Community Edition, OneDrive backup fails for some users

[larryg]

I've installed the free Community Edition, picked 10 of my users, and started backing up. Email and Sharepoint backups appear to be fine, but Onedrive just gets errors. 5 of the 10 report:

"Specified argument was out of the range of valid values. Parameter name: value"

The other 5 don't get errors, but show a size of 0, which I know is not correct.

Support has had me lower the concurrent threads on the proxy, twice, which didn't help. Then they asked me to to lower the network bandwidth to 2, on the proxy page. Also, no change.

Has anyone else run into this?

[Evgeny_S]

Hi,

Can you post the case ID here?

Thanks.

[larryg]

Case # 03125306

[larryg]

Just got this reply from support:

Thank you for the logs. I did review them and I also researched the issue. I found the following in the logs below:

8/6/2018 5:06:43 PM 89 (3508) Error: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.

This issue is currently a bug and a fix is in the works right now, but there is no ETA for it.

Considering that's the error message I opened the ticket with, I'm not too happy with that response.

[Gostev]

If I may ask - given the situation, what kind of response would make you happy?

[larryg]

One that didn't say 'we looked at the logs and look what we found!' that just repeats what I had already said.

Something like "we've looked at the logs and found nothing else, other than what you had already reported", for example.

[Gostev]

But they key point of the whole response is totally different, it's further down:
"This issue is currently a bug and a fix is in the works right now, but there is no ETA for it. "

[larryg]

Yes, that part was fine. It was not what I was complaining about.

[Gostev]

I don't work at support - but in my personal experience, whenever I open support cases with IT companies, or even my cellular provider, they always tend to restate the issue in their response - often just repeating what I said. So this must be either some best practice, or something for the internal documentation, or perhaps even for the legal requirements (to keep the context along with the response). This does not make me unhappy - and actually makes things simpler when I need to escalate the issue, or repost it somewhere.

[larryg]

Perhaps I wasn't clear about how things happened, then.

I'm all for restating it, in the initial reply. This was the final, closing reply. After several emails back and forth and after logs being sent in as requested.

At that point, telling me you found the problem (when it's what I already told you) is not going to make me a happy person.

[Gostev]

What he was really trying to tell you is this:
"This issue is currently a bug and a fix is in the works right now, but there is no ETA for it."

I don't know if it physically possible to remember all the details of every case of many dozens cases they are working on every day. Like, in which case the customer has found and highlighted the key log entry himself, so that the wording of the response considers this fact to give the customer a full credit. Especially since when R&D confirms a bug, they usually need to respond to a bunch of the corresponding cases in one pass.

So yes, while this is certainly something that I would expect from the Premier Support program, where you get the dedicated support engineer who works exclusively with you and keeps everything in mind - I don't think it's fair to expect this level of attention to insignificant details from the free version support...

[larryg]

I don't know if it physically possible to remember all the details of every case of many dozens cases they are working on every day

Of course not. But he was replying to this case and, unless there's something very wrong with their system, he would have the case notes in front of him. There were about 5 back and forth emails. Not a whole lot to review. And part of the error message was in the subject.

In any case, it's over and done with now. I stick by what I said - it wasn't well worded. Any and all customer service people should be interested in improving and be open to constructive criticism. This is far from a huge deal, not something that's going to make me yell at their boss or run to another product. But it was annoying and I hope that, in the future, they won't do this.

[Gostev]

It might not be a huge deal for you, but it was somewhat a big deal for me, otherwise I would not have responded.

The thing is, I don't want our support folks, after seeing this sort of feedback, to get discouraged from responding to support cases for free products, which they are absolutely not required to do... just putting myself in their own shoes - seeing how trying to pick up some extra cases from the "free edition" pool in a spare minute resulted in a bad public feedback on my performance (because I did not have the appropriate time to review the thread and word the response perfectly around insignificant details) will certainly make me think twice and "in the future, don't do this"... just as you said.

Which in turn hits us PMs because we want all reported bugs investigated and fixed ASAP.

[larryg]

So... you'd prefer to allow your support folks to word things poorly and annoy customers, instead of see some criticism that might help them improve their writing skills?

My initial complaint wasn't completely clear, but I think I clarified things in my replies. Yet it seems you still think I was "complaining about a non-issue" and that your concern is more with keeping your employees happy than with seeing them improve and deal with customers in a more professional manner.

I wasn't aware that your employees didn't have to support the free product. The free product page says support is supplied via email, not that it's optional on your part.

[Gostev]

Don't get me wrong - I am all for valid criticism, but I honestly don't feel there was any reason to be unhappy with the response (thus my original question). It just felt like you completely ignored the factual part, and became unhappy for him restating the key issue he saw in the log. It's not that I disagree that the response looks somewhat clumsy - but I also realize my every email does so too when I have periods of high pressure and trying to return lots of emails.

And yes, I'd prefer our support folks to respond to support cases from "free editions" pool the moment they get a free minute without being worried that the time they have to spend might not be enough to ensure they did not word things poorly around insignificant details.

Yes, support is provided via email, but it is in fact optional on our part > Veeam Support Policy

FREE and NFR licensed products
Email support is provided on a best-effort basis depending on staff availability, but there are no response goals or response guarantees for this service.

And the product page also states the same in the edition comparison table all the way to the bottom.

[larryg]

I see. I did misread the email support policy.

It's a shame you don't see the issue with the wording that I see. I've just been told that you are not in the US, so perhaps there's a bit of a language gap here. Perhaps I'm just picky.

In any case, I certainly hope that whatever the bug is can be fixed, because I would like to use the paid version of this product next year.

[Gostev]

It's a shame you don't see the issue with the wording that I see.

As noted in my previous response, I do see its clumsiness even if I am not a native speaker.

But yes, what's most important is getting this bug fixed - so thank you for reporting one!

[rasmusan]

any news on resolution for this bug ?

[Polina]

Rasmus,

The fix is available and can be provided by our support upon a request

[larryg]

Yes, as Polina said they have a working fix. I've been using it for a bit now and have had no issues with it.

[apiods]

Case # 03125306

+1. I also have this OneDrive backup error for a couple of users.
OneDrive backup for another user is working fine.

Looking forward to a fix so I stop receiving daily email alerts for failed backups

[Polina]

Kier,

Please share your case ID here as well. Thanks and welcome to the community!

[apiods]

FYI - My case ID is: 03209111

I applied the hot fix (provided by support) identified in KBID 2713, and this has resolved the errors for me !

[Polina]

Glad to hear that, Kier! And thanks for getting back with the results.