Windows – wbadmin system state backup fails

backupwbadminwindowswindows-server-2008-r2

When trying to backup the system state to shared drive the backup fails. This share is a samba share. The samba server is not on AD but I mapped a network drive so the credentials would be saved (Can't actually backup to the network drive, wbamin prevents that). When I run the backup over it fails. Both the log files mentioned in the output below are empty. Any ideas?

PS C:\Users\Administrator> wbadmin start systemstatebackup -backuptarget:\\ny-back01\backups
wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corp.

Starting to back up the system state [8/19/2010 1:41 PM]...
Retrieving volume information...
This will back up the system state from volume(s) System Reserved (100.00 MB),Local Disk(C:) to \\ny-back01\backups.
Do you want to start the backup operation?
[Y] Yes [N] No Y

Creating a shadow copy of the volumes specified for backup...
Please wait while system state files to back up are identified.
This might take several minutes...
Found (118) files.
Found (10194) files.
Found (14481) files.
Found (31086) files.
Found (36456) files.
Found (48828) files.
Found (69057) files.
Found (73761) files.
Summary of the backup operation:
------------------

The backup of the system state failed [8/19/2010 1:43 PM].
Log of files successfully backed up:
C:\Windows\Logs\WindowsServerBackup\Backup-19-08-2010_13-42-09.log

Log of files for which backup failed:
C:\Windows\Logs\WindowsServerBackup\Backup_Error-19-08-2010_13-42-09.log

The operation ended before completion.
The version does not support this version of the file format.
PS C:\Users\Administrator>

Best Answer

The default allocation method for *nix OS's (of allocating disk blocks only when they're needed) is throwing Windows Backup for a loop. You need to pre-allocate the space.

Add the strict allocate = yes to your smb.conf and give it a shot again. (See http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/manpages-3/smb.conf.5.html for details about the strict allocate option.)

I'm seeing some rumblings that indicate that turning on strict allocate, however, can make some Windows clients "time out" when asking to allocate very large files... Lovely. Trading one problem for another. Your mileage may vary.

Related Solutions

VSS error 521 when attempting backup

Try running the DOS command "vssadmin list writers" and "vss admin list providers". Capture the output of these command, as they will help in debugging the issue. If a particular writer reports any unexpected state, search the web for conditions that may be causing this issue.

A quick way to reset the writers is to reboot the server.

If VSS errors continue to persist, try re-registering VSS. Follow the steps outlined in MS KB article 940184. Doublecheck for other VSS providers, i.e. any backup software that installs any sort of Open File agent (examples would be St Bernard, older versions of Backup Exec Open File Option, etc). These can be shown by typing "vssadmin list providers" at a command prompt. Providers from uninstalled software can be deleted by removing the offending CLSID of the VSS provider and rebooting the machine.

Is the machine a 64-bit machine? Are you getting "A function call was invalid because of the state of either the backup extensions or the coordinator. For example calling AddToSnapshot set prior to calling StartSnapshotSet." ? If so, try deleting the Subscription key per MS KB 940184

  1.    Click Start, click Run, type Regedit, and then click OK.
  2.    Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EventSystem\{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216\Subscriptions
  3.    On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the subkey.
  4.    Exit Registry Editor.
  5.    Reboot the machine

Next you can try running a utility called vshadow. It's part of the windows SDK.

To do a single manual snapshot, run

vshadow [drive letter]

which would take and immediately destroy a VSS snapshot of C: and D:. If that works, VSS is probably OK; if not it's a VSS problem.

All of this is where I would start to troubleshoot VSS problems.

As with anything, be extremely careful when modifying the registry

Wbadmin doesn’t run as scheduled task

I've had similar problems with NTBackup in the past when it was scheduled to run under the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM user because it doesn't have any network permissions whatsoever, so just hung indefinitely.

To fix the problem, I had to run the scheduled task under my own user account.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

VSS error 521 when attempting backup

Wbadmin doesn’t run as scheduled task

Related Topic