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Volsnap error about once a day, doesn't seem to cause and problems with VSS backups

Hi All,

We have a machine that gets a VolSnap error about once a day (sometimes it takes a few days off). It doesn't seem to effect the various programs that access VSS. Backups (Ghost and Carbonite) run at different times and seem to complete okay.

Oddly enough, no backups are happening at the time the errors occur. They are usually random in the middle of the afternoon.

Anyone have any experience with the error and if it should be of concern?

Thanks

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	VolSnap
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	8
Date:		6/19/2010
User:		N/A
Computer:	PC1
Description:
The flush and hold writes operation on volume C: timed out while waiting for a release writes command.

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 08 00 06 c0   .......À
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........

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schriste

If you are using volume Shadowcopy - you may not be getting your copies made.

Read up at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc734554(WS.10).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757854(WS.10).aspx

_Cheers_

Jsmply

ASKER

Thanks. It happens at a random time, usually in the afternoon. At this time, no backup programs are running. Both the online and local backups end up reporting succesful runs when they do run later on. If the copies were not being made the backup should fail, correct?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

digitap

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Jsmply

ASKER

Thanks. We use ntbackup for files, ghost for imaging, and carbonite for online backup and none of them ever fail. If they don't fail, is it safe to assume "the copies were made" despite the error?

digitap

we do periodic restores to test functionality of our backups. i mean, under normal circumstances, it'd be unwise to assume your backups are completely functional just because the backups say they are. we test restores for all our clients.

Jsmply

ASKER

Thanks. We do the same thing. Do you normally restore a few test files or the whole dataset?

digitap

depends....sometimes it's just a few files. However, I might restore a production database to a test database, etc. I'll even restore email messages or calendar entries. you have to draw the line at some point. i mean, how do you decide a backup functions without restoring the whole blasted server/workstation?

Jsmply

ASKER

Yep, I agree.

Jsmply

ASKER

Our investigations show it seems to occur more frequently on machines with a Symantec product, so it's probably related to the Symsnap VSS provider service. When you look at your application log, before and after the errors is the Symsnap VSS provider taking snapshots?

digitap

I'll have to check that out and will be on-site next week. Will post what I find...thanks for the points!

Jsmply

ASKER

Your welcome. Please post if you can remember, it's very interesting. My guess is, you are getting those Symsnap snapshots taking around the time of these volsnap errors, even if the Backup Exec job is not running.