New warning on 6.5 backup jobs - what does it mean?

[ashleyw]

Hi,

We've just upgraded to v6.5 of Veeam B&R, vCentre 5.1.0x, vsphere 5.1.0 build 838463.
Our storage target is a NexentaStor 3.1.3.5 running CIFS (ZFS apppliance).
We notice that since upgrading our Veeam server to v6.5, we are now getting warnings at the end of each of our jobs;

Could not perform threshold check for backup location "\\10.42.4.105\BackupVolume_backupstore\backups" due to space info retrievement fail!

Can anyone shed any light here? We've never seen this error before. there is ample space left on the volume/target device and we well within the NexentaStor capacity limits.

We are planning to switch from NexentaStor to OpenIndiana+Napp-it as our storage target software (for various reasons) but not for a few weeks - if this is related.

cheers
Ashley

[Gostev]

It means B&R cannot look up free disk space on the CIFS share.

[ashleyw]

thanks Anton, I managed to find the line in the job log which said;
Setting share credentials, share \\10.42.4.106\BackupVolume_backupstore\backups user '.\veeam_svc'
The specified network password is not correct (system.componentModel.Win32Exception)

I checked the repository configuration and I had the user set to be 'veeam_svc', and I verified on the SAN and the password was correct.
I then went and changed the user to be '10.42.4.106\veeam_svc' with the same password and then everything now goes through fine.

So this indicates to me a possible change in behaviour in B&R 6.5.

Interestingly to me was the fact the backups themselves went through fine - it was just the storage check that was failing at the end of the job, so it's probably Veeam 6.5 adding a ".\" infront of the defined repository user if no domain is being set.

Anyhow all working again now when I specify the SAN target IP as well as the user name in repository config - phew!

[Gostev]

So this indicates to me a possible change in behaviour in B&R 6.5

Yes, it is documented in the What's New as well.

[deduplicat3d]

I've noticed this too. It's strange because I have a bunch of jobs pointing to the same repository (CIFS share on Quantum DXi 7500). Some of them seem to never give this error and others give it off and on. When I look under repositories I can see the correct free space listed. Seems like there is probably some sort of timeout. It's not a big deal to me but a minor annoyance because of the Warning tag.

[VMinator]

Maybe this has anything to do with vmotion?

Assuming your B&R server is a virtual machine. I just received the same warning, while the backup state was successfull.
But I saw that my B&R server was just busy with vmotion when I received the warning.

A short time of network outage maybe?

[foggy]

Could be due to short time out. If you can 100% reproduce this, please open a support case so we could look at it more closer and find the real reason. Thanks.

[pendragoncrw]

Just saw this on one of our 6.5 jobs too.

Checked the repository in backup infrastructure and rescanned it. Free space populated fine, no errors.

[deduplicat3d]

It was happening fairly frequently but haven't seen it in a while.

[howesh]

This is happening to me also. Some jobs report that they cannot determine free space while other work fine. They are both pointing to the same NAS. When I scan the NAS repository it seems to figure out the space fine.

[Vitaliy S.]

If this warning shows up frequently in your backup job log and you believe that you do not have any connection problems, please contact our support team as foggy has advised above. Thanks!

[emachabert]

Hi,

I have this message in a different situation. I have a remote server acting as repository to a CIFS share (HP D2D) which relies in a different subnet (only the remote repository has acces to that subnet).
Each time the job is ran, I get this warning "Could not perform threshold check for backup location XXXXXX due to space info retrievement fail!"

As I understand, it means Veeam is trying to check the free space on the share from the veeam server, not from the veeam repository which has direct acces to the share.

Am I right ?

[foggy]

Eric, you are right in your assumptions. And this is going to be addressed in the future updates.

[emachabert]

Ok.

Thank you.
I'll wait for the patch

[dihnat]

I've just installed B&R 6.5, and got this on my first job. It's trying to write to a USB-connected disk. I'd be happy if it was just a complaint but the backup ran--but the backup failed. As it stands, I can't get a backup.

Any help?

[foggy]

David, in all previously reported cases this message had a warning status, which did not affect successful backups. If you are sure that this very message is the reason of the job failure (i.e. you do not get any other error messages in the job log), please provide logs to our support engineers for investigation. Thanks!

[Gostev]

From what I know, this issue is fully investigated by now, and the resolution will be included in the Patch 1 for B&R 6.5

[dihnat]

And that will be when?

[Gostev]

Soon™

[emachabert]

a new registered trademark to say: "When it's done"

[Gostev]

When it's ready™

[cliffm]

Hi, I have applied patch 128 but it makes no difference.
All copy jobs that write directly to a host datastore have these 2 characteristics:
- very slow, typically 2 MB/s
- warning message: "Could not perform threshold check for backup location "<datacenterRef>ha-datacenter</datacenterRef><datacenterName /><hostRef>ha-host</hostRef><datastoreRef>50f5a75c-6863e8c0-5647-5cf3fc56222c</datastoreRef><datastoreGuid>50f5a75c-6863e8c0-5647-5cf3fc56222c</datastoreGuid><FullName>[datastore1] </FullName>" due to space info retrievement fail!"

The messages appear if I try to VM copy to any host datastore. Replication to the same datastore is fine. Copying to "Windows server" repositories or removable drives is fine.
The above message comes from trying to copy to a brand new IBM x3500M3 with a fresh install of fully updated esxi 4.1

My support ID for this is case 00163468. Support wants me to make a datastore a windows server repository but I can't for the life of me work out how to do this? They have given me instructions but I don't understand the instructions!

This has only occurred since updating to 6.5.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Gostev]

My support ID for this is case 00163468. Support wants me to make a datastore a windows server repository but I can't for the life of me work out how to do this? They have given me instructions but I don't understand the instructions!

Just have them do a webex with you, make sure you installed the patch correctly, as well as create the repository manually for you. If you do not understand support instructions, it would be hard to help you over the forum posts.

[cliffm]

Thanks,

Support simply gave me this link: http://www.veeam.com/vmware-backup/help ... ddrepo.htm
It does not seem to contain any information on how to make an esxi vmfs datastore into a windows server repository. Replicas write to the same datastore at full speed. VM copies used to, but not since 6.5. But yes you are right, a Webex would be a good idea!

[veremin]

If your goal is to store files produced by VM copy job on the VMFS volume, you should create a Windows VM with RDM disk located on the given datastore. After having performed that you’ll be able to add this server as a Windows repository to VB&R console.

Anyway, you can definitely rely on support team and let them adress your issues directly.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.

[cliffm]

But I have been using Veeam B&R to copy VMs directly and rapidly to esxi datastores for 2 years now with zero problems. Has this suddenly changed?
Thanks

[veremin]

Sorry for misleading you, I’ve already added necessary correction to my answer.

Has this suddenly changed?

No, it hasn't changed recently. Nevertheless, if you’re willing to use your VMFS datastore as Windows repository, as proposed by support team, I believe, you should follow above mentioned steps.

However, please be aware that in this case you will not be able to preserve the thin-provisioned disk type, since Windows NTFS doesn’t understand thin disks.

Thanks.

[visionmaster]

@ashleyw

Hi, we are planning to uses Nexenta as backup target. I'd like to hear your experience and share some Information.
I'm not able to send you a private message as I did not write enough posts yet...

Would be glad to hear from you

Regards
Dennis

[Vitaliy S.]

I'm not able to send you a private message as I did not write enough posts yet...

Now you can

[AlexLaforge]

A Quite old post, but experiencing the same "issue" with Veeam BR Standard 9.5.4a, when copying a VM from ESXi A to ESXi B.
As the Job finished with "Network traffic verification detected no corrupted blocks", Can I just ignore this message ?