Feature Request - Snapshot Hunter Configuration

[AndrewBk]

Please, pretty please, let us temporarily disable Snapshot Hunter.

I've been using Veeam for years and the introduction of SH for the most part has been brilliant.
Unfortunately, it's far more hassle than it is worth when you get an issue.

Once every couple of months, for many and varied reasons, we find ourselves with backed up servers, usually with large disks attached, getting issues with the removal of VBR's snapshots.
If it is caught early enough it can be fixed relatively easily, but if it's left too long, it can be a real struggle just to get vsphere to start doing a proper consolidation. Only for a couple of hours later Snapshot Hunter to try and remove the snapshots itself (something it has failed to do for several days at this point) and forces the task that a user set running to time out and get stuck in the background.

The ability to disable SH from attempting to run on machines temporarily would be immensely helpful in times like this and would regularly save me a couple of hours work.

Cheers

[Gostev]

I am pretty sure it's possible already via the registry value - need to dig it up!

[AndrewBk]

I am pretty sure it's possible already via the registry value - need to dig it up!

I mean, if it's possible, it would be amazing!
THe last case I opened (god knows the SR#, it was a while ago) I was told it wasn't possible.

Cheers for coming back to me, Gostev.

[veremin]

This is the regkey:

Code: Select all

DisableAutoSnapshotConsolidation <DWORD>

The regkey should be added to "HKLM\SOFTWARE\VEEAM\Veeam Backup and Replication".

Thanks.

[AndrewBk]

Awesome, thanks

[Fenris]

Hey folks

This is very crucial information, at least for me. We have been trying to pin down an issue in the last couple of weeks, since we had broken snapshot chains on many VMs.
Today, a VM failed with a consolidate error and while troubleshooting with VMware, we saw that it had 39 "phantom snapshots". Those were all triggered by veeam according to the logs, we concluded this after finding lines like this in the vm logfile:
0| I125: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Done with snapshot 'Veeam Backup Forced Consolidation Snapshot': 4

We also got the mails from the snapshot hunter, that the consolidation failed, but they were overlooked in the daily troubles.

I've now disabled the snapshot hunter and we go further with testing.

And just in case some poor dude is googling like crazy: The initial Message you get after the snapshot hunter fails its consolidating snapshot is from VMware HA:
EventEx=com.vmware.vc.ha.VmRestartedByHAEvent vm=/vmfs/volumes/5bcb0b51-9046c9d3-3426-3c78430a6f15/XXX/XXX.vmx host=host-56494 tag=host-56494:-339707667:3

There's nothing at all pointing to Snapshot Hunter. Wish me luck we found the error this time.

[masonit]

This is the regkey:

Code: Select all

DisableAutoSnapshotConsolidation <DWORD>

The regkey should be added to "HKLM\SOFTWARE\VEEAM\Veeam Backup and Replication".

Thanks.

Will this apply automatically or is restart needed?

\Masonit

[foggy]

Hi Magnus, please restart the Veeam Backup Service to apply the new value. Thanks!

[vDuck]

Hi Experts

Can customers edit this regkey without technical support case?

Sincerely,
S.T.

[veremin]

Customers can, of course, edit this regkey without assistance from support team. But the actual issue (that customers think might be solved by editing this regkey) should normally be investigated by support engineer first. Thanks!

[zercho05]

Is this regkey edit still working in Version 11.x?

I have the feeling the RegKey is not honored by the Backup Server.
Can i somehow verify the "Snapshot hunter" is not running?


or do you have to use the other "alternative"?
https://www.veeam.com/kb2091

Edit VM configuration (.vmx file).

cloud.uuid = "001.00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"


thanks for your replies.

[david.domask]

Hi @zercho05, why do you think it's not being applied? Can you share a bit more?

A few notes on SnapshotHunter behavior. Snapshot hunter basically works by:

1. Checking during backups/replication if consolidation is needed
2. If during the backup/replication it's determined it's needed, a Snapshot Hunter task is created
3. The VBR scheduler then tries periodically 4 times over a course of a few hours (a tweakable interval) to consolidate

Disabling the registry value simply stops point 2 from happening; if some tasks have already been created, they will continue to operate until they either succeed or reach the final attempt.

PS - Btw, no need for service restart anymore for most registry values. Unless your Support Engineer tells you, there likely isn't a need.