Veeam application aware processing

[FrancWest]

Hi,

case #04915760. I have a discussion with the engineer. I was always under the impression that I need to enable Application Aware Processing to have a consistent backup at the filesystem level, even when the VM doesn't contain any of the following roles: Domain Controller, Exchange, SQL, Share point, Oracle. If I don't have AAP enabled I only have crash consistent backups, which in most cases is fine, but could lead to NTFS corruption or incomplete files. The engineer states that I don't need AAP since the VM is not running one of the mentioned roles.

What's you take on this?

Franc.

[PetrM]

Hi Franc,

AAIP is always recommended to produce fully consistent backups regardless of the application running on a workload, for example there are system VSS writers like WMI, Registry, System etc. As far as I see, the case is about failures of AAIP and I suggest to escalate it in order to find the root cause of the issue.

Thanks!

[FrancWest]

Hi,

the case is indeed about VSS failures, but the engineer suggested to disable AAP for this machine to solve it since it doesn't contain any of the roles mentioned and thus there's no benefit in using AAP.

He pointed me to the article below on your KB which states the same that AAP is only needed for one of the roles mentioned. I don't agree with this and neither do you according to your reply in this thread.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110

[wishr]

Hi Franc,

Technically, Petr is correct.

Veeam AAIP is based on Microsoft VSS. There are lots of Microsoft VSS writers that help to preserve the consistency of the applications present in the system. You can check the list of available VSS writers and their status which may help to investigate the issue using the "sysadmin list writers" CMD command. During AAIP backup processing we query all of these. If a certain VSS writer fails, the job will finish with failure. In such cases, you may want to get to the bottom of the issue with the VSS writer itself and resolve it or disable that specific VSS writer that failed and keep using AAIP to take the most benefits from the VSS writers that are applicable to your system.

Thanks

[FrancWest]

Ah, ok, but the case engineer advised to disable AAIP completely for this specific VM since AAIP is not needed for this VM, but I disagree. That's the point I'm trying to make

I'll escalate the case then. Thanks.

[wishr]

Welcome! The KB1980 may help to isolate the issue.

[FrancWest]

Thanks. Will try that. for now 'vssadmin list writers' returns all writers as stable and no errors. I'll work on the case with the engineer.

[david.domask]

Ah, ok, but the case engineer advised to disable AAIP completely for this specific VM since AAIP is not needed for this VM, but I disagree. That's the point I'm trying to make

I'll escalate the case then. Thanks.

Hello FrancWest

This case was brought to the attention of support management and I reviewed the case; the Engineer was...let's say overzealous in the goal to get backups running and made inaccurate statements on the benefit of VSS for other parts of the OS based on a misunderstanding from their side. I've corrected the misunderstandings and we have some additional points to troubleshoot. Please expect and update soon from the Engineer if it was not sent already.

[FrancWest]

Hi David,

ok, thanks. The engineer already contacted me. We'll continue troubleshooting. Thanks for the intervention.