanks for the reply,

Yes I have those configured, and scripts enabled.

It stopped working after enabling AAP on the backup job. Please advise.

Just a bit more information, If I changed the application startup time (normally 120 seconds or two minutes) the SBJ will succeed all heartbeat and script test and then when it gets to application initialization it will always reach this limit and succeed.
Example If I change the application timeout to 600 seconds I see the SBJ wait the entire 10 minutes then simply check off that application initialization completed successfully, in both cases (When I have APP enabled on the original backup job or not)

The only difference is that the AD services don't actually come up in a working state when I have APP enabled on the original backup job. Something seem off and wrong here, why is it my SBJ works if I don't have AAP enabled, and then fails to bring up AD services properly when THE ONLY DIFFERENCE is checking of Application Aware processing on the job. Its the only thing I change to make it go from working, to not working.

[Zew]

Bump,

Am I the only person to ever run a SBJ with a single DC using AAIP?!

Any help to allivate this problem would be greatly apprciated, leaving my AD backup job without AAIP seems.. not right?

[Zew]

... this is unexpected. I usually get a reply from someone usually.... no thoughts on what I can do to get this to work? with AAP?

[PTide]

The thing that is performed by SBJ is actually a restore operation. In case of DC the whole process can get very tricky depending on various circumstances. So, while awaiting for a response kindly take a look at this extensive thread on that topic. If no answer will be found in the thread please continiue working with support team - you can use "Talk to manager" button in order to escalate your case to a higher tier.

Thank you.

[Zew]

Thank you PTide for the response.

I'll review the thread you provided and keep working with the engineer on the case.

I'll reply with any answer I manage to come to. (For now I'm running a back up job of my DC's on a separate job with AAP disabled)

[Zew]

This started working after updating to Veeam 9... or it was something else... but the only major change I made was upgrading to Veeam 9. SBJ in an All-in_one virtual Veeam server with a meh vPower NFS store are still a little finiky to get started (generally have to tweak the alloted boot times)

Thanks for all the help on this one.

[Zew]

Just wanted to update this, so after I replied it's all working fine now. I went ahead and started up my test enviro for my colleagues to use. While everything was stating to come up clean (according to the SBJ) I found that when I RDP'd into the PDC and attempted to open up Users and Computers it would fail complaining that the naming convention is not available, even though the services showed up.

What I had to do was change my Application group, and under the VM settings turn off all Veeams scripts for DC stuff and allow the VM's to boot without them (change allotted boot times to match). Any idea what might have changed?

[foggy]

Do you mean you were able to open Users and Computers after disabling the DC role in application group?

[Zew]

Yup, it's really weird...

[foggy]

Basically, when you disable the DC role, DC is restored without Veeam B&R intelligent logic, just as it would restore from a crash-consistent backup (like it did prior enabling AAIP). Seems with role enabled it freezes in DSRM mode without subsequent reboot, for some reason, or DNS server is not available, or something like that. This is better to be investigated with the help of support.

[Zew]

Hahah dang it, been there done that, tell ya SBJ are the pinnacle of a PITA...

[Zew]

I re-adjusted my backup setup, and now that I can have dedicated backup files per VM with Veeam 9 I concatenated my job types toegther, including bringing my AD servers into one job. I discovered with the usual VIX admin share issue on AAP failing due to my domain admin account being different than all my other member server local admin passwords. Once I corrected that verified AAP reported back %100. I then ran the backup job.

After which I came across the Re-IP VMXNet3 issue, so I had to install MS the MS Patch for that, again re-run the backup and then spin up my SBJ.

Happy to say now that this issue is resolved. Now time to make a post on getting lower disk latency from my vPower NFS.