Backup Failed and Server Crash

[mohammada]

Hi Guys
One of my Server crashed with the following error and refuse to startup . I have to change manually the vmx file to point to the right vmdk file .
Any one come across with smiler error and any solution . I Am very new using Veeam and pushing my Company to use this product . But if something like this happen I cannot impress them with it.

Please check the error below .

Creating snapshot CreateSnapshot failed, vmRef "vm-1117", timeout "1800000", snName "VEEAM BACKUP TEMPORARY SNAPSHOT", snDescription "Please do not delete this snapshot. It is being used by Veeam Backup.", memory "False", quiesce "True" Creating a quiesced snapshot failed because the create snapshot operation exceeded the time limit for holding off I/O in the frozen virtual machine.

Any Suggestion is appreciated
Mohammad

[Pavel Shterlyaev]

Hi Mohammad,

Generally this error is caused by VMware tools quiescence. You can try to google "Cannot create a quiesced snapshot" and find lots of potential resolutions for that. Also, over here one of our customers reported that he managed to fix it by simply installing the latest version of VMware tools.

Cheers, Pavel

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Mohammad,

Yes, Pavel is correct. Also can you tell me what type of OS were you trying to backup? I'm asking this cause I see that you're using quiescence option to have a consistent state of your backups, however we do recommend to use Veeam VSS option for all Windows machines (which support VSS) rather than VMware Tools quiescence. You can easily configure VSS integration module and disable quiescence via advanced job settings.

You can do some search through our forum threads to get more information and to know the difference between those two options.

Thank you

[Gostev]

Mohammad, VMware SYNC driver used for quiesced snapshots is indeed known for its ability to corrupt VMs in some occasions. This is exactly why we ship "proper", proprietary VM quiescence system based on Windows VSS. We call it Veeam VSS and it can be enabled from Backup Consistency step.

Alternatively, if you cannot or do not want to use Veeam VSS, I recommend that you disable VMware quiescence in the advanced backup job settings. This will disable VMware SYNC driver during snapshots and will let you avoid source VM corruption. However, backups will be crash consistent in this case, and in some cases unrestorable.

Veeam VSS is really the best and safest option to go with.

[mohammada]

Thanks Guys for the Reply .
I have taken out the snapshot and seems to works fine . Just wondering .. if any VM have snapshot does it have more chance to crash while replicating ? I do have some Dev server always having snapshot on and off .. what is the best practice for those to replicate with Veeam ?

Mohammad

[Gostev]

Mohammad, no - having snapshots on VM should not present any risks. Our product will replicate the latest VM state in case if you are using vStorage API or VCB processing modes, so snapshot presence does not matter.