RE: Backup Failure and Other Errors

Hi,

Thanks for posting here!

For your description, I understand that the backup task failed after a hard
reset. If I am off base, please don't hesitate to let me know.

For the error info, it is time-out Errors which Occur in Volume Shadow Copy
Service Writers
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes, during the backup process, some Volume Shadow Copy service
writers might fail because of time-out errors that cause the backup to
fail. A Volume Shadow Copy service writer is a program or a service that
uses Volume Shadow Copy service to save information to a shadow copy
storage area. For example, when you use the NTBackup program, the backup
may not be successful, and you may receive the following error message:

Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy: 800423f4 (or the
values 800423f2 or 800423f3)

The symptoms that are described earlier in this article may occur for one
of the following reasons:

- Volume Shadow Copy service writer time-out

- Shadow copy deletion

- Large audit log

Volume Shadow Copy Service Writer Time-out
------------------------------------------
You may experience a problem that causes certain Volume Shadow Copy service
writers to time out during a lengthy shadow copy creation. This problem
occurs especially on computers that have slow hard disks, low memory, or
low CPU speed; or on computers that have the disk write cache disabled (for
example, on a domain controller computer).

Shadow copy creation includes a complex sequence of inter-process calls.
The inter-process calls make sure that all the important Volume Shadow Copy
service writers (programs such as SQL, Exchange Server, operating system
services, and others) flush their data buffers during shadow copy creation.
Also, some Volume Shadow Copy service writers, like the Exchange writer,
wait to write for a predefined time interval so the shadow copy can be
created during the time interval. The writers wait to write so the contents
of the shadow copy will be consistent with their data buffers. However, if
there is low CPU speed, high memory usage, or high input/output levels, you
may experience the following behaviors:

- The writers do not flush their data buffers.

- The writers do not wait the time interval before they write.

When this problem occurs, shadow copy creation fails.

Important Volume Shadow Copy service writers may fail with similar errors
because of other conditions. These conditions include a lack of disk space
or improper configuration of the computer. This hotfix addresses only the
specific timeout errors that might randomly occur in Volume Shadow Copy
service writers during backup. You are strongly advised to review the event
log for any other potential Volume Shadow Copy service errors that might
generate a writer failure.

Shadow Copy Deletion
--------------------

You may also experience a problem in the Volsnap.sys driver that causes
shadow copy deletion when there is a high level of input/output, especially
when the disk write cache is disabled (for example, on a domain controller
computer).

By default, the shadow copy provider that is included in Microsoft Windows
Server 2003 is used to create shadow copies for backup purposes. The shadow
copies are implemented by using a copy-on-write implementation. The
differences are also copied in the shadow copy storage area. In Volume
Shadow Copy service, you can use the shadow copy management tool, or you
can use the vssadmin command.

In the original released version of Windows Server 2003, the initial shadow
copy storage area that is allocated for shadow copy creation is 100
megabytes (MB). However, the actual space that is used is much smaller. As
time passes, the allocated space may increase as more data is modified on
the original volume. However, when you have high input/output traffic on
the original volume, the shadow copy storage area cannot grow fast enough
to hold all the copy-on-write changes. This causes deletion of all the
shadow copies on the original volume. This problem is more noticeable in
domain controller configurations. By default, the disk write cache is
disabled in domain controller configurations.

In order to resolve this issue, please install the hotfix for KB826936. I
would like have a Product Support Professional give you a call to continue
working this issue to resolution.? Despite our best efforts we have been
unable to resolve this particular issue through newsgroup correspondence.
There will be no cost to you for this incident.
As an alternative, please feel free to contact Product Support Services
yourself, if you prefer to open and pay for a support incident in that
manner.

More info:
826936 Time-out errors occur in Volume Shadow Copy service writers, and
shadow
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=826936

If the issue persists, please do some test to try to isolate the issue?

1. Did you reboot the server safely to try to resolve the issue? Can you
find any error during reboot. If so, can you get some screen shot of error
message and send its to v-yanniw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx for further analyze.

2. Can you find any error log in Event view? If so, please paste the
accurate error in the newsgroup.

3. Try to use your tape backup some files in another computer, how about
the result?

4. Try to back up some files to hard disk. How about the result?

5. What is the error you found in hard driver? the hard reset easily leads
to system files lost, try to recover it in safe mode.

I appreciate you time and effort. I am currently standing by for you about
the test result. I am always happy to be of further assistance.

Have a nice day!

Best Regards,

Jenny Wu
Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
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Any input or comments in this thread are highly appreciated.
======================================================
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--------------------
>Thread-Topic: Backup Failure and Other Errors
>thread-index: AcWj4QxRTeu3n0DVQgOXCWhV3UzZ/Q==
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>From: =?Utf-8?B?U2FhamFu?= <Saajan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Backup Failure and Other Errors
>Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 03:39:01 -0700
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>
>Hi
>
>I am using SBS2k3 with SP1. My backup has run fine over the past few
months.
>But, it has failed the last couple of days. I can remember that it started
>happening after a hard reset. My local hard drive seem to have some
errors.
>Could that be the cause? I have pasted the backup error log below:
>
>
>8/18/2005 12:00 AM
>-------------------------------
>Date: 8/18/2005
>Time: 12:00 AM
>User: SYSTEM
>-------------------------------
>
>Backup Runner started.
>Launching NTBackup: ntbackup.exe backup "@C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Windows
>Small Business Server\Backup\Small Business Backup Script.bks" /d "SBS
Backup
>created on 8/18/2005 at 12:00 AM" /v:yes /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m normal /j
>"Small Business Server Backup Job" /l:s /f "H:\backup\Backup Files\Small
>Business Server Backup (01).bkf" /UM
>NTBACKUP LOG FILE: C:\Documents and Settings\SBS Backup User\Local
>Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data\backup02.log
>=====================<BEGIN NTBACKUP LOG FILE>=====================
>Backup Status
>Operation: Backup
>Active backup destination: File
>Media name: "Small Business Server Backup (01).bkf created 8/18/2005 at
>12:00 AM"
>
>Volume shadow copy creation: Attempt 1.
>"Registry Writer" has reported an error 0x800423f4. This is part of System
>State. The backup cannot continue.
>
>Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:800423f4
>Aborting Backup.
>
>----------------------
>
>The operation did not successfully complete.
>
>----------------------
>
>=======================<END NTBACKUP LOG FILE>=====================
>NTBackup finished the backup with errors.
>
>For more information about failed backups, see the article on
>troubleshooting your backup at the following Web page:
>http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=18414
>
>Backup ended at Thursday, August 18, 2005 12:01 AM
>Backup Runner finished.
>
>
>It is the same error that I got at both the times. When I list all the
>writers using vssadmin list writers, the Registry Writer shows no errors.
I
>am the administartor and have all the privileges. No hardware or software
>change have been made. I am doing a research on this and have made few
>changes that might help, like changing the SQL database to Simple recovery
>mode (there was one database that was set to Full recovery mode) and
limiting
>the size of event viewer (the Security event viewer was 64Mb and I have
>limited the size from 65xxx to 64000 kilobytes). I am waiting to see if
that
>is of any help. I have also noticed seeing lots of Application Popup
(Source)
>errors with the Event Id 333 in the event viewer under System. Even these
>started appearing after the hard reset. There are thousands of them and
lots
>of them keep appearing every minute. Below is the description:
>
>An I/O operation initiated by the Registry failed unrecoverably. The
>Registry could not read in, or write out, or flush, one of the files that
>contain the system's image of the Registry.
>
>For more information, see Help and Support Center at
>http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
>
>
>Disk Management shows my Local Disk as Online (with errors). Reactivating
>the disk did not help. I have scheduled a dskchk for the weekend. Any
ideas
>anyone? Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks!
>

.

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