Re: NTBackup Freezing Server

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I just tried your suggestions. No luck.

I installed the hotfix you linked to, but the server still froze during the
system state backup.

On my next try, I stopped just about every service that I could. The first
backup of the system state ran fine, but the second time it did not. The
second backup froze the server.

Process Explorer didn't reveal anything special, but it freezes along with
the rest of the server.

For what it's worth, I've noticed something - - - During the system state
backup it seems that ntbackup always freezes during the active directoy
portion of the job. Could there be an issue with AD & VSS?




"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" wrote:

I'm assuming you've checked the event logs? Maybe VSS is logging something
when this happens?

I'd also install this patch. I had an issue with VSS errors at the time of
MSDE backups, that were fixed with this, even though not specifically
addressed in the KB.

Availability of a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) update rollup package for
Windows Server 2003 to resolve some VSS snapshot issues
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b940349

Since it seems that you can reliably reproduce the behavior, there are two
things I'd try. Shut down all the 3rd party (non-Microsoft) services and
see if you still get the freeze during backup. If you don't, enable small
groups of services until you narrow it down to the one that's behind the
freezing, and troubleshoot that. And, you could try bringing up a Process
Explorer window. Get the server to freeze and see if you can tell a service
that started using resources just before the freeze. I wouldn't bet the
farm on this solution, but it'll only take a second. Process Explorer can
be run right from the exe - I usually run it from my tools USB drive.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx


"Tylan" <Tylan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:596CE11A-D7B3-45F0-B957-27C434FA9467@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm working with a 2003 SBS Standard Server SP2. However this issue is
more
a general Windows issue not specific to SBS.

At some point the NTBackup application started freezing the server. We
thought the issue was the tape hardware, but upon backing up to a BKF file
we
still have the same problem.

There were some errors about VSS, but I found some MS KB articles that had
me re-register quite a bit of dlls. I still get a 6013 VSS error when SQL
(MSDE) for ACT! is running. When I stop the ACT! services I do not get
any
errors during NTBackup (to disk). The server will freeze (lock up) during
backup and require a push of the reset button. There are no errors in any
of
the event logs.

Here's the strangest part: The server will let me get a system state
backup
about 1 out of 5 times. Since there aren't any errors when it does freeze
I'm not sure what to try next. Any suggestions?

Thank



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