Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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jaseruk
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Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by jaseruk »

I've had this issue occur at two completely different customer this week. One is on a 2012 R2 guest, one is a 2008 R2 guest, both are running on VMware.

Tickets are 03191648 and 03191483

In the guest helper logs on both I am seeing;

Code: Select all

    Failed to collect component info: class util::CHostVssInfo
13/09/2018 14:29:46   5600  ERR                                         Cannot collect VSS info.
13/09/2018 14:29:46   5600  ERR                                         Cannot initialize VSS subsystem.
13/09/2018 14:29:46   5600  ERR                                         Timed out waiting for GatherWriterMetadata() to complete in GetHostInformation().
13/09/2018 14:29:46   5600  ERR                                         VSS error: VSS_S_ASYNC_PENDING. Code:0x42309

There are plenty of other VMs all running fine and migrating to a new host does not resolve.
jaseruk
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by jaseruk »

Sorry, just seen this in the Veeam agent forums, my issues are on Veeam backup and replication, backing up virtual machines. Same VSS error though it seems.
tohhmas
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by tohhmas »

Same issue here, ticket ID 03192805.

The guest helper logs:

Code: Select all

13/09/2018 21:00:46   7348                                              Collecting VSS info.
13/09/2018 21:00:46   7348                                                      Initializing VSS subsystem.
13/09/2018 21:00:46   7348                                                          Creating VSS backup components.
13/09/2018 21:00:46   7348                                                          Initializing for backup.
13/09/2018 21:00:46   7348                                                          Setting backup state to VSS_BT_LOG.
13/09/2018 21:00:46   7348                                                              Disabling VSS writers.
13/09/2018 21:00:46   7348                                                          Collecting VSS writers metadata.
13/09/2018 21:30:46    584                                                      Initializing VSS subsystem.. Failed.
13/09/2018 21:30:46    584                                              Collecting VSS info.. Failed.
13/09/2018 21:30:46    584  ERR                                     Failed to collect component info: class util::CHostVssInfo
13/09/2018 21:30:46    584  ERR                                         Cannot collect VSS info.
13/09/2018 21:30:46    584  ERR                                         Cannot initialize VSS subsystem.
13/09/2018 21:30:46    584  ERR                                         Timed out waiting for GatherWriterMetadata() to complete in GetHostInformation().
13/09/2018 21:30:46    584  ERR                                         VSS error: VSS_S_ASYNC_PENDING. Code:0x42309
All other VMs are fine.

Things that have changed recently in our environment:
Upgrade from vCenter 6.5 to 6.7
Most recent Windows Server 2016 patches being installed on the Veeam Servers. (Not the VM in question though)
Reissued vCenter certificates

We've tried a reboot of the server, and restarted the VSS admin service.

I've noticed that post failure of the backup, our scheduled VSS snapshots are also failing until I restart the VSS service. After which they run properly until the next Veeam backup is run.
Vitaliy S.
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Tohhmas, I'm a bit confused on the vCenter server and other facts referring to the virtualization. Do you back up your VMs with Veeam Agent or this is a misplaced post and it should be in Veeam B&R section?
tohhmas
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by tohhmas »

Hi Vitaliy, yes this is ESXi B&R backups, just like the person above me. Can create a new thread in the proper section if required, although it looks like a similiar issue has already been posted now and featured in the weekly digest: vmware-vsphere-f24/vix-with-vmware-tool ... 53177.html
Vitaliy S.
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by Vitaliy S. »

The original message is about Veeam Agent, so I will move your posts as well as posts from jaseruk to the Veeam B&R forums. Let's see what our support team can find out on the issue.
bdufour
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by bdufour »

in the job, under guest processing, please try the 'test now' option under guest interaction proxy - to verify it completes successfully.
skrause
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by skrause »

You said you are running VSS snapshots regularly. Are you by chance using "no limit" on the maximum size for your VSS snapshots?

I found that we had to set a maximum size to stop random VSS errors/lockups happening when AAIP processes ran.
Steve Krause
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ChuckS42
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by ChuckS42 »

Are you also seeing CAPI2 513 errors? If so, follow this article:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... ows-server

I've seen this a few times now, and following those instructions fixed it.

Additional: The CAPI2 513 error has been around a very long time. It used to be that you could safely ignore it. After the most recent OS updates, it seems that sometimes you can't ignore it any more.
Veeaming since 2013
tohhmas
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by tohhmas »

ChuckS42 wrote: Sep 19, 2018 4:04 pm Are you also seeing CAPI2 513 errors? If so, follow this article:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... ows-server

I've seen this a few times now, and following those instructions fixed it.

Additional: The CAPI2 513 error has been around a very long time. It used to be that you could safely ignore it. After the most recent OS updates, it seems that sometimes you can't ignore it any more.
No CAPI2 513 errors on this server I'm afraid.
skrause wrote: Sep 18, 2018 7:45 pm You said you are running VSS snapshots regularly. Are you by chance using "no limit" on the maximum size for your VSS snapshots?

I found that we had to set a maximum size to stop random VSS errors/lockups happening when AAIP processes ran.
Yes it's set to no-limit and just rolls off the oldest when the volume is full (Standalone target volume for all shadowcopies). Did you set the limit to an arbitrarily high number?
bdufour wrote: Sep 18, 2018 4:00 pm in the job, under guest processing, please try the 'test now' option under guest interaction proxy - to verify it completes successfully.
Yes this completes just fine.
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Re: Creating VSS snapshot Error

Post by skrause » 1 person likes this post

We target our VSS snapshots all to a separate disk in Windows so I just carved out chunks of the total size of the VSS target disk (with about 5% left for overhead) that corresponded to the relative sizes of the disks.

Once I got rid of the no limit settings the VSS errors went away.
Steve Krause
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