VSSFreezer: Failed to freeze guest, wait timeout

[schaffeb]

I'm trying to replicate our virtual center vm and I'm getting the error "VSSFreezer: Failed to freeze guest, wait timeout".

I'm assuming this is because the VSS freeze is taking a long time due to the activity on the server.

I found a registry fix to extend the VSS timeout for this issue on 3.0.1 here:

http://www.veeam.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=984

Is this solution still valid?

[Gostev]

Ben, yes this solution is still valid. Also, Veeam Backup 3.1 has the default value of this timeout increased to 15 minutes.

[schaffeb]

Gostev,

Perhaps our vcenter virtual machine is simply to active to be backed up without powering it off. Maybe that's the safer bet.

However, I should note that I get the VSS freezer message after about a minute, not 15.

[Gostev]

Oh, so you are trying to backup the vCenter VM?

In that case, you need to apply this workaround: you should add ESX hosting the vCenter VM as a stand-alone host to Veeam Backup server tree (just make sure use IP address to add it, otherwise Veeam will detect that this ESX is already added as a part of vCenter, and will refuse to add it again). Then, create backup job and add this VM by browsing to it through newly added ESX host. This should work.

Basically, it is impossible to backup vCenter server through the job that is configured to use the given vCenter server. What happens is VSS freeze prevents vCenter from processing Veeam Backup queries, and so backup operation simply times out.

Hope this helps.

[cjscol]

If you do this what happens if the vCenter VM is moved to another host, say by DRS? Will the backup job then fail because it is no longer on the host the backup job is configured for?

What about switching off VSS or do you not suggest this on a vCenter VM, especially if it is also hosting the SQL database, due to only having a crash consistent backup?

[Gostev]

Yes, backup job will fail in this case.

I would switch off VSS in case of local SQL installation (backup with VSS enabled will be simply impossible, so crash consistent backup is your only option). But if SQL is installed remotely, then backup will work fine with VSS enabled, and there is really no reason to switch VSS off.