NTBackup and Shadow Copy question

[Andy Adrian]

I've got a backup scheduled to run every evening on a Windows Server 2003
using the built-in NTBackup utility. The backup is written to a .bkf file
on the same disk that's being backed up, but in a folder that is not backed
up by NTBackup. The job consistently gets the following error in the backup
log:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:80042308
Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode.
------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple of questions come to mind regarding this:
1) Does the Shadow Copy service create a snapshot of the entire disk, or
only the folders that are being backed up?

2) Is the snapshot created before or after the .bkf file is updated?

3) Would the .bkf file residing on the same disk cause this issue?

And to answer a couple of questions in advance:
There are no other disk intensive processes running during the backup
window.
All publicly available patches are installed.

Also, is there a KB article that describes what the various error codes for
the Volume Shadow Copy service?

Thanks in advance.

Andy Adrian
Consultant
Quilogy, Inc.

 

[Adi Oltean [MSFT]]

Hi Andy,
disk, or only the folders that are being backed up?

[adi] The shadow copy is created for the entire volume. So if you
include a single directory in the backup, then the containing volume
will be shadowed.
updated?

[adi] Before.

[adi] Not necesarily but you might try moving the BKF on a different
disk. Note that the shadow copy mechanism needs some free space on the
machine (couple of hundreds of megabytes). Please ensure this space is
available.

Also, can you double-check if there are any VOLSNAP entries in the
System event log? If yes, can you cut&paste them in your reply?
codes for the Volume Shadow Copy service?

[adi] We are working on it...

FYI, 80042308 means that the shadow copy went away during the backup
process. This might happen if you run out of disk space, or if you
have other applications that have intense I/O activity during the
shadow copy lifetime. The System event log should contain a VOLSNAP
entry explaining the reason of why the shadow copy went away.


Thanks, Adi


P.S. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.

 

[Andy Adrian]

Thanks for the response Adi. I've moved the shadow copy storage location to
another disk as the event message suggests. If that doesn't work, I'll
reconfigure the backups to save the .bkf to a different location. Below is
a copy of the event message you requested. (I missed it in the log, sorry
for the apparently unnecessary post.) The volume in question has over 900
Gigabytes of space available. That's enough to copy all the data currently
on the volume three times with no compression.
I've also verified that the only I/O intensive process being run during the
backup window is the backup process itself.

Thanks again,
Andy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Event Type: Error
Event Source: VolSnap
Event Category: None
Event ID: 25
Date: 10/21/2003
Time: 7:01:14 PM
User: N/A
Computer: <computer name removed from post>
Description:
The shadow copies of volume E: were deleted because the shadow copy storage
could not grow in time. Consider reducing the IO load on the system or
choose a shadow copy storage volume that is not being shadow copied.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00 02 00 58 00 ......X.
0008: 00 00 00 00 19 00 06 c0 .......À
0010: 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0018: 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

Hi Andy,
disk, or only the folders that are being backed up?

[adi] The shadow copy is created for the entire volume. So if you
include a single directory in the backup, then the containing volume
will be shadowed.
updated?

[adi] Before.

[adi] Not necesarily but you might try moving the BKF on a different
disk. Note that the shadow copy mechanism needs some free space on the
machine (couple of hundreds of megabytes). Please ensure this space is
available.

Also, can you double-check if there are any VOLSNAP entries in the
System event log? If yes, can you cut&paste them in your reply?
codes for the Volume Shadow Copy service?

[adi] We are working on it...

FYI, 80042308 means that the shadow copy went away during the backup
process. This might happen if you run out of disk space, or if you
have other applications that have intense I/O activity during the
shadow copy lifetime. The System event log should contain a VOLSNAP
entry explaining the reason of why the shadow copy went away.


Thanks, Adi


P.S. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.


"Andy Adrian" <[email protected]> wrote in message

I've got a backup scheduled to run every evening on a Windows Server 2003
using the built-in NTBackup utility. The backup is written to a .bkf file
on the same disk that's being backed up, but in a folder that is not backed
up by NTBackup. The job consistently gets the following error in the backup
log:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:80042308
Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode.
------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple of questions come to mind regarding this:
1) Does the Shadow Copy service create a snapshot of the entire disk, or
only the folders that are being backed up?

2) Is the snapshot created before or after the .bkf file is updated?

3) Would the .bkf file residing on the same disk cause this issue?

And to answer a couple of questions in advance:
There are no other disk intensive processes running during the backup
window.
All publicly available patches are installed.

Also, is there a KB article that describes what the various error codes for
the Volume Shadow Copy service?

Thanks in advance.

Andy Adrian
Consultant
Quilogy, Inc.