SQL Backup Woes

[HendersonD]

SQL 2014 server with 20 databases to be backed up
Veeam v9, latest patches installed
vCenter databases are installed on the SQL Server. Verified that the vCenter databases are being excluded from VSS using this KB
https://www.veeam.com/kb1051

Veeam sends vCenter the command to snapshot the server. The snapshot happens nearly a minute later when it should be much quicker. This long delay is causing the backup job to fail with Error: VSSControl: Failed to freeze guest, wait timeout

Opened a case with Veeam, they told me to call VMWare. Opened a case with VMWare, they said it was a SQL VSS Writer issue, call Microsoft. Have not called Microsoft yet. The SQL server event logs are littered with SQLVDI Event ID 1 errors and SQLWRITER Event ID 24583 errors
I have spent about 10 hours trying to troubleshoot this problem. The vssadmin list writers command shows that SqlServerWriter timed out
If I disable the SQL VSS writer service, the databases will backup but I get the warning SQL VSS Writer is missing: databases will be backed up in crash-consistent state
Any ideas?

[PTide]

Hi,

Have you tried to increase VSS timeout value? Also please post your case ID for future reference.

Thanks

[alanbolte]

You can't increase the 60 second timeout.

It sounds like VMware support was confused by the details of the case; the only thing they need to be worrying about is that the VMware snapshot takes more than a minute to create, which would not be related to the VSS writer. Double check that the vCenter database isn't being frozen (you can see which databases are affected in the Windows event logs or the MS SQL logs); if it's not being frozen, then you must work with VMware support (or in some cases your primary storage vendor) to improve performance of VMware snapshot creation.

And yes, please do post a support case ID.

[kevjohnston]

Did you have any luck on this HendersonD?

Starting to see this issue on one of mine.

[veremin]

He has not provided a support ticket number, so we cannot check how the investigation went. Kindly, create your own case and let our support engineers work on this issue directly. Thanks!